Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Some more details on the dyno time.

Pull 1 (32 degrees of timing with rpm from 3200-5000   363 HP/403 Torque

Pull 2 (Still 32 degrees but increased rpm from 3500-5500      368 HP/408 Torque

Pull 3 BEST PULL (34 degrees with same rpm)   370 HP/411 Torque

Pull 4 (36 degrees same rpm)   368 HP/411 Torque

Pull 5 (35 degrees same rpm)    370 HP/410 Torque

So, we put it back to 34 degrees and locked it down.  Chris was almost spot on with his initial timing as I marked the disty after the run in, and it only moved the width of a thick Sharpie pen tip width!

And... I forgot to mention that we used 1 3/4" headers, and I'm running 1 5/8", so I should have even more torque (guessing another 5 ft. lbs. or so).  I might sacrifice a little HP on the top end with the smaller tubes, but that's o.k. for me on the street.

Here's some vid's from the dyno.  Enjoy:

As my Navy buddy says... she's running on ship's power! 

Finally got it to a point late last night to crank it over to pump some gas, hook up the disty, and she fired right off.  No runs, no drips no errors.  Put it in Reverse and Drive, and it moved under it's own power, but no road test yet as it was too late last night, and I didn't want to **** off the neighbor who goes to bed early. 

I still need to install the electric water temp gauge (I don't want to punch any big holes in the firewall for the sensor and 3/4" nut to go through it to the manifold, so I went electric with 1 wire), fix a small exhaust leak near the collector where I adjusted the exhaust length, tie up a few loose wires, and top off the radiator, then it should be ready for that first around the block test drive.

Here's a look at the 'new' engine:

It's gonna be fun Stan, hopefully the weather decides it's spring so you can drive it.

 But by you're new avatar it looks like you're on to a new project?

John D wrote:

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I do believe that's a pic of a few "project cars" on the roadside (Hwy 10, Royalton) on the way to Pequot...

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Good memory John.  Yes, those are the cars behind the gas station we stopped at on the way home from Pequot to see if the center dash vent was still good to snag it for Pushrod.

The 3 year lease ran out on my work laptop, and so I was going through my old one before turning it in, and found that pic and thought it was a cool shot of the Chevelle up on 4 rims with the rusty car next to it.  So, I made it my avatar. 

It did give me thoughts of building a thumper Chevelle coupe some day, so who knows... 

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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 I've always been a bit surprised that you only have one Chevelle at a time but as fast as you turn them over, having 2 in the revolving door at the same time would just get confusing...

 Sorry Stan, I TRIED to just let that be but it was too much temptation...

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No worries Mitch.  I resemble that remark! 

The wife has always had a '1 car at a time' rule, but I'm working on that.  I will say that when we had the convertible Mustang and the Chevelle, it sure created a lot more moving around of cars, things, etc. when I wanted to take one of them out for a drive.  I guess that's the price of being a multiple collector car owner.  I'd like to try it again some day though....

 A little test drive update now that the sun came out after work...

I will just say the fun factor went up by at least a hundred fold! 

The trans is upshifting and downshifting the way it should, goes into overdrive, and here are the amazing to me RPM's on the level highway (I kept double checking the tach and the GPS, as I didn't believe them):

55 mph = 1500 RPM

60 mph = 1600

65 mph = 1750

70 mph = 1900 and acted like it wanted to keep going strong

I still have to figure out if the converter is locking up, as the B & M controller I installed has an LED that is supposed to show the electronic locked up condition, and so far it's not showing that it's electronically locked up.  I am using the stock converter, so I think it's in the 1800-1900 RPM range.  I watched the coolant temp thinking the converter might be generating some heat from slippage, but it was running nice and cool.  Of course, I only drove about 5 miles, and it was in the low 40's, so the real test will be on an 80 degree day and after 30 miles or so.  Hopefully we get at least one or two of those days this summer...

In town, I didn't get on it too much, but it pulls like a freight train when I did, so the torque from the dyno is showing up in a very usable band.

I'm going to run it by Master Trans tomorrow and try for the John seal of approval. 

Yet another fan of the 2004R trans! 

cooz65 wrote:

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I know its early on in your studies, but was your 200r4 going into 4th/O.D. real early or what speed was she shifting into it?

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Hi Steven,

I would say in town, it would go into OD between 40 and 45 depending on under medium or hard throttle.  It would upshift immediately if I slowed down and hit the throttle say around 35 or so.

I used the Bowtie Overdrives TV Made Easy kit with the oval shaped adjustment for the TV cable on the carb linkage.  An eighth of an inch of movement of the adjuster makes a pretty big change in shift spacing.  I've got it to a place now where the 1-2 shift comes in under medium throttle (2500 rpm or so), 2-3 is about the same, and then 3-4 comes in like I said around 40-45 mph.

I'm taking it to John at Master Trans this afternoon to have him drive it and see what he thinks. 

Is yours shifting too early into OD?

SShink wrote:

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cooz65 wrote:

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I know its early on in your studies, but was your 200r4 going into 4th/O.D. real early or what speed was she shifting into it?

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Hi Steven,

I would say in town, it would go into OD between 40 and 45 depending on under medium or hard throttle.  It would upshift immediately if I slowed down and hit the throttle say around 35 or so.

I used the Bowtie Overdrives TV Made Easy kit with the oval shaped adjustment for the TV cable on the carb linkage.  An eighth of an inch of movement of the adjuster makes a pretty big change in shift spacing.  I've got it to a place now where the 1-2 shift comes in under medium throttle (2500 rpm or so), 2-3 is about the same, and then 3-4 comes in like I said around 40-45 mph.

I'm taking it to John at Master Trans this afternoon to have him drive it and see what he thinks. 

Is yours shifting too early into OD?

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 I need to take mine to John also, as it shifts way too early at WOT. I set the TV cable like to told me too so it is tight at WOT and I even have a slight bit before WOT, so I don't have something right. Maybe next week, if I get the car back together.

Great progress today.  Fixed the exhaust leaks at the collectors, and fixed the electronic lockup on the converter.  The pin out on the trans was different than what came with the pre-wired B & M kit connector.  Of course, I had to drop the pan to figure it out and change the ground connector, but went for a test drive and all checks out good.  The electronic lockup is set for about 55 mph, and seems to like it.

Hope to get some miles on it tomorrow since it sounds like it is going to be nice outside.