Woke up my Buick 350 for $10

DeeVeeEight

Fast Pedalphile
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
2,284
Location
Southern New Jersey, USA
I have a '71 Buick Skylark convertible with a 350, Edelbrock 750, single exhaust, TH 350 tranny and a 3:08 peg-leg rear. The car runs nice but like most of us, I want MORE POWER! Every where I look I read about power timing your V-8 and distributor curves, so I took the plunge in small increments. First I did the power timing, conservatively, and have it "all in" at about 30* and 2500 RPM. That didn't cost anything and helped a lot. Next I fine tuned the carb with a vacuum gauge - it was too rich. The exhaust would make my eyes water, now it is fine. Finally I got off of my wallet and spent a whole ten bucks at the local speed shop and purchased a Crane distributor recurve kit for a GM HEI distributor. Before I went any further I shot Big2Bird a PM and asked some questions, good thing I did otherwise I might have done too much. Jeff told me to simply remove the old springs and install the gold springs on the distributor counter weights. I did, I also cleaned the counter weights and the pivot points that they mount on and hit them with a little silicone spray. I put the rotor and cap back on and took it out for a test drive, man, what a difference! Now if I step on it hard from a full stop the rear wheel breaks loose and will keep on spinning unless I lift off the gas. Before the spring change I could barely break the rear wheel loose.
Thanks for your help Jeff. Now I have that puddin' eatin' grin on my face again!
 
It's amazing how little needs to be done to get the right tune!

Carefull with that tire spin....you'll get hooked and spin em at every opportunity!
 
It's amazing how little needs to be done to get the right tune!

Carefull with that tire spin....you'll get hooked and spin em at every opportunity!

Naw, at this point it's embarrassing, I only have a peg-leg.:crutches: Now if I had a posi...:yahoo:

Meh, posi is over rated...try a FIERO....engine in the rear....

even in a monsoon that little rat can do pretty good with the 2.8 in back....

:D
 
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