Is my car abnormally slow?

1973 Buick Regal. 350 with a TA intake and Holley 650 (originally a 2 barrel). Everything else is stock. In decent weather with some tire spin, it went 16.98 at 80mph. That seemed slow to me. I was guessing low 16's. Car drives around nice, but I did the parade wave and ate a sandwich going down the track! LOL

 

Is the carb jetted and tuned for your engine? And did you recurve distributer? What is initial timing set at? Tuning should help a lot if you didn't get these done .
A 3 series rear gear and a 2200 or better convertor will help times abit.
If the carb a vacuum secondary carb?

 

I went from a points distributor to an aftermarket electronic one and gained about a second in the QM and also gained almost 3 mpg with the anemic 283 2 bbl in my full size '65 Impala, from high 18s to high 17s. I didn't bother power timing the original distributor because I had the other one sitting around.

Power timing should help, there is a thread with step by step instructions here on v8 that will walk you through the process.

Also an air/fuel gauge would help get your carb dialed in as well, unless you're running straight gas, the new blended crap will make it VERY difficult to read the plugs.

Then like Andy said, a torque converter and better rear gear will help a lot too. But at some point rear suspension upgrades and better tires will eventually be needed.

That car wasn't setup from the factory to be fast, it was setup to pass emissions, but everything is there to make it perform. It is correct wheel drive with a full frame and it doesn't have 2 extra doors so easily upgraded. GL


Derek

 

That's one of the heavier "A" body cars of the 70's, originally equipped with a 2 barrel, so the rear end is probably a 2.56 open axle...
Came factory with the TH350 trans and an actual static compression ratio of around 8:1 (or less).
Factory single exhaust? If so, it's a sloppy "T" type connection, which sucks vs other designs. Even a press bent 2" divorced dual system is better.
Considering this, it actually didn't do too bad.
You could probably get it down into the low 15's no problem (maybe even high 14's) with some attention paid to traction and gearing alone.

 

Thanks for the input guys! It is a 650 double pumper carb. I did that and the electronic ignition conversion. Timing is 14/34 and the lightest springs in the crane kit. Also using vacuum advance.

I only asked because my 1975 nova with a stock 350 and 2bbl went 16.2 way back when. It did have headers and dual exhaust. This car will be my sons in a couple of years. I don't need a rocket ship...but I'd like him to have a little fun like I did thirty some years ago!

 

Holy crap I laughed hard when I read that.

 

If you do what Larry says with timing and remove the catalytic converter, run true dual exhaust, and tune it, you may be surprised. I once had a '79 Trans Am with a stock 7.7:1 403 and 2.41 gears. With a curb weight of at least 3600 pounds it ran 14.90s at 92 holding the shifter in second. It had a looser torque converter and dual exhaust, other than that it was stock.
Patrick

 

Use an air fuel meter to variety you carb is feeding the right amount of fuel... Do you have headers? Dual 2.5 exhaust?

 

Or try a 100 shot of nitrous!

 

Consider a crower level 3 or TA_212 cam and a quadrajet as well. I like the 800cfm model, 17058241, but with the later carbs Ive run into fitment issues on 74 and older intakes with the throttle arm hitting the intake. I rebuilt my '76 350 with the derpy "8:1" kb pistons summit sells (compression was like 7.8 or something like that), comp 268 cam, lifter, timing set and spring kit, TA HEI dizzy and it would run 15.0 at 90 all day with the stock 1100 converter and a burnt up th350 and open 2.41s in my '85 Regal. Stock manifolds, TA downpipes, two 8" cherry bombs, stock intake, 3 angle valve job. You can see where the exhaust stops under the car lol.

 

I'm going to try to do some things one at a time to see how much it improves. Exhaust will probably be first since there is a small leak anyway. I'd be happy with something in the low 15's without much cash outlay.

Anyone know of a dual exhaust that will fit with the stock manifolds or will this be custom?

 

G body kit might be close. Odds are you'd be better off getting the downpipes from ta for 120 bucks, some extra pipe, the over the axle bits, and clamping it up yourself. Most shops won't work on exhaust without a cat in it for legal reasons.

 

get a flowmaster or other brand a-body kit that does el Camino. And get TA performance downpipes. TA has a-body kits also. Summit racing and jegs has plenty of brands, pypes, magnaflow. Their own brands. El Camino will have extensions for the longer tailpipe needed for your car. They have torque converters also that start around 100 bucks.

 

What you want for the exhaust is a 73-77 Chevelle, lemans, GTO, cutlass, etc. exhaust there are lots if options... I would have a shop do custom down pipes to hook to that exhaust...

