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Good plug and play distributor?

Joe Palmer

Joe Palmer

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We recently installed a 3:73 sure grip and it helped, but I still feel the 383 in the Bee should have more punch.

(Engine is the original '70 383 built to factory specs, only mods are below....)

The 383 small block in our Camaro will run circles around this thing. I have put a 650 Holley on, converted to electronic ignition, and added performance mufflers. It does run better...I have her set @ 35 degrees all in by 3400.

I don't drive it much but she did let me take it to work the other day I noticed a slight stumble if your cruising at a steady RPM at cruise speed (55-65) Lean?

Car pulls pretty good through the gears, but again I feel it should pull harder. I am about to swap the 770 Holley of the Camaro to see if it just wants more fuel/air. I have never been happy with this electronic ignition conversion either. What's a good plug and play distributor? Proform? MSD?
Thoughts?

You can see her go through the gears in the opening sequence below.. Notice the car is not really going that fast ...LOL Don't tell her I said that....

 
I think 3,400 is quite high.
My suggestion would be more like 2,500 RPM.
A simple mechanical advance spring change can do that.
Vacuum advance is hooked up and working?
Are you sure that the tdc mark on the balancer is right on?
How was the cam degreed in?
A 70 383 Magnum as should be lively.
 
Don Frelier said:
I think 3,400 is quite high.
My suggestion would be more like 2,500 RPM.
A simple mechanical advance spring change can do that.
Vacuum advance is hooked up and working?
Are you sure that the tdc mark on the balancer is right on?
How was the cam degreed in?
A 70 383 Magnum as should be lively.
Click to expand...

I agree...LOL

Vacuum advance is hooked up, I have verified cam is in straight up, TDC is good....Can the Mopar performance electronic conversion distributor spring be changed?
 
Your 383 is built to "stock" specs. The Chevy is a "Stroker" and I'd bet had cam, pistons and headwork to go along with it. Not apples to apples.
 
I would reach out to Halifaxhops. He can fix you up with all the good stuff.
 
What cam? Stock? How many miles on engine? If I'm reading your post correctly, you are saying new stock motor, correct?? I watched the video..... awesome to see her not afraid to beat on it a little!!! Tell her to put the throttle pedal to the floor, and get her foot off the clutch lol. She seems to be short shifting it a little.... let it get a little closer to the redline for some oomph!! You may want to double check that the butterflies are wide open at full throttle in relation to the pedal. As far as mechanicals in the engine go, I feel much in lost without blueprinting the valve gear.... I love that Mopars have a shaft system, but I think much can be gained over the stock rocker system. And also, a four speed can certainly make do with a nastier cam. And a four speed will like a double pumper style carb with a good pumpshot. With that car, i'd have a tendancy to leave it alone....just too nice. Get yourself a low budget beater if you get the drag race bug. Great job, lovely car anyway. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::steering:

P.S. I agree HalifaxHops will help put the proper curve in the ignition for you!!
 
Last edited:
Joe Palmer said:
I agree...LOL

Vacuum advance is hooked up, I have verified cam is in straight up, TDC is good....Can the Mopar performance electronic conversion distributor spring be changed?
Click to expand...
Easily. You have to watch the kits out there they are a bit to aggressive IE to much advance to fast. Biggest thing no matter what distributor you run is have the curve right for your motor.
 
My 383 Challenger is stock build, 3:23s, and doesn't have that punch either. Our 340 Duster, 3:73s is a Lot more fun to drive...
 
My cousin's 70 barracuda stock with cleaned up heads and headers at 120k was probably one of the fastest cars I've ever driven or rode in.
My brother had a 70 383 in various forms but running both the .474 and .455 cam with a dp4b intake it was pretty impressive.
They need to be tuned well.
 
VANDAN said:
My 383 Challenger is stock build, 3:23s, and doesn't have that punch either. Our 340 Duster, 3:73s is a Lot more fun to drive...
Click to expand...
Swap the rear end gears and then see what they do.

Put some gears behind that 383, and a 750 carb.
 
Joe,
The dist that will fix your problem is yet to be made.....
383 SB Chev, 408 SBM, 40X SBF. They all have two things in common:
- they all punch above their weight
- they have much reduced rod/stroke ratios.

383/440 Mopars have high r/s ratios. Great for high rpm at Nascar. Lousy for street use. And you have a heavy car to make matters worse.
A different carb will not fix it either, more cubes will....
 
Geoff 2 said:
Joe,
The dist that will fix your problem is yet to be made.....
383 SB Chev, 408 SBM, 40X SBF. They all have two things in common:
- they all punch above their weight
- they have much reduced rod/stroke ratios.

383/440 Mopars have high r/s ratios. Great for high rpm at Nascar. Lousy for street use. And you have a heavy car to make matters worse.
A different carb will not fix it either, more cubes will....
Click to expand...

Lousy for street use really?

 
Something really odd about the test in post #13.

Same cu in, same cam, same carb, same type of hi-rise dual plane, same type of dist, iron heads, same CR. Everything was done to eliminate variables.
And from 4000 rpm & up, the numbers were very close, what you might expect with identical components used to eliminate variables.
But at 3000 rpm, the Chev is down about 50 ft/lbs. What would cause such a huge drop at 3000? Might expect a few ft/lbs difference, not 50.
 
Geoff 2 said:
But at 3000 rpm, the Chev is down about 50 ft/lbs. What would cause such a huge drop at 3000? Might expect a few ft/lbs difference, not 50.
Click to expand...
Thats the difference between bored cubic inches and stroked cubic inches, big blocks are notorious torque monsters.
 
Joe Palmer said:
We recently installed a 3:73 sure grip and it helped, but I still feel the 383 in the Bee should have more punch.

(Engine is the original '70 383 built to factory specs, only mods are below....)

The 383 small block in our Camaro will run circles around this thing. I have put a 650 Holley on, converted to electronic ignition, and added performance mufflers. It does run better...I have her set @ 35 degrees all in by 3400.

I don't drive it much but she did let me take it to work the other day I noticed a slight stumble if your cruising at a steady RPM at cruise speed (55-65) Lean?

Car pulls pretty good through the gears, but again I feel it should pull harder. I am about to swap the 770 Holley of the Camaro to see if it just wants more fuel/air. I have never been happy with this electronic ignition conversion either. What's a good plug and play distributor? Proform? MSD?
Thoughts?

You can see her go through the gears in the opening sequence below.. Notice the car is not really going that fast ...LOL Don't tell her I said that....

Click to expand...


Before a distributor, recheck the carb and the air fuel ratio to see if the carb is getting gummed up narrowing the passages down making it run lean. Dirty air cleaner filter or fuel filter.

The only RTR distributor I have tried is a MSD. Very easy 3 wire hook up. So far it is OK.
 
Firecore quote

"We have a brand new, new and improved RTR Distributor. Better in every respect. I will post pics next week, but it takes the screw down style, msd style male distributor cap.. We private label them for Summit."
 
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