Better Heads and Faster Trans

[lilbowtie]

Everyone is saying basically the same thing, which I kind of figured. I just need to redo the rest of the drivetrain. If I'm going to go through the trouble of swapping the trans I'm just going to go ahead and convert it over to manual.

Enough said !

 

[Gears And Circuits]

I'm still not clear on the actual problem... So far it looks like you can hold it in gear, rev to 5 or 6 grand, all is good, but shifting on it's own is at 3000?

So the engine is healthy and fine completely rebuilt from the ground up. If I leave it out of here at 11 to 5 no problem it's healthy, but if I let the transmission just do its automatic thing it'll get to 3 Grand and just kind of stopped while the transmission does its work. Yeah couple times on the freeway I have gotten it to kick down and rev up the 4500 but it doesn't happen on its own very often. At this point the answer is better rear gears and a new transmission.

 

[Gears And Circuits]

1st - 882 heads make good door stops and boat anchors. They are pretty much the worst head that Chevy ever used. They were designed for a purpose, none of which you appear to be interested in. Any money put into them is wasted unless they're being used for Grandma's daily driver used for getting groceries, going to Church and Dr. offices.

2nd - to make a recommendation for heads we need some build info including piston cc, piston to deck clearance, rod length, exhaust, cam specs (cam number will help locate all of the specs). You can't just swap heads with no concern of cam or piston volume. Everything needs to work together to meet a goal. Since you have the short block freshly built with a new cam, now you need to pick a head that will work with your cam. Vortec's are a great upgrade if you can find a set that are in good condition, repeat if. But there are many other upgrades that end up being cheaper unless you already have the different bolt pattern intake and self aligning rockers.

3rd - nothing is going to make transmission faster other than more power in front of it. Your rear gear ratio is the ultimate in pathetic.Made for one use only - low power applications that are going to run on the highway with a 3 speed transmission with a mpg goal. You need to sort out your motor and determine what trans and tirer you're going to stick with and then come up with a proper gear ratio and stall.

Lastly, you need to give a better description of 'engine maxes at 3K RPM with pedal slammed'. Will it not run over 3K on the highway, or from a launch, or what?

Sorry yes. The engine is fine and it will rev when it's not hooked up to the trans, but trying to let the trans to shift on its own the transmission stops at 3000. Now if I took it down myself and hit it really hard it will go all the way to 4500.
As far as the engine build itself I've got everything mostly stock replacement, the engine drives pretty well. I'm happy with how it turned out at about 280 horsepower but would like to increase compression try and get it over 300. That's my goal. Cam is a summit 1101, 194int. 204 exhaust. 270 intake duration and separation of 112. Fairly conservative.

 

[DRIVEN]

If I leave it out of here at 11 to 5 no problem it's healthy, but if I let the transmission just do its automatic thing it'll get to 3 Grand and just kind of stopped while the transmission does its work.

I have no idea what that means.

What you have is a very mild 350. I'm guessing you're closer to 220 than 280hp.
Is this a new problem? Did it ever run stronger or is this the way it's always been?

 

[Gears And Circuits]

I have no idea what that means.

What you have is a very mild 350. I'm guessing you're closer to 220 than 280hp.
Is this a new problem? Did it ever run stronger or is this the way it's always been?

Nah that's how it's been. I worked with a builder to pick out the specs for the parts. Could probably use a bigger cam but for the automatic setup he recommended the summit one. Slightly bigger than stock. Like I said the engine runs well but once I have money saved up I want to build this thing for autocross.

 

[crotchss]

A lot depends on how much coin you want to drop too. 64cc head (whether Vortec or cheaper yet decent set of aluminum), overdrive trans with a 2000-2200 converter and 3.42-3.73 gears will make it feel like a different car. Highway RPMs will be down and will leave the hole a lot harderthan your current set-up. If you have a trans built and can do the engine work yourself along with the trans and gear install, it could be done for around $2500+. That is with new heads, new gears, new trans, and misc. parts. Of course scoring good used parts can save you some money too.

 

[fleming442]

Nah that's how it's been. I worked with a builder to pick out the specs for the parts.

You need a different builder. Where you at?

 

[MrSony]

Do you have a tach at all?

 

[olds307 and 403]

That cam is tiny, don't go much over 9 to 1 unless the heads are aluminum with a good chamber design. 300 hp is a pipe dream with that cam. I think the 305 HO cam is hotter than that one. The vin 9 Olds 307 cam is very similar to that, remember that was a 8 to 1, 5L motor, meaning the cam acted larger in it. Olds used the same cam in the manual trans 350 with 9 to 10 to 1 compression but that was when high octane lead gas was common place. Figure out what your compression will be with 64cc heads. You need to know the piston dish, how far they sit down in the block from the deck surface along with head gasket thickness.