Looking for advice Long story.

Long story. Hope you'll help. So I sold my previous 70 Skylark convertible 350 4bbl GS tribute. After a lot of negotiations I went in for another 70 Skylark GS tribute convertible. This with a BBB T400 12 bolt posi and a lot of other goodies. The guy who I bought it from owns a pretty good size used car/truck operation in upstate New York. The car is set up for serious street racing. Solid nasty cam. Crazy 2 stage nitrous, 1050 dominator. Stage 2 TA heads. coil over Global west front. 12 bolt posi Moser 1/2" studs. Wheelie bars. Reverse manual valve body T400 what looks like a 8" convertor . But pretty cool GS interior. Cloth top. Awesome paint. Not original but cool. So here's my problem. The guy who owned it died. His widow sold it to the guy who I bought it from. She has zero idea who built the engine or actually anything else. As soon as I heard it I knew it was a little too radical for me. I tried to make a deal for the car minus eng/trans. He lowered the price as is and now I own this minimum 10 sec beast. So. I'm going to put it on my friends dyno soon as I get some elec issues worked out. Has an old 6a box. Bought a 6al2 w rev limiter to install before dyno. Got the in dash autometer tach working. (I only bought this car 3 weeks ago. ) hopefully the pictures and video attaches. Any how. I the car is so freaking cool. But just a little too radical engine wise. My question is. Can I change the cam to a decent "hemi killer " or such, maybe a 850 quick fuel. And a dual plane manifold so that I can use the ram air cleaner? Will it still run? Right now it wants everything that 1050 can spray. I managed to upload some pictures. But unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to upload the video of the engine running . I'm just looking to calm it down a little so I can drive it on the Parkway and stuff. I will post a video of the dyno in about a week or so.

 

Pull all but one spark plug wire, turn the distributor 180 degrees retarded, but a 600CFM carb on it and leave the emergency brake fully stomped to the floor when you drive it.

Just kidding.

Seriously. You might find someone in your area that is willing to swap a decent build drivetrain for that setup if it has been done correctly. The challenge is the "other person" having trust in a build with no provenance.

But trying to "detune" that and have it and you both be happy, might be another challenge.

That said, I am in your corner and hope you get it to where you are happy, cuz I love the color and the look!

 

My opinion

I wouldn't give much thought to using the stock breather on that car honestly,..it just wouldn't go with everything else there ,...

To tame it down is no big deal
1. Sell the valve intake and carb together if all possible,..it's direct port so it's better kept together
2. Replace cam with a smaller solid,..you have roller rockers keep them you're gonna need to check lash after 10k miles,...how low long will it take you to put 10k miles on it? Probably a good while,.hydro lifters and cam break in is a crapshoot now more than ever
3. Compression,...could be moderate,..could be over 12,...if after the cam swap and intake change its showing signs of denotation,.. simply run a thicker gasket to drop compression,....and no it's not gonna be detrimental due loss of quench,..that's horse ****,..I've ran .120 on a few occasions and they run fine
4. Ditch all the ignition garbage,..it's just something to fail,..run a DUI HEI or a Dave's small body and move on with life
5. A nice 9.5in converter from JW,..ATI,..FTI,..list goes on and on
6. I would drop the pan and swap that back to a Manual/auto valve body or better yet sell the trans and put in a 4l70 or 80 if you want to drive it longer distance,.... and paint the front spoiler black,..the Duplicolor bedliner mimics a plastic texture and holds up well to debris.

 

Only other anomaly will be the ring gap,....it's gonna be wide to accommodate the N20

 

Toning it down to make less power is the easy part. Making more is what some people still struggle with. Yes,it would be a lot more helpful if you did know exactly what is in that engine build. It might make a lot of power or it might just make a lot of noise. Could be a 464,could be a 494. Might have the best parts,might not. It definitely does not need a 1050 dominator. Everyone always thinks they need a huge carburetor,but about 80% of the time,they don’t. We don’t know compression,but even that can be dropped with a thicker head gasket. Cometic makes a variety of thicknesses. The only way to find out what cam is in it at this point is to take it out and look for numbers. It might actually be a nice cam made for the rest of the engine,or it could just be some off the shelf grind with a bunch of duration to make it sound nasty.

 

Jim Wiese "sneaky" cam runs high compression on 87 octane and makes 500 hp.
Google it.

 

Please understand, I'm just trying to tone it down on the top end so it's drivable for distances. I want to enjoy it. I'm thinking that if the compression isn't over 10-1, maybe I could calm down the intake but especially the cam and carb, and with those heads that engine should still push over 500-550 hp which is what I'm looking for. The way I see it - because he was running 2 kits of spray - the compression shouldn't be more than 10-1. Am I wrong?

 

Should and is be are 2 very different things. Get a scope and see if you can see a piston number ot at least tell if it flat top or dishes.......im bettering the tops of the piston are very black with carbon and no numbers will be seen.......but should be able to tell flsts top or not.

You don't have to pull the cam to get lift and duration......some time with a degree wheel and dial indicator and piston stop can find that information out


Your heads are they Se or Te.......if stage 2 Te heads there isn't a dual plane intake.

I agree loose the reverse full manual.....make sure shifter can be converted back....and loose thst converter

 

The guy I bought it from is a Buick guy (has 6). He claims the heads are SE. I honestly don't think I'll be able to really know until I start taking the engine apart.

 

It should be right in the front right? I cou;dn't find any markings. Maybe because he had it polished.

 

Here's a little closer look

 

Being a N20 setup the compression will be in the 10 to 11.5 to 1 range otherwise cylinder psi will get excessive yes

 

Look under the header next to the deck you'll be able to see "street" or "track" eliminator

 

If it's TEs then as Ben mentioned you're stuck with a SP2 intake,..not a bad thing obviously,..I would keep a single plane on it regardless

 

Since it's all polished I'd just plug the holes and run it as is,..the N20 kit may sell,..may not but would certainly clean up the clutter removing it