Tired of losing, need cheap speed please!!!

Hey guys, well, just got busted by a 5.0 notchback. Its getting pretty old. My car is slow to say the least. I am building up a 350, but in the mean time..... what can I do> I have a flowmaster, hollow cat, dual snorkel air cleaner and K&n filter. I think my computer is being weird., I have mad bog, feels very sluggish. What can I do. Fresh oil change, plugs, wires, alt, batt, cap rotor..... Whats up. i know this car can doa little better with the 305 for the time being. ANy help at all guys? Carb was rebuilt a year ago. WHats causing this bog effect? Thanks guys

Will

Just wanted to mention that I know some headers/ a better intake manifold and also heads would do some magic, I just wanna know if there are any tuning secrets I can use? I know my car has some tuning issues. If I can get rid of the hesistation, I think it would perform a little better. The headers and stuff are going on the 350. Thanks guys

Will

with that 305.. not a whole lot. *not bashing 305's* if u r building a 350 u may want to look for a 75 shot nitrous kit. as far as what to do till then.. i suggest not to race.

No disrespect, but I wonder why your car only runs 16.5? I had an LG4 5 speed 86' IROC a few years ago. It had a reman 305, edelbrock intake and carb, 3.73's, L98 manifolds - y-pipe - & cat back w/ a flowmaster muffler. On radials I was running 15.20's @ 90-91 MPH. Granted I didn't have any computer crap, but still... it confuses me. My car was very low option too, it had t-tops, IROC package, rear discs, fog lights, AC. It didn't even come with a tape deck, just an AM/FM radio. I'm sure it's been beaten to death before, but I believe when you gut the cat you need to richen the carb up some with better hangers - not sure if you've done that or not. The only other thing I can suggest is to put some of the easy to install parts that are destined for your 350 on the 305 for now.

I dont know a whole lot about how closely the carb modles react as compared to TPI but I know the TPI modles have mad low end torque, so if your bogging off the line then you prolly have somehting wrong.

Just a qwick question:

Are you running factory timing?

I dont know a whole lot about how closely the carb modles react as compared to TPI but I know the TPI modles have mad low end torque, so if your bogging off the line then you prolly have somehting wrong

Hooked on phonics worked for me ;)

86 IROC is right, that car should run way better than it does. A tune up would be the first thing on my list.

I had a complete tune-up about a few months ago. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, have changed many swtiches, rebuilt the carba year ago..... I just don't get it. I too know it should do a little better than that. My car has been running lean, and I will take care of the tomorrow. My A/F gauge has read lean since the cat was hollowed.

Cody, to the best of my knowledge, it is stock timing. I have had it for 2 years and never messed with that, and the previoud owner was a female who owned it from 86 as a daily driver, the car was 100% stock when I got it. I was gonna look into that tomorrow too. What should I set it at?

This car just feels like crap. It bogs off the line. Even after being warmed up for a long drive it will still hesistate. Not as bad as before, It used to almost die when I romped on it.

Also, now that the cat is hollow, I can hear the air injection pump whine really loud, its annoying as ****. Thats something I did not anticipate. Also, no matter what I do, my car is really odd sounding. The first thing I ever did was a crossflow flowmaster with 2.5 " pipes and 3" tips. You could not even tell I had one. Then I got a cutout, till pretty quiet. Guys would say so you finnaly got a flowmaster eh?!?!? With a gutted cat and cutout open, its crazy loud, but with it closed, its a real straight through sound, like nothing comes out. Very odd, it flows a little better now with the hollow cat, but nothing like I would have expected.

Any ideas? I baby this car. Only premium fuel, oil every 2500 miles. carb cleaner every few tanks.... this thing should pur. My friends 89 RS L03 used to spank me. Even though he did have posi, I should have at least kept up or put up a good fight in the 1/4. Its not like I go around picking fights I know I am gona lose, but on the highway, in my power band already, I would think I have some chance.

And to annswer Rumblin 91, I have approx 245 ft lb. of torque. Once it gets going, you can feel it, because 2nd gear is crap. 1st is the only gear that really has any punch. The response time is horrible.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it....


Will

Will,

Go to www.thirdgen.org and print the Tech Article on tuning QJets. Do EVERYTHING it says.

There are two possible reasons you are bogging off the line. You don't have enough fuel in the mix and/or your fuel is too hard to ignite.

Contrary to some popular misconceptions, running 92 octane fuel in an engine only requiring 87 octane will not make that engine run well. It is harder to spark and just a total waste of money on an LG4. You WILL run better on 87 octane.

