Hey, I am not usually one to give a plug for someone's products, unless I think their product is outstanding. Well.....Saturday I undertook tearing down my greasy stock 350 and stuffing some goods inside. I ordered a TA Cam #TA212, Rocker shaft/arm assemblies, valve springs, and 350 Stage 1 intake. This is a before picture.......nice leaking VC gaskets, huh? OK.....we got it tore apart....need to degrease and pull the cam and rockers and springs. Installed new cam, lifters, rockers and shafts, new waterpump, intake, and new valve covers. Looks much better without all that crud!! All buttoned up and running...... idles real well at 1000rpm with a slight lope, in drive @700 with a very noticeable lope. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before: The car had good low end torque from 1000-2500 then fell off. it would run very well at 2000 to 4500. At 5000rpm it was all over.....it was gasping. I also had problems with the trans not wanting to shift at WOT......the engine just couldn't get the rpms up. After: The torque seems to really kick in about 2000 rpm,i thnk a converter would really make this scream! At 2500 rpm it's like you hit the after burners . The trans now shifts perfectly at 5000 rpm and the car revs easily to 5500. I could have gone higher.....but chickened out.....I think thats high enough....don't want to scatter the lower half! I had been using 96 octane (106 mixed with 91 premium) to get the old combination to run well. I ran today on just 91 pump gas....no ping, no hesitation. The car did develope a leak though in the passenger seat.... I have stock exh. manifolds on this thing, and full exhaust. This combination made the exhaust sound completely different. Before it sounded...well.....like a car. It now has a very throaty sound when you stomp on it, and a much deeper rumble at an idle. This is not the same car that I started with....... I wish I had done this two years ago! My total cost for this little project was about $900. All new hoses, belts, etc included. The funiest thing about this was; When I got it all together.....and was ready to start it........I hit the key and the darn thing did not even turn over once........just Vrooom! No kidding! Sometimes I amaze myself :Brow: I give the BIG thumbs up to Dave and Mike at TA Performance :TU: :TU: Very nice combination that I am happy with. the only part that I was not thrilled with, was the chrome valve covers. Got them from Noah Performance.......not a perfect fit.....even with their hold downs. They do look nice though
just of curiosity, how long did it take you? i plan on doing lots of work on my car this summer, but i can't afford to be down for long amounts of time. (the guys at work will get a kick out of seeing my car fully painted one day...then i'll drive in with some of it sanded down...some more...some filler spots, ect...and finally it'll come back all painted up like new.:beer) but anyway, i'd like to do about what you did: clean up the engine, repaint the block. new intake, slightly hotter cam, and some other minor stuff.
Hey Mike,that looks real nice! I have a suggestion for you on that air cleaner that helped my buddy cut a couple of tenths off his ET. Grab an old 14" aircleaner lid and paint it semi-gloss black just like your factory air cleaner lid.It will cover the air filter element ,but be open all around. At Englishtown,it dropped my buddy's car from a 14.80 to a 14.45 just by changing that! Now I'm not claiming a 4 tenths drop just by changing the lid,but it had to account for the large percent of it.The neat thing about it is most non-Buick people can't even tell its not the way the factory did it.:TU:
I started at about 10:00am on Saturday, stopped to eat lunch with the wife (at the shop) for 1/2 hour, and did not stop to eat dinner. I did make one run home to get a few additional parts and to go get a water fitting... another 1/2 hour. Had the car running at just a little past 10:00pm. I left the car run for 10 minutes while I topped off coolant and kept on eye on gauges. I shut the ar off......checked for leaks, then restarted and let run another 10 minutes at idle. Retorqued intake then pulled some rpms and held at 500rpm increments for 5 seconds each time. I was done, including cleaning up my huge mess at 11:00pm. I left the car sit al night and refilled it this morning with Castrol Syntec 10-40 and did some test runs. Total time spent : 13hours.....could have cut it down by at least about 2 hours if I would have had help.
Ya, I have heard doing that is almost a guaranteed .10 gain. It sounds like it might be the way to go now. Thanks!
Sounding pretty good! Guys, I thought I would share this with you. If anyone is thinking of putting a cam in their 350, the TA212 is perfect for the street. Idles a little lopey at 1200 in park, in drive at 700..... very "thumpy". Anyways....here is 1200 idle standing 8 ft behind the car. this is with stock manifolds and full exhaust with mufflers. :TU: CLICK HERE FOR ENGINE SOUND RECORDING
WOW I love it! thats making me want to order all kinds of stuff for my 350 now! really nice sound! :grin: just think of what that would sound like with some super comp. headers from T/A and maybe bigger pipes coming out the back! ohh and if you don't mind me asking...have you had time to check on the type of mileage your getting with this combo??? I thinking about the same for my 350 but with electric water pump, electric fans, full msd ignition, and new 2 1/2 in exhaust + T/A super comp. headers...then later an overdrive tranny (200r4) with a 3.08 rear-end. Thanks Daniel
Re: WOW I am running stock 3.23 rear end......and don't drive much on the highway....... I am getting around 10-12mpg around town, and much less when I open it up at all. I am sure with headers and larger pipes and a few other things it would run even stronger........runs real good now though, and I am quite happy with it. Now.......the wife wants to drive it ou:
10mpg:jd: is it just me or is that a bit low for a light street setup? my car probably gets about 20 right now, it's stock with a 200r4 to a 3.42 posi. (i use about a tank a week driving to school five days and to work about three (i tend to hitch a ride with my honda-driving frienduzzled: ))
I thought 10-12 wasn't too bad with 3.23 and a TH350 ...... I have no idea what it does out on the highway......it's all stopsign to stop sign driving, and being a lover of the sound it makes at 4500rpm, do so quite often. The car stock probably only got 14-15 mpg before, so I think for the mpg loss, I gained alot of mid and upper range hp. if I was worried about the gas mileage, I would have driven my S-10 with the 2.5L when I go out cruising......hehe. I definitely get less ping now using 91 octane than I did stock! that alone saves me a ton! Now I don't have to lug the 5 gallon cans to the station to buy 110 octane to mix with the gas. it runs great on 91! It does run better on the 96 mix, but just cruising, who needs it at 2.85 a gallon for the 110?
i got 16mpg (around town) with my skylark when it was stock. it was a stock 350 changed over to a 4bbl w/ th350 and a rear-end of 2.56. looking to keep around that with an overdrive unit and 3.08 gears after i build up the 350. Daniel
