X2, you'll make the low end torque anyway, The 1 7/8 will help make more hp all the way thru the rpm range.

 

Nice

 

Just found this thread. Sorry to hear bout your problems but on a positive note that is one beautiful Olds. Stunning really. You can tell your attention to detail is pretty high.

I have to agree with the others here about the port job. He just took a cartridge roll and knocked off the roughness on the cylinder walls. Not that that's a bad thing but I'm not sure that qualifies as a 'full porting job'. Those are some beefy looking headers. Can't wait to see the results from those.

 

Thanks everyone. Its nice to receive support and advice.

 

Headers have arrived back from ceramic coaters and are installed.

 

More photos

 

She should be running good now!! Good looking set of headers and a nice installation!

 

They are definitely sweet.

 

How were they to install? did they need any massaging to fit?

 

I believe they'll make a significant difference. Remember to check the air/fuels. I'll bet the carb will need rejetting.

 

Look forward to hearing positive results

 

No massaging as they were custom made. Picking up the car tomorrow so ill let you know how it goes. Next pit stop is carby tuning.

 

I took the old girl to the mechanics today for the carby tune up after the headers were installed. Good news! He says that he has tuned it and it is produsing 340 hp rw compared to 226 hp rw when it was last dynoed. Now in the scale of muscle cars it might not seem like much HP but 100 HP more than last time. Im happy. I pick the car up on Monday and will post a copy of the dyno results.

 

One more thing. The mob that did the dyno tune on the olds blocked off the vacuum advance, saying it is only really there to help with fuel economy at light throttle and with my cam its not needed. Is this correct?

 

Also, he said that I really need a bigger carby (800 - 850 cfm). He has apparently set idle a little rich and told me that I needed to take it for a "hard" good drive every now and then to clean the plugs.?????? I'm happy that I have received over 100 extra horses but at what cost?

 

Nice
Know that is good news 114 hp increase
Enjoy

 

Glad to hear your moving forward in a positive way.
Now go hook up the vacuum advance to a straight manifold vacuum source. You'll have to slow the idle back down after you hook it up. The difference in fuel economy under normal driving is substantial and performance wise there is absolutely no difference. If you experience pinging under light throttle you may have to adjust the vacuum can on the distributer a little to take a little out if it.

 

Great news!
I'd hook it up to spark ported vacuum first and see how it feels. I'm not a fan of hooking it up to manifold vacuum because for part of the advance curve your mechanical and vacuum advance will be working against each other.
You can always get an adjustable vacuum advance and fine tune it from there.
Did you ask him why he set the idle on the fat side? That doesn't make much sense to me unless he's trying to mask another issue.


Best of luck!!!

 

Ralph 340 at the wheels is very respectable and I am glad you have made great progress! Sounds like its getting there! on the issue of running it richer i suspect the carb may not be the right one for the job but your in the ballpark now!

 

You can have a Q jet built for your engine its more than just adjusting the carb.
All the Qjet body's are not the same,even though they look very similar.
I would contact someone like Dean Oliver that know these carbs very well.

What are you running for a distributor and are you running a ignition box like a MSD multi spark box.


Take the car out and enjoy it

There should be more in it with Q jet built for the engine and a sorted ignition system and timing curve.

 

Running a HEI distributor no ignition box. I have a Moroso adjustable Vacuum advance unit which I will install when I get the car back. I will have more information on Monday. I also purchased a Quadrajet performance tuning kit with a selection of jets, rods, hangers, high flow needle and seat, etc, which the mechanic was given. Thanks for the feed back guys. I can see the finish line and it seems I am getting my second wind