On my 86 Trans Am LG4 5 speed, I changed the carb and intake and got at least 50hp, but since you are in california and have all those smog test and what not, you have to go with a smog legal setup.
I was running an Edelbrock 1406 carb and Edelbrock 7101 Intake.
Best I got was 14.94 @ 91.67.
Here are a bunch of vids of me at the track and on the street,
Videos (http://www.transamws6.com/video/)

Hey guys, well the reason I run 91 is because my car like to knock and ping under hard acceleration or a load. Taking a hill on the coast highway around here, it pibgs alot on lower octane. I have NEVER run 87 in her. On 89 she didn't run too well. i find that 91 is alright, but it would be nice to have some more powerful fuel. Cali fuel sucks, all these save the trees and environmentally friendly fuel additives and substitutes make for now power. I think the slap the 91 label on, but all they have is 87.
But anyway. Thanks for the tips. I have long wanted to get better metering rods for the q-jet. I will be doing some tweaks this week! THanks all and Merry Christmas!!!

Will

Get a tank full of 87 octane and then retard your timing until it stops knocking. Your initial timing is just too far advanced for the engine.

91 octane is HARD to spark without the right compression.

You need to reprogram your computer's spark curves in order to get optimal performance.

Headers are your next investment. They will add a good 30 hp to an LG4.

His engine should be 9.5:1 compression, which isn't low and isn't too high either.
I had to run mid or high grade in my car otherwise it would diesel when I shut the car off and ping when I got on it hard.

a friend of mine has a 92 s-10 with a 2.8L 5speed and he use to use 87 all the time. well 1 day he put in 91 and he said he actually got better gas milage *picked up 3-4 more mpg* and when he pushed the petal to the floor the truck actually had some umph to it vs slowly accelerting as well as he was able to see above the 3k line *well prob around 3200'ish* in 5th gear were as with 87 he would be right below the 3k line. so who knows.. lol.. i use 1/3 110 oct and 2/3 91 :)

Well I have a LG4/5spd in a 85 Z28 and beat a 5.0 (story in my site in sig) But my timming is set at 13* I only run 91 oct. I also have an accel coil wires and plugs cap and rotor and a K&N 14X3 filter but I have headers and a mild cam I ran 13.4 on a .4km road I don`t know how close that is to a 1/4mile but I think it`ll run about 14-15 in the 1/4 mile

rich it out bump your timming to about 8* and make sure your secondary`s are opening

You need to check your timing first off. An 86 has a knock sensor and you should NEVER hear audible knock if the timing is set reasonably close. Overadvancing the timing and relying on the knock sensor to "save you" is a bad way to go.

Disconnect the timing wires (4-wire plug coming out the back of the distributor to the harness going over the trans bellhousing) and set it to 6* BTDC for starters. 0* is the stock setting but 6* will almost always provide more power without any knock on an LG-4.

See if that helps before you do anything else. You need to figure this out becuase I think it is part of the reason you are so far down on power.

Also, the secondary side of the computer controlled QJet can be modified for much better performance. Replacing the stock vacuum pull-off with a quick release one from Edelbrock helps. Setting the air valve tension spring for 1/2 turn from zero tension instead of the stock 3/4 turn will also help. Replacing the junk stock CH secondary metering rods with a set of DR rods will also help quite a bit. Email me if you need help with any of these carb mods.

A good tune-up of plugs, wires, cap, rotor and getting someone to scan the computer to check for any trouble codes or bad sensors is also a very good idea on a car this old. Never seen one this old that didn't have at least 1 sensor out of whack.

Thanks guys, I will look into all of these things. I too only run high octane because I feel NO power with low octance fuels. I regularly run a bottle of booster just to maybe add a few mpg because I do alot of commuting. But my mileage is starting to suck. This car used to get awesome mileage when I first bought it. Even though it idled like crap and needed a good tune-up, it still had more balls got better mileage. Its just pissing me off. I have tuned the car several times since I bought it. I don't know why it would do this.

I did think about getting a chip burned for better spark and all that. Does anyone know if when I bought a 350 and swapped it in, would I need a chip? The 350 will wear everything my 305 had,. all the old pollution crap, unless I can find new stuff. But it will have headers, intake, cam, better ignition, 3" exhaust, and some other goodies.

Does anyone know how much NOS I could safely run on a carbed smog legal 350? I was thinking a 75-100 shot just for the track here and there. Not for a steady source of hp. Well thanks guys

Will

Merry Christmas!

how old is that motor? how many miles on it? really, unless thats a newer motor/newly rebuilt.. i wouldnt try to run nitrous. im sure u can run a 50 shot fine if its an older/high milage block, but i wouldnt suggest it. if ti is newer.. maybe a 75 shot. usually use basic NX kits go for about $500.

Thanks guys

As far as the NOS, I was going to use that on the 350 I am gonna build. That motor will either be a very low miles donor, or a fresh rebuild. I was never gonna use now on the 305.

Also, the my motor is stock 86 Lg4, just to clarify.

There are to codes, im looking into them.

I know about the carb nods, but I need to know where to get the rods and the edelbrock part you spoke of!

