automatic trans questions

I have a buick 350 in my skylark with an automatic trans. are autos alot slower then manuals? my first car was a 73 ford maverick with a completly stock 302 3 speed on the floor and it was alot faster then my buick. was this because of the trans or is something else up? and if it is the trans is there anything i can do to make it quicker?

 

Well I shift kit would help. But the fastest your gonna get is a manual valve body.

 

The Maverick is about 1000 pds. less than the "Lark. That could be a consideration. Weight = HP. Really your "Lark should run right along side the Ford. There has to be something wrong, maybe in the tune???

 

Most drag race cars run automatics. That is not your problem, unless your trans is bad and slipping.

Read the sticky about how to tune your 350 and follow it exactly. Your car now is probably tuned by the "book" and is tuned to be smooth and soft. There is a bunch of hidden power in that 350 if you follow the performance tune.

And like they said above. Should be no problem to outrun a stock 302, even with the weight difference.

Is your 350 a 2 barrel carb or 4 barrel?

 

His Maverick made so much vibrations that it seemed faster.My nephew got a 97 Olds with the Buick V6.The day he went to pick it up he asked me to go with him.He had 77 Mercury Cougar with a 351 Windsor in it.On the way over he said to me it's too bad that the V6 did not have the power of the big V8.Anyway,on the way back,you guessed,I asked him if he wanted to see how much the Cougar was faster then the Olds,we both got on them and the Olds just kept pulling away from the Cougar.That small V6 ran too smooth,you did not think that it was faster then that 351.Smoothness can be deceiving .BrunoD

 

it has an edelbrock 4 bbl. and my maverick didnt vibrate haha it was alot lighter i know but out of the factory it didnt have close to 200 hp shouldnt my 350 be around 250?

 

Should be 230 hp at 4,400 rpm and torque of 350 ft-lb at 2,400 rpm. i am not sure if that was 4 bb or not... When i get home i will look at my info....

He said in another thread that his car is a 71, he thinks it is stock other than the MSD ignition and e-brock carb...

By the sounds of it you are making about 150 HP with that e-brock carb not working right. I would go with a Q jet, much better carb in most cases AND it is designed to work on your engine...

 

if i didn't want to work on cars i wouldn't have bought a 40 year old one for my daily driver ha ha. im only 19 and my first car was a ford maverick i literally dug out of someones back yard and just when i got it road worthy some lady pulled out in front of me and totaled my car. So ive only ever worked on a ford.. i bought the 71 skylark with the settlement money. So is my option to change the carb or can i make this one work?

 

You CAN make the e-brock work however you will never get it to run as good as it would with a stock Q jet carb. If you were to buy a jetting kit and use an air fuel ratio meter then you might be able to customize the jets and work on the tuning till it is running ok.

We see this all the time.... " I have an e-brock carb on my 350 and it runs poorly"... Then we suggest a stock rebuilt Q jet for a Buick 350 and the person is VERY happy and has more power, better fuel milage, etc.:3gears:

 

well i want it to be be my daily driver and i want everything right so i guess ill look for a q-jet has anyone heard about the one edelbrock makes? i found this article..

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/edelbrocks_q_jet_carburetor_replacment/index.html

 

And get a quadrajet originally from a Buick 350. You don't want to deal with the differences in calibration by trying to bolt on one from a 455.

If you haven't already, post in "parts wanted" here, keep an eye on the classified section linked at the top of this page and watch ebay.

Devon

 

At least 280hp.