 

I used the T/A down pipes and 2-1/2" exhaust kit and ordered Dynomax 17749 mufflers from ebay vendor. Fit up nice and sounds good. Some of the other brands like Pypes, Summit, Flowmaster are a little cheaper than T/A for the a-body kits, but I couldn't find down pipes from anybody but T/A.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dynomax-177...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

Pretty much what others have said about some of this stuff and just listing it in what I feel is the most important order.

It looks like you have taken care of the timing, unfortunately.

Get that exhaust changed. Mandrel bent or crushed it will be better. The downpipes from TA no doubt. 2.5 or 2.25 from them to the mufflers. Use an "H" pipe for some extra torque. Either find some brand name dual tailpipes or get a muffler shop to bend them. However from my experience the aftermarket tailpipes that claim they fit the '73 and up A-bodies usually require work. If you do have a cat converter on there breathe a sigh of relief because once that is gone and the duals are on there will be a big jump in power but I really don't think the '73s had them yet. That era's pancake cats are terrible and by now one of those would be almost closed up.

Look into a higher stall converter. I'd advise a run of the mill brand name from a good supplier such as Summit. Something going in the neighborhood of $150-200 is all you need if you race only once in a while with a low power engine. I'd go with something like one they rate at 26-2800 stall because no matter what somebody tells you your engine is not a torque monster and the stall will come in under what it is rated at. Of course any stall unit above stock will knock a chunk of ET off.

If you are having trouble hooking up with that level of power you probably don't have a posi or have some terrible tires. If it was just a squeak or slight spin then you may be ok otherwise get a posi or invest in some used short drag radials or slicks off Craigslist for the next trip to the track. If you get the converter or bump up the gears you will need better traction for sure. Gears would not be a bad addition. The best you could have would be 2.73's, maybe worse. Something like 3.08 or 3.23 wouldn't be bad and would still be easy cruising. The good news is good used gears off E-Bay are easy to get for your car because it has the corporate 8.5" 10 bolt rear.

At your power level the 650 should not be an impediment. It is a double pumper as you said, correct? I just was reading a Hemming Muscle Machine article about a Nova and they mentioned the carb twice as being a "double pumper" when it was clearly a "dual feed" vacuum secondary. Just wanted to make sure. I wouldn't be too excited about a Holley 600 or 650 vacuum secondary. A 750 Q-Jet is all you need if you ever decide to get one down the road but right now it wouldn't be worth much at all unless your is a vacuum secondary.

Go out and get yourself a 1" 4 hole carb spacer for whatever carb you have. Guaranteed that will pump up the low and mid range torque. That is what you need in a heavy car. Yours is nearly 500 lbs heavier than the '75 Nova. Of course you have a free flowing air filter?

Make sure the exhaust crossovers are blocked in the heads. That intake will get plenty hot without them. If you plan on driving it in colder weather drill a single 1/4" hole in one of the plugs. That will be plenty of heat. 180* thermostat, right? That will keep everything bit cooler. Your clutch fan is operating correctly, right? Disengages when cold after a minute of running time. It is normal for them to make a bunch of blowing noise when first started cold but then you should hear it go away. Obviously when the engine gets hot it should start to blow harder. That leads me to the question, you weren't idling in the lanes were you? No reason for that and the hotter the engine gets the tighter the fan locks up. On a warm day with a lot of idling a lot of HP can go down the drain.

You really need more compression for a noteworthy cam change. Right now the biggest cam you should even think about is something like a 210*I/220*E at a maximum and that would only be after the converter change. Bigger cams with your compression is only a torque killer.

You have a tach? As mentioned you should be holding it in 2nd gear but you should be shifting out of first around 46-4800 rpm. A stock cam will pull smoothly to 5000 rpm. If it doesn't then something is wrong, either shot valve springs or bad ignition, but you have that part covered. With 2.73 gears and 27" tires that is only about 4200 rpm so maybe it didn't even shift out of 2nd?

If you didn't have the electronic ignition I'd suggest picking up a Stinger S4 ignition. The retard action it has was always worth a tenth or so at the track on every Buick V8 I ran, 455, 350 and 401 Nailhead. Mild combo's really liked it. It allows for more timing down low and perks up the bottom end. Another trick was the long reach plugs which was always worth something. R45LTS where a R45TS belongs. The longer reach bumps the compression slightly and positions the spark in a better spot in the chamber.

Remember all the little stuff will add up and in your case you have some big stuff hanging low on the tree.

 

Why is that? How does leaving it in 2nd gear improve it?

 

With a 2 series rear gear you won't need a third gear. You may not reach top rpm in second to need to shift. And then helps slow down with engine braking.