how much horse power should i have
 

I have a 1980 trans am with a 400 engine out of another trans am. It has a cam i think is 230/230 with alittle over a .500 lift also has an edelbrock performer intake, msd ignition, bored .40 over and it has a performace street/strip tranny with a 2800 stall.
About how much power should i have and could you gime me a estimate on the 1/4 mile.


Thanks

more info is needed...

heads, compression, gearing... etc.

more about it
 

i also have a holley 650 cfm carb headers and i think that it has the stock 3.08 gears that i am thinking about changing to 3.42 or 3.73's the heads i think are also stock and i cant realy find a decent set for a reasonable price.

Stock late 70's 400's had 7.6:1 compression and about 200 to 220hp ( I'd need exact specs to be sure). Actually you've done a lot to it so you probably gained a bit, for a comparison.. guys with a 400 set up like mine usually are making somewhere between 310 and 330 hp.
However, the 400 likes gears... and I'd need 3.23s to run 13's.. 3.08's for low 14's.

How much are you looking to spend on heads? See if you can get some 6x-4's off a mid 70's Pontaic 350... I've been to more then a few wreckers that have them and have no idea of their potential.... they are usually very cheap. ( a local pick your part was offering a set to me for $50). Those can give you around 9:1 compression... and have nice big valves :cool:

I have a 406 in my 69 with mildly ported Dart II 2.02/1.6 heads, almost 12:1 compression with the chamber size, Elgin Cam has .540 lift with the 1.6 rockers, stock crank, stock rods with ARP hardware, 930 CFM holley, Vic Jr. Manifold, MSD ignition, with a BW super T-10 4 spd, stock 10-bolt rear end with 2.80's??? I don't quite know. I do 70 MPH at 2200 RPM in fourth gear on the freeway, whatever that calculates to. On the computer the motor is making over 500 HP and that isn't losing much going to the back wheels. I haven't pushed the car to it's limits as the motor is still being broken in. But this starts up perfect every time, I don't know what it would do in -70 degree weather and will not try to find out anytime soon.

JD

Oh yeah with this similar set up, had a more aggressive cam, and the TH350 trans on 275-60-15 BFG's I ran 8 sec at almost 90 MPH at Irwindale. At pomona the best time there was 12.80 @ 110. Imagine if I had some gears.