Thanks guys

Merry Christmas

Will

Will,

Damon is THE man when it comes to tuning LG4s! He helped me immensely and is one of the REAL good guys on our forums :D

You can trust what he says.

D Nickle??? We spoke over a year ago. He sent me tons of info on how to tune my carb up and so on. I just need to find the parts and get to it. My main project is getting my car painted and the interior replaced. During which time I planned on building a 350. But I wanted to spice up the 305 just a tad, get her running better, for the time being. Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate everything

Will

No to be rude or anything but a 305 is a lost cause in the first place. If it was TPI then maybe I'd think about it, but not a 305 with a quadrajet. Instead of spending cash on trying to run 15's just save the money towards your 350. My friend spent outrageous amounts of money to get his 89 GTA to run times as fast as mine.

I hear what you're saying bro. I was mainly talking about the mods that would carry over to my 350 yet benefit the 305 right now. like better tuning for the carb, and little things. I am not trying to be super fast with a 305, the 350 will take care of that. I just want a healthier motor to get me through the next year or so. But I appreciate it. I know how the 305 gets ragged on, but for whats its worth, a good little motor. Its never done me wrong. Thanks guys

Will

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

The rods you can buy from Edlebrock. Buy a "G" hanger while you're at it. Local speed shop is the place to go to order. However, if you run into a problem just call "The Carb Shop" in Ontario, California (not Canada). 909 area code I think- don't have the number with me. You'll have to call information. If they don't have a set of DRs then get a set of CPs- they're the same specs.

I think running a scan on the computer is a really good idea. By the time the ECM actually sets the "Check Engine" light on these cars something's already VERY far outta whack. And once the light is lit the ECM runs the car in "limp home" mode with very rich mixture and almsot no spark advance. It's a guaranteed 30HP drop as soon as you go into limp-home mode (plus mileage takes a big hit). Even if it's not, a simple Vacuum sensor that's hosed up or a TPS sensor that's shot can really cause some power loss and possibly dirvability probmems.

If the engine hasn't started burning oil or eating coolant at the same time this power loss started the basic mechanicals are probably still OK.

Check your timing, get it set right.

You're probably all goofed up in the carb department. You can tune a qjet pretty good, or just buy an aftermarket intake/carb like others have suggested.

Another thing you might want to check is your timing chain, but that will usually cause you to lose a ton of power at the higher rpm's

Well guys, heres what went down this weekend. I hooked up my timing light and couldn't believe what I was reading. Timing was set somewhere around 18*. I guessed because it was off the timing marker completely. Someone told me that 13* was stock timing, so I went a little lower, around 10-11*.

One thing I noticed though after doing this, is that the car seems to just lag. I mash on the gas and it is really slow to pick up, it gets there, but it is a really slow and steady rise through the gears and power band. What gives? I am guessing I need to adjust the spark curve. How do I do this. Would one of those performance chips be a good idea for now?

Also, I ran a scan and two codes were stored. One was for the mixture control solenoid. It says that to check for malfunctions, you should use an ohm meter and if it ohms out at below 10 ohms, its faulty and needs tom be replaced. So I put the meter on and it ohmed out in the high 20's . This should be ok? THe other one was for EGR I believe. I tried moving the vac diaphram, and it feels kinda tough to move. Might I need a new EGR valve?

Just wanted to run this by you guys. I really wanted to check my timing forever now, but to me it feels like it actually hurt performance. The car used to have a little heat to it once it was fully warmed up and what not. Now it feels fery mellow, and call me crazy, but a little louder too.

Thanks guys

Any help at all

Will

Something to consider - stock harmonic balancers tend to "drift" as they get older. The timing might not be anywhere near where you believe it to be.

Then how does one go about adjusting the timing??? Trial and error???

Honestly - buy a new harmonic balancer. You will be able to use it on your 350. Don't know if it will work for you, but in a pinch w/o a timing light - I've held the throttle to 3,000 RPM & advanced the timing until it stumbled, then backed it off a little and tightened the distributor hold down there.

Well, it seems after all that my timing was retarded in the first place. Here is exactly what happened. When I checked the timing first off, it read way off almost what would be considered 14*-18*. But when I disconnected those 4 wires, it was below 0*, so I set it up somewhere around 8-10*. Plugged the wires back in and checked the timing and everything was cool. The car feels like it has a little more umph than it did before. Now I just have to see if I get any change in mileage or anything.

Does this make sense to you guys? Did I do it right? Ever hear of a stock motor just being retarded like this before? To the best of my knowledge no one has ever messed with the timing, at least not as long as I have owned it. It feels like I gained some power. Now I just have to tackle the SES light codes.

Thanks guys

P.S. I doubt that the dampener has moved much at all. I have seen balancers that were out of whack and you could see rubber showing or other signs of wear......