Engine Combo's that turned out terrible?

-

273

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 14, 2012
Messages
6,525
Reaction score
3,953
Location
Ontario
There's list of engine combo on here for 12 11 10 second ET's etc..

Just wondering if people can post combos they have done that just didn't work on the street and or track for one reason or another, or it worked really good at the track but a dud on the street etc... to give people an idea what doesn't work. And maybe what you did to improve it.

Or even combos that you/others thought would be terrible and worked out better than you/others thought.
 
Last edited:
Only build I recall was a slant 6 that my dad and I did a hone and re ring. Ran ok but was weak and lethargic! Got me from point A to point B. That's all.
 
1000 CFM Thermoquad on a stock 340
Worked grate as lone as you waited to get into the secondary's until about 3500 rpm
 
Here's another one.
73 dodge 4x4, first eng was grate. Fresh built stock 360 with a 3000 stall and .474/280 cam........lots of fun but gas mileage sucked!
Put a smaller cam, and a "less" then stock converter in it.:BangHead: Mileage was much better, still pulled my trailer just fine but........leaving a stop light just plane sucked! with or with out the trailer.
 
Not a small block but Circa 1985-86: 1970 440 Magnum from a 70 Charger R/T stuffed in a 64 Sport Fury. .030” over Perfect Circle cast flat tops (supposed to have been .030” over stock replacement 9.7 cr) 6-pack rods, misc Direct Connection hardware (timing chain, pump etc) Lunati Max Wedge Cheater solid cam (unknown specs but was from a Dvorak Super Stock engine) home ported 906 heads 2.08/1.74 stock valves, factory Max Wedge cast iron manifolds with the 3” tubes uncorked, Edelbrock TM7 intake, Holley 750 VS, Chrysler Electronic ignition, GER 9” J spec converter, TSI (not TCI) built reverse pattern cable shift racing 727, 3.91 rear. Best it did at Union Grove was something around 13.90@ 105 iirc. Sounded radical, bad ***, was a beast to drive around for sure, ended up cracking both heads from excessive heat. Cam was unstreetable way too much duration and overlap but what did I know!! I wanted a Max Wedge replica without a pot to piss in! Coulda been a contender though with knowledge and $$$:rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
I’m sure there are some more, but the only one that comes to mind at the moment was my first solid cam in my old 448.
Circa 1987.

My first time doing any porting. I was trying to copy some pics out of a 1984 Car Craft magazine article.
906’s, had the big valves put in, did the bowls, smoothed the pinch.
The cam was a garage sale find. Never installed....$25.
Racer Brown STX-19 on a 105lsa.
Date on the cam card was 1972.

Had the heads set up for dual springs.
First time degreeing a cam too.

Get it together and break in the cam with the headers open.
The thing sounds downright nasty!!

Nice and crisp throttle response too.

I get everything set, bolt the exhaust back up for a test drive.

Start the motor..... won’t stay running without your foot on the gas now. Hhhmmm.
Distributor moved?
Recheck timing, no..... didn’t move.

It’s so bad, it’s almost like when you let off the gas you turned the key off.
Pull the vc, check lash..... all good.
Can’t find anything wrong.
In order to not have it instantly die in gear, I have to have it idling at about 1700 in neutral.

Take it for a ride...... it is a hound.
10” converter, 4.10’s.

Prior to the head and cam swap I was running an ssh-44 and stock heads, which ran great.

With the old combo, you could go along in 2nd..... stand on it and it would fry the tires.
New combo....... nuthin. Barely squeak the tires.

I drive it like that for almost a month.
Then borrow a trailer to take the car to the track.
Uncork the headers....... it sounds like a whole different motor.
The idle went up about 500rpm.

It actually went pretty good at the track with the headers open(12.00@113).
But man, was that thing ever unhappy with mufflers on it.
I called Racer Brown after the track outing...... he kinda laughed.
Said......”yeh...... that cam’s not going to be happy with mufflers on it”.

I changed out the cam shortly after that.
Which was the beginning of my schooling for learning about cams.
 
Last edited:
My first race car was a 66 cuda with a 340 out of a 71 Duster. I was just starting out and I subscribed to the bigger is better theory and bought a Cam Dynