BEERN420

Ok so I built an olds 350 out of my 72 cutlass S. I have number 7 heads ported polished and 2" intakes cut into them, bored .030 over flat head custom aluminum forged pistons, edelbrook 7112 cam, edelbrock performer intake 750 cfm holley carb, dick miller high flow water pump, electric fans 3 core radiator and a 2500 stall convertor. The car sounds great while in park and has excellent throttle response the timing is set a 12 above TDC. When I drive the car and get on it, it seems like it is lacking power, it doesnt bog down or anything it just doesnt take off like I believe it should. Ive triple checked everything I can possibly think of so I can here to look for a little friendly advice.

Thanks in advance for any help.

oldcutlass

What distributor are you running? What gears?

BEERN420

Running some no name aftermarket HEI distributor with vacuum advance and the rear end is the stock one wheel wonder with prob 256 gear if I had to guess never checked it cuz was saving up money to switch to posi rearend.

Intragration

What's your total mechanical advance with vacuum disconnected? It should be somewhere around 35 degrees by around 3,000 RPM.

Edit: Just saw where you're at, let me know if you need a hand, I'm just down the street.

cutlassefi

Put in a 3.42 and it'll be a different car. May also want to use an RPM at that point too. A regular Performer with a 750 is a mismatch, especially with ported heads.

Jmo.

captjim

I agree with Mark, the combo is a bit mis-matched. That is a lot of cam, not enough converter, intake, and gear. Personally, I think you would enjoy the car a lot more with a better cam, but you definitely need more gear.

oldcutlass

I agree with all the above. Engine alone will not make a car go fast! All the parts must function with each other!

Dave Siltman

Gears, Gears, Gears, I'd say go up to 3:73 or maybe even 3:91
Check your advance---I have used those off-brand HEI. They are well worth the money, but need some tweaking. Get a set of advance springs and start playing around with them. I feel your pain, 'cause I've been there---not the gears, but the HEI. They come set up for very moderate performance, and need some fine tuning.
Also, you never mentioned anything about exhaust----remember----what goes in MUST come out.
You have "some" of what is considered a good combo. Listen to some of these guys---they are good at what they do and are willing to help.Don't be afraid to try something--if it doesn't work go back to the previous set-up.
There is a reason N.H.R.A. "Stockers" are so quick----it's NOT JUST BECAUSE THEY THROW MONET AT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TRY>TRY>TRY>TEST>TEST>TEST=RESULTS+RESULTS+RESULTS
Just remember this++++If it was easybody would do it!!!!
ASK us---we've ALL been there!!!!!!!!!!!!

z11375ss

Gear. X1 billion. I put a 3.73 in mine and it changed the car. Really woke it up.

BEERN420

Im not sure how to check the mechanical advance at 3000rpm, would I need an adjustable timing gun since the timing mark doesnt go that high?

ziff396

That would be the way I would do it. I set mine the same way. And yes, you need more gear!

MDchanic

That's the easiest way, but you could also just measure along the circumference of the damper (it can be a bit hard to reach...) and mark off the points where you want to be.

- Eric

70Wcars

I agree that you need some gears...but I will tell you just yesterday we had a similar issue with a friend's 350 Olds...aftermarket HEI...I bought and installed the Mr. Gasket Advance Curve kit and used one of the litest springs and one of the medium and it woke the car up. You still have somewhat of a mismatched combo, but those HEI benefit from a re-curve.

Good luck and hope this helps

Danny

BEERN420

Thank you everyone for all the help Im looking into getting 373 gears for the rearend and still need to verify timing as soon as I get a chance to I will post results.

Intragration

Yep, as MDchanic said, you just put the timing mark at 15 degrees and put a new mark at zero. Move the new mark to 15 degrees and make another new mark at zero. Do it again and you'll have it marked up to 45 degrees. I also put intermediate hash marks every five degrees, to be more precise.