Drove the 62 to Famoso last night (220 miles round trip, give or take). The temps were in the 90s when we arrived. This was my second time to the track since the AFR head and HR cam upgrade.

My first time at the track, I had trans problems, and it was shifting at 4600 RPM, left in D. The car picked-up 25 MPH on the last half, but it was too little, and too late, trapping at 108 MPH, the same as my 47 year old camel humps and $55 re-ground cam. The AFR heads definitely kick butt, but the car was unable to get into the RPM range where they would shine.

Combo:
The original, numbers-matching, SD code 327/300 HP block
3.85" stroke
9.5:1 Compression
Comp 282 HR on a 112* LS
Comp 1.6 Gold RR
AFR 195 CC Eliminator Heads
Weiand #7530 Team G (Fits under a solid axle Vette's hood, with a GM drop base air cleaner)
Holley 670 Vacuum secondary carb, jetted 68/71, lighter vac secondary spring
Hooker 1 3/4" Super Comp Headers
2 1/2" exhaust
Magnaflow mufflers
700R4, 1800-2200 Stall Conv, 5200-5300 RPM shift Points
3.36 Posi
M/T 235/60/R15 Drag Radials set at 15 PSI

This was my 3rd and final Pass. Air temps cooled, probably still mid 80s. Checked the timing and found it to be 33*, so I bumped it up to 38* total, then re-set the carb/idle. I dropped the tire pressure to 18 PSI. Pushed the car in the staging lanes. Engine temp 180*. No other changes.

R/T .257
60' 1.814
330' 5.079
1/8 7.803 @ 89.63 (New Best)
1000' 10.179
1/4 12.184 @ 111.19 (New Best)

My last time at the track, the car was picking up 25 MPH on the back half. Last night, I was only gaining 22 MPH. I was disappointed in the results, but attribute the lack luster performance to the 670 Avenger carb. I may have been able to gain a little with more jet, but stock was 65/68, and I was already at 68/71. Aside from that, I didn't have any 69 or 72 Jets with me. I think the engine wanted more carb, and I don't know if the jets alone would have made a difference.

My last time out, I ran a Quick Fuel Carb, unfortunately, I couldn't get the Quick Fuel to idle, and my tear-down found nothing wrong. So, I ran the 670 carb. My previous tests, with the original camel hump heads were done with a Carb Shop Stage 3 #3310 750 vac secondary carb. The carb was pirated from my Chevelle for the tests, but is now back on the Chevelle. I can't help but wonder if the bigger carb would have gotten me the .19 seconds I needed...

After this test-n-tune, I was planning to swap back to the stock heads/intake, and run a smaller 217/225 @ .050" Isky HR cam. However, I'm tempted to make another shot at an 11 second time slip.

BTW, driving to and from the track, I averaged 18 MPG, including the runs.

cool

Hope you fix the trans soon

Brian, the shop that built the trans installed a "Corvette" governor, which raised the shift points some. I know the weights could be ground down to get the shift points up more.

However, I'm leaning towards swapping-in a milder cam, and running the stock heads, intake, and rams horns. The car should still run in the 12s. I'm about to put the car away for a while, and was thinking I should revert to the stock parts before doing so.

The car did OK, considering it was hamstrung by the temps, too small of a carb, and low shift points. The AFR heads deliver, but my car isn't optimized for them.

Hopefully PeteK will chime in with some trans advice.

Brian, PeteK did respond to a thread I posted a long time ago. I took that info to the shop that built the trans. The shop insisted that the Corvette Servo and Governor would get the the shifts where I wanted them to be. Since I wasn't being charged, I let the shop do it their way.

Now, unfortunately, I'll eventually have to drop the driveshaft and the back of the trans to do what should have been done in the first place.

Sounds like you weren't very happy, but the numbers sure look fairly good.

Andy, Since you asked, I am disappointed. I've been wanting to make changes to the car, but haven't been able to do so, until I got back to the track. I wanted to fulfill the committment I made, and I did. However, with my leaving soon, I will probably have to leave the car alone for now (wife's request).

I did what I said I would do. I am happy with how the AFR heads performed. They kicked ass on the dyno, and did pretty good at the track; it was not the heads that kept me out of the 11s. I am frustrated with things beyond my control, that I spent good money on and didn't deliver. The Quick Fuel carb and the tranmission both have me annoyed. I spent a lot of money on each, and don't feel that either delivered as promised.

The Quick Fuel carb has given me fits from day one, and despite being the most expensive carb I ever owned, has seen very little use. I could complain about the shavings inside my new carb, the bent float spring that caused intermittent flooding, the accelerator pump diaphram that leaked on start-up, or the now non-idling condition, but I won't. I'm pretty good with Holley carbs, yet have had nothing but problems with the Quick Fuel carb. Oh well, you get what you pay for.

That said, if I hadn't wasted so much time trying to get that POS carb to idle on Friday, I could have pulled the Carb Shop carb from my Chevelle, and dialed it in. That carb may have given me the 2/10s I needed to break into the 11s. I'm just glad I didn't cheap out when I bought the Quick Fuel carb, otherwise, I might not have gotten what I paid for.

