It's basically a stock engine. I doubt it's making any more than an honest 210hp. Yeah, with the cam and intake it breathes a bit better, but it's nothing fantastic. Not trying to be mean, just realistic.

That being said, 40 degrees seems like a bit excessive for the timing, even with stock heads that have a slow burn rate. The cam and intake will bump the VE up a bit and reduce timing requirements. It prolly needs to be more around 34-36. Try pulling the timing to around there and reset the fuel and see how it runs. A lot of timing makes it feel like it pulls hard on throttle response, but actually kills off power. The more efficient ANY engine becomes, the less timing lead it needs to run right. My 302 is basically nothing stock but the block, and it runs best at around 30-31 total timing. Some extremely efficient engines only need 27-28 of total timing. I'm pretty sure though that 40 total timing on yours' is around 5 too much. It may even be getting slight detonation you don't hear or feel, and that will absolutely kill off your power.

 

I know what your saying there 67, but I've got pretty much the same setup, and Im putting out close to 200 hp at the wheels, wich gives me a 0-60 time is about 6 sec (times with a stopwatch) and a Qtr in high 14s. Hes doing 13 sec 0 60!

 

I have read through a few posts but not the full thread, obviously somethign is wrong. The last cylidner running on low compression is a problem, but that should not affect the car to run half as quick. I'd start from scratch:

Obviously there is a chance that the cam is not set up properly. apart from that:

1. when you put it all together did you doublecheck that the TDC marking on your balancer ligned up with the pointer on the block? Harmonic balancers are known to slip, so that might be out and your ignition could be far off. If you checked skip, if you didn't then please doublecheck this. you can do that either with a piston stop that you might get in part stores or with a bit of talent you can figure this with removing #'1 spark plug and a welding wire to feel if pistonm is on top while rocking the engine. You'll never find extact TDC, but you will find where it starts going down on either side of TDC. Between those is TDC.
2. you say you have no proper timing indicator (it ionly goes til 12 degrees). This is not a problem if you can dial in the advance on your timing gun (strobe).
If you have a strobe where you can set advance dial this to 8 degrees and adjust ignition at around 800rpm so that the TDC marking matches TDC.
If you have a strobe that has no advance dial, then just set it so the marker matches up with the 8degree mark on balancer
as for the total timing, can be easily done when you have strobe with dial. If your strobe has no dial then you will need to create timing marks yourself. get one of those tape measures (plastic that you can roll/bend): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...pe_measure.jpg
and measure the circumference if the balancer on where the markings are. Divide that by 360 and you know the distance from one degree to another. make a mark every 10 degrees up to 40. that'll help
example:
7" diameter balancer has circumference of excatly 21.99". means every 0.6108" you'll have 10 degrees. make tip ex marks. Doublecheck the calculated markings against your original 10 degree mark!
Set your total advance to what Starfury posted. I live happy with similar values. Preignition will cause havoc and loss of performace to engine. Especially if you are one of thoise people (like me) who don't seem to hear pinging (and 40 is a lot of advance!)

3. that done doublecheck again for vacuum leaks. with engine running at idle spray WD40 or any other spray around the carb base, your vacuum lines, the intake manifold gaskets... everything where the engine could pull air (don't spray into carb or airfilter). If idle changes while ytou do that then you have a leak there.
If you have power brakes, disconnect the vacuum hose to the power brake itself and plug it the hose. This will disable your powerbrakes but maybe a faulty canister causes that you suck a lot of air through there.

4. then I';d check for fuel delivery problems. If you have an inline pressure gauge for fuel pressure, put that between the fuel pump and carb. you should have between 5-7psi constant.

then I'd check on the carb (floats!). even if it's new. maybe a p1ssed off postman got them out of whack.

enjoy ...

Kalli

 

I had this same problem. After i figured out the problem the ford guy that built my engine laughed and said it was really common.

CHECK YOUR FIRING ORDER! sometimes when you purchase a small block ford cam the firing order can be that of a 351 and not a 289/302.

Try this firing order 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

This is the firing order for the 351. it is the correct firing order for the cam that i bought for my 289 rebuild.

It took me 1 month and a ton of headaches before i went through all my paperwork and realized the problem.

 

thought that as well but fella says he's got good compression on all cylinders but 8

 

So how is going. did you confirm the firing order?

 

yeah I wanna know too?

 

Have you checked your plugs? How do they look? Could your tune be way off? Backfiring could be caused from a lean condition and would also feel like you are towing an anchor because the engine needs more fuel for the air it is breathing.

 

Hey guys, thanks for resurrecting this thread and seeking my follow-up ...I took a few months off from the forum but did manage to work thru the problems...In the end, it was a series of simple mistakes and lack of attention to detail.

1) I found that my timing was way off and the marks were not at zero against TDC. Timing is now set to 34 and the 0-60 (approx 10 secs) times came down dramatically but still not what I expected.

2) Carb was way too lean, thus the backfire. I reset everything back to factory and then began tweaking everything I could. Ended up upgraded the metering rods and springs and then found that I had a vapor lock problem. I installed a 1 inch spacer and the Carb came alive. Dropped another couple secs.

3) Next, I went back through and re-lashed the valves and made some corrections. That seemed to help as well.

4) Next, I put a meter on each of the distributor Wires and found some poor
readings..Replaced them and made better improvements…

5) Lastly, I’m also convinced that I’m a bit over carbureted… I have the 600 cfm and 2.5 inch new flowmasters hanging off some tri-y’s…

In the end, I was able to bring my 0-60 times down from approx. 17 secs to 6.89 (best time). Dramatic increase but true…Now, while going thru all of this I came to realize that I want more and that the top end products I selected were not what I wanted. As previously stated, I pretty much overhauled the whole engine including new Speed Pro Hyper pistons (not forged) and went with the Edelbrock performer cam , performer intake and Carb, but kept the stock heads (wife wouldn’t let me spend any more money). I’ve still got low compression in the 7th and 8th cylinder and a nasty cooling issue, so I’m suspecting a head gasket. Maybe exhaust gas leaking between cylinders and a blocked cooling jacket.

That said, I am now going to sink even more money into it and replace the new cam, intake and heads with the Edelbrock RPM power package…This time I will indeed degree the cam…

I know I should be happy with her now, but I'm power hungry and have the itch..

What do you guys think? Any recommendations?

 

My only add since you have selected your components is to strongly suggest you get the best gaskets and hardware you can afford. The best components will still only work as well as the gaskets and bolts holding them together.