83 z with a decently built 350, good cam, decent heads........its got power, its just very weak after first gear (th350 btw) now what i want from it it to get sideways in the road after second gear........itll spin some now, but i want it to be all out road rage when i stomp it, do yall think a gear change to 4:10s
and a transgo kit would make it a lil less tamed......i mean it wont cut up like it should full throttle.........it needs somthing when it hooks good with 225s out back

 

Gears would help. when you say "good heads" what kind are they? If they are GM, whats the casting number. Decent cam is up for opinionated debates. A decent cam for one engine is poor for another. Fill us in on the combo and we will tell you how to go fast. Get ready for some disagreements though!

 

the heads are gasket matched 416s, with z28 springs, the cam is 478 478 lift with a 392 advertised duration (at least thats what my cousin said, it came out of one of his failed projects) eldelbrock performer rpm intake with a 650 holley single line vac secondaries.......it also has a stall 2600 convertor that stalls around 2100 rpm.............the parts are all there, it should be solid in the 12s or low 13s........but it feels like a 15 or 16 with the take off its got

 

The heads and cam are the secret to your power. That's not a very good combo now, gasket matching does basically "diddly".
Whip out your die grinder and do some BOWL work, that's where the HP is. Need more cam specs to know what it is, but sounds like yer basic lazy single pattern cam. Needs a bigger cam/ better cam. Look at the comp xe lineup.

 

i was looking at switching to vortecs down the road is why those heads have the least possible done to them, matter of fact i had the 906 heads to do the change over but ran into hard times and had to sell them. What i really want to know is if a good shift kit and a low rear gear would help me out on getting the power to the ground

 

The main problem is that if you have no power, you cant put power down to the ground. Maybe if you have money get it dynoed and see what it does. Then you can mess with it accordingly and we can also offer some advice.

Maybe your carb is a little outa tune?

 

Rig you up a oil squirt system that inject oil under the rear tires, then when you want to show off push a button and instant tire smoke, more power or oil you will end wrapped around a tree either way.

 

There's alot of clues in your post....

This is not the recipe for going out and giving an a$$-whupping to the world...

That means your motor has less torque than a 305....

Stock garbage....

Without knowing EXACTLY what it is, I'd be willing to guess though, that your problem is mostly centered on the cam & valve train. Probably too much cam for the rest of the combo, probably a real old design, probably needs a better one.

What gear is in it now? If it's 2.73s, then yeah, a gear change is in order. If it's 3.73s, then 4.10s aren't going to acomplish much; and in fact,might just make it worse.

Find out what the cam REALLY is; or better yet, just ditch it, and get something better. With those heads, you need to have 1.94" intakes installed in them, and some bowl work (don't bother with a bunch of "gasket matching" spank-off, instead concentrate on the part of the head that's actually the restriction, which is the bowl), to make them good. Like Sonix said, the XE cams complement those heads well, and also the Voodoo series from Lunati, for the same reasons.

 

its not the engine that the problem.........its like it should be til second gear then it loses power after 2 nd gear.........i think the ratios between 1st and 2nd are too far apart. the heads arent your average run of the mill 305 heads.......they are stock with 1.94 intakes, the springs are good.....they had a seat pressure of 105lbs, the cam could be better.......oh for the record its not anything like a 305.....ive drove these cars with 305s and 3.73 rear gears......mine will make an a$$ out of one

 

Ummm, no..... that's like saying that the track is too long. THose ratios are fine for everybody else; if your motor doesn't work with them, it ISN'T the ratios' fault.

Ummmm, no they're not.... either they're stock, or they have 1.94" intake valves, but not both. Which is it?

Ummmmm, no..... they're STOCK. Garbage.

The operative word in that sentence being, "had".... that's only remotely connected with what they HAVE NOW.

Still sounds to me like you need valve train work, and head work if those heads are still stock.

 

dude, your a **** arent ya?, the springs are NOT stock, i bought them an installed them and checked the presure.......a stock spring will have 70-80 lbs of presure on the seat..........if the heads arent stock with 1.94 intakes then why have i found 2 sets on 2 different engines with 1.94s..........they did make a 305 HO head that came from the factory with 1.94 intakes

 

Sounds like time to man up that motor. No one is trying to insult what you have, but gather the facts and give you a good plan of attack. I'd listen to them when it comes to the heads/cam/valve train. They're right on par with narrowing you down a solid performance plan to follow.

 

oh, and the so called stock ratios may be fine for everybody else, but not for my setup, 700r4s have another gear in the case th350s are 3 speed and do have farther spaced gears to compensate for not having an overdrive, final ratio with a 700r4, may not need to be the same as that with a th350

 

Many members on here have 305HO heads (me too!), and they came with 1.84" intake valves. The 350 heads on the TPI engines had 1.94" valves (350 heads, not 305).
I had mine cut for 1.94" valves, and it's a good mod

105# is still pretty small. I'd shim them up a bit if you want. But i'd do that while getting a more aggressive cam. The "Z28" springs are a stock replacement style, not enough spring, and they wear out SUPER fast.

 

Dude, you want to go faster, or you just want to argue?

YES THEY ARE. That's why they're calledin the first place; because THEY'RE STOCK SPRINGS - from 40 years gone by, no less.

They are GARBAGE. They are just as ANTI-SPEED as 882 heads.

If you choose not to believe that, it's OK by me; my car isn't the one that has the problem. You can just keep believing those pieces of crap are something good, and going slow as a result. Won't hurt me one bit. My car isn't the one suffering.

The Turbo 350 has been around since 1969, almost 15 years before the 700. It does NOT have wider ratios than the 700, and its ratios are NOT "compensating" for anything; least of all, for anything connected with the 700. The 350's ratios are JUST FINE for everybody else, and have been for near 40 years now. Except, the REALLY FAST cars, who use Powerglides, with AN EVEN NARROWER ratio (1.76:1 1st gear, as opposed to the 2.52:1 1st in the 350, or 3.06:1 1st in the 700); the wide ratios like the 700 has, are NOT GOOD for speed.

You REALLY need to do less talking and more listening, it would appear. Few things make someone look more ridiculous than pretending to "know" something that they don't.

The right thing to do, would be to take a step back, forget about your wounded pride over your less-than-ideal motor combo, and just accept that there's imperfections in it, and attack them one by one. As long as you stay on the defensive instead of the offensive about the parts that are causing you problems, your car will stay just like it is; no improvement.

 

The 305s didnt come with the 1.94 valves. Also, the z28 springs are known junk parts. Wait till it comes apart high on a rev. If you think your 1-2 is bad now, wait till you get a 700. The have like what, a 3.08 first, or some such? To me it sounds like you need less cam, or more heads. Then more stall and gears. It seems like stall and gears really feed off each other. You wont runyour best until those two are optimized, and you wont figure out your stall till you sort out your head cam issue, make sense?

 

If you're on a budget buy some vortec heads and a matching cam.

Otherwise go all out and buy some AFRs.

 

That's probably because it's a 14-15 second car. I doubt a transmission change is going to chop of 3 seconds.

These guys already said it. People have been using stock geared transmissions for years and running just fine. If there was a secret in changing transmission or rear end gears to chop 3 seconds off your ET everyone would be doing it.

You have serious numbers to support your claims. Why is a 12 low second car? Because you said so? That doesn't really mean much. We can't really help you without serious numbers.