I'm also not happy about the transmission either. I had the car at the shop that built the trans, not once, but twice, and it still is not shifting where I was told it would.

Then there is the issue of the cam. We went with a 282 HR cam, despite my wanting a smaller cam. At the time, I didn't care so much about the cam, because I had plenty of time to change it; I had no idea the difficulty I would have in getting the car back to the track. I had planned to swap cams a while ago, but couldn't until the testing was complete.

I drove 800 miles round trip to Scottsdale to race the car, but was rained out. Missed a couple track events locally because of my schedule. Then, made it to the track a few weeks ago and the car slowed down, because it was shifting at 4600-4700 RPM (slowed down 1/2 second, but picked-up .14 MPH... not bad for a HR cam and aluminum head upgrade, huh?). Last time out, before the AFR swap, it was shifting at 5100.

Nothing like making a solid effort, only to fail.

I lost a lot of valuable time I needed to put the car back to the way I wanted it. Time is marching on, and I have other things I need to get done.

Aside from that, I have to be honest, that I never cared for the 62 to begin with, but kept it around because Mei is attached to it. Now, she doesn't like the way it drives with the big cam and single plane intake. Given her dislike for the idle, I suspect POS will sit for at least 6 months to a year, before I can get back to it. I doubt she will drive it while I'm gone. As such, after all the work, time and money I committed, I like the car even less than before.

C'est la guerre!

Still, shifting at 4700rpm and just shy of 11's is pretty impressive!

Quote:

Brian,

Prior to the AFR swap, the trans shifted at 5100 RPM, and went a best of 12.77 @ 108.21 with the original camel hump heads. The Vette went 12.64 @ 107.97, with the dished piston 383 I built for my truck, in Nov '08, while the 327 was in dyno prison.


Because of the 5100 shift point, I returned to the shop to get the shift points raised. I donot know what went wrong, but the shift points actually occurred at a lower RPM. Since I never ran the car up through the gears on the street, I didn't discover the problem until I got to the track. I was quite displeased with the results to say the least. When the car was shifting at 4700, it went 13.01@108.34. That was with the AFR heads and 282 HR cam. This was June '09.

The trans actually shifted at a lower RPM after its first return to the trans shop. After the June disaster at the track, I took the car back to the shop and they installed a Corvette governor. It only raised the shift points to the 5300-5400 range.

Sorry if it's a bit confusing.

So close, yet so far.

Gee, Wes, I think those are great numbers. I know you're not happy with them, but still. Personally, I'd swap out the carb (since you believe it's one restriction) and try to squeeze out those last few tenths before you stick the car in the garage for a year.

Matthew

Guys,

I sent an email earlier today to Wes commenting on some of his recent track outtings. For the benefit of those reading and following along Wes's journey Im copying and pasting it here as well because I think it offers a little more insight.

Bottom line....Wes has already made some solid gains but right now he is still really scratching at the surface. In a nutshell, there are more gains left [I]under[/I] the table than the gains he has already tapped into and thats very encouraging IMO.

Here is the email I was referring to...

-Tony

PS....A few WOT runs on a desolate stretch of road prior to your last track event would have been extremely beneficial....Your next swap should be a manual trans and eliminate all these shifting gremlins for good....LOL The car would feel like a rocket ship with an M-20/M-21 install!)
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Wes…

I think it goes without saying this car is far from being optimized to take advantage of the new power plant. The biggest sting in its performance potential is the fact you can’t shift it even remotely close to where it really needs to be (about 1700+ RPM higher!) essentially missing the fattest and strongest part of the power curve (and essentially the meat of the gains we observed on the dyno).

You also may be experiencing fuel pressure problems (why it’s laying down upstairs) but I have no idea the type of fuel system/pump you are running. It could be something as silly as a clogged filter.

This car could/should easily run close to 120 MPH with everything dialed in properly (timing, fuel, shiftpoints, etc.). Discounting the power some and calculating a 3400 pound race weight still spits out 118-120 MPH trap speed potential depending on whether we are trying to push a brick or something more streamlined down the track. Considering your average power is down 40+ HP with the early shifting and your not getting the back half charge you should be due to some other gremlins (not to mention far from optimal D/A), your current performance data all kind of backs that up.

With so-so traction and 60 foot times, once you get some of these issues handled I would bet anything this car goes 11.70’s at 118+ trap speeds with essentially nothing different except for better optimizing this package in your vehicle.

This is why having the dyno data in this round of testing was also so important…..running big numbers at the track require a lot of other variables to be right and sometimes that’s easier said than done unless you have loads of time and money to throw at it.

Get that shifting situation handled…..your missing the entire rush this package has to offer you!!

Thanks for the heads up and the update….

Regards,
-Tony

dude i feel your pain.. only i have about a 1/4 of the income i had when i started my 383 project. let it sit. if you aren't making payments on it its not costing you anything to sit there. mine is a lovely static figure and most likely will be for another year.

Dont feel bad...motor in my 67 has to be 5 yrs old and never fired,making 80% less lol.

Pulleys are going on now, maybe a month or less before its finally fired up. Think its outdated by now but I dont care.