Hello everyone..I need some good friends on here! I have always been an Old Scar guy since i was young..Even though i am not super mechanically inclined.What i have is a real nice 66 cutlass..a southern bell..no rust or rot..its got a 350 from a 1975 olds...the original jetaway 2 speed transmission and the rear carrier being original as well with a 3.23 gear ratio.I just did a brand new Holley 650..true dual exhaust,and a fresh tune up.The car has working factory A/C. The problem....the car wont even think about spinning the tires.. it does sounds crazy nice with the h pipe on the exhaust but it wont even power brake it. Does this sound right? Whats wrong? What else can i do with this set up to help it out..is there anything? I have been told that i can only go up to 3.55 gears with that original rear carrier ..and i think just doing that might be a waste of money as it will not be much of an improvement.. idk tho..Any help would be appreciated..I would be interested in buying a 4 speed manual set up with the pedal if anybody has a GOOD one for this car at a reasonable price..I really just would love to figure out how to make this thing come into it tho..as i have already spent more then i wanted on everything.I dont need to burn the tires and wont but would like to once a summer if i want to! Please Help me get this thing to come into it! Thanks in Advance!

 

Welcome. You have a couple of problems. First, your smogger 1975 350 motor has very low compression, a very mild cam, and a non-aggressive distributor advance curve. The Holley carb isn't helping. The right answer would be earlier heads with smaller combustion chambers (64-ish cc vs. the 80 cc you currently have), a better performance advance curve in the distributor, and a properly set up Qjet.

Second, your two speed Junkaway trans only has a 1.72:1 first gear. With your 3.23 rear axle, that gives you an effective ratio in low of only 5.56:1. If your switch-pitch torque converter is not operating properly, that significantly compounds the problem. As an example, simply switching to a TH350 three speed trans with a 2.52:1 first gear gives you an effective ratio in low of 8.14:1. This is a huge difference off the line - equivalent to changing to 4.66 gears with your current trans.

Good luck.