Hello everyone! I am French and I apologize for my bad English. I have a 1966 buick skylark with excellent 401 nailhead! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O9vBRXoBYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaA_qfgBmSg&list=UU-IPU97wjNut5aLAZu39u_w 401 was completely rebuilt last year. Stock engine with the manifold headers from "ta performance" and with MSD ignition bent. It has an automatic transmission ST300. With torque convertor switch pitch and 10 bolt rear axle 2.93 8.2 bop. I have the original carburetor "carter" The car is already fast on the road now with a 0-100 km / h in 6.8 sec. Now I want to improve performance. I think start by replacing the old carburetor with a quadrajet carburator 800 cfm. I currently have the stock camshaft 114 lsa and would like a more powerful camshaft with a nice performance sound at idle! What camshaft do you recommend? I like the your 25 "TA performance but opinions on it? I hesitate to take the rocker roller "ta performance" but I do not know if they work well or not, opinions on this? I have piston "egge" in .040, how much maximum lift with original piston? Thank you very much
i think the eldebrock would hurt it more than help. biggest gains are in the heads but you gotta know what your doing.
That car seems to go pretty good already, tearing up the French countryside! Love those videos! A Quadrajet is an excellent place to start. You will need a 1966 Q-Jet specific intake manifold, which are hard to find for reasonable money, also the Q-Jet specific dash pot bracket. I believe Carmen Faso can come up with the bracket if you find the manifold. Or, for about 500.00 you could buy everything in one shot...but the carb looks a little suspect. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Buick-Nailh...Parts_Accessories&hash=item35d994d16a&vxp=mtr I'd prefer a 7041304 or 7041306 number Q-Jet, they are service replacements and solve some of the float and needle/seat problems of an actual 1966 Q-Jet. This one on e-bay right now for reasonable money... http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-425-BU...Parts_Accessories&hash=item48696ba662&vxp=mtr I managed to get my stock 65 Gran Sport to go about .2-. 3 quicker in the 1/4 mile when I switched over from the Carter AFB. Don't overlook the distributor either. A good recurve will also make a BIG difference in performance. Look for Tom Telasco (Telriv) here on the board for details and prices. Good luck, keep us posted and put up some pictures!
The 800 cfm's would help it a decent amount if it is the stock(550???) carter would it not? The edlebrock's just a bigger carter that's less finicky correct?
From a Danish guy, currently in Norway, to the french guy ;-) I have a 401 in my 65 Electra, and I got smoother and more power with a recurve kit ( Moroso I think -I used the ligthtest springs ) + 750cfm edelbrock and 2,5" exhaust with glasspacks.. No diffenrence between 2" and 2,5" execpt sound.. I wanted the Q-jet as well, but they are expensive + tax and transport to Denmark.. Saw one from this board gained 44 hp by porting the heads, but as allready said you got to know what you're doing. Another little thing is "Doc mod" ( Theres a sticky thread about it ) Houmark
the edlebrock is fine, on a stock 401 I went 3 tents faster with a 750 edlebrock and a open air cleaner.
Welcome to the board. Good to see such a nice Buick in Central Europe. Very nice car you have there! Patrick
My MSD distributor is set to 12 degrees initial advance, 18 degrees centrifugal advance so 30 degrees total advance before 3000 rpm. And 10 degrees of vaccum advance. The msd ignition done a good job! Thank you for all your information! For sure I'll start up a quadrajet with the intake pipe. 44 hp by porting head is very interesting; The question is where to find them? but what price?!! Very expensive price! I'll put some pictures of my 401
The 44hp head port gain must have been done by a experienced.. You can portmap (youtube) yourself, but more than that I wouldn't recommend... Good luck with the q-jet Houmark
Love the videos. Well done. And love the car, of course I am slightly biased. I am currently having trouble deciding on a cam as well. I want something aggressive, but also want it to perform well. I plan to do some porting on the heads eventually and build a set of headers for it as well. I think right now for what your engine is the money spent on roller rockers may be better spent elsewhere. While they do a good job of freeing up HP they are quite pricey. I do not know much about the egge pistons, but you would need to know how much your current piston to valve clearance is to determine how much more cam you can handle without further modification. The addition of the roller rockers would also compound this issue as well. Now if the piston is set far enough below deck height and/or they have deep valve reliefs then you may be OK.
whats your goal for the car. Do you drive on the highway a lot, dragstrip? Have you ever thought about doing a 3:73 or 4:11 rear gear and than going with a gear vendors overdrive unit. You are able to split the 3 speed to a 6 speed and get the acceleration with the gears but overdrive will be real nice. just throwing some ideas..
I believe it will. It's pricey, but a damn nice piece. I plan on running one eventually. They're rated for 2000hp(and covered under warranty) for WOT, basically instant shifts. They also offer a 22% reduction in RPM's.
ST300, TH350, Metric 200 and 200-4R have the same size tailshaft. The ST400 and TH400 uses a larger diameter tailshaft. Cheryl
Thanks Cheryl. I figured it was probably different, but couldn't remember. Either way, they make the Gear Vendors overdrive for the Powerglide and the TH350, so I am sure they have the application for the ST300. Very cool stuff. Good way to have your cake and eat it too! It's pricey but still awesome. Could run a ST400 with a set of 4.56 gears and cruise down the highway comfortably on a set of G70 Redline tires turning 2500-2700 RPM's at 65 mph. Then slap on a set of slicks for the track and have at it without a worry! Good stuff.
Welcome! That's a nice Skylark - it looks as if it goes pretty well too. Where in France do you live?
They used to run gear vendor units on motor homes with bbc and th400. I wonder if you can use one and modify it . Maybe be able to change out the input shaft and adaptor to fit a sp300.. time to start searching and reading online
That's a beautiful '66!! I saw the videos several months ago. They are well done. Please make more! The TA 25 cam should work well. Schneider has a bigger cam, the 284-94H, also 112 lobe center. Even better, you can get a custom cam from Comp Cams with closer 110 lobe centers that will make a wilder idle. Roller rockers are nice but expensive. They will give much more lift than stock. They work well with a stock or mild cam. Valve-piston clearance is tight near TDC when the exhaust valve is closing and the intake valve is opening. Lift doesn't matter. But if exhaust valve closes late, or intake opens early, that is where v-p clearance is tight. So if you have close lobe separation and long duration, v-p clearance might be a problem. If you have the thicker head gaskets, that should give more room. With thin head gasket, like stock, there is not much room for a big cam. You have to measure to be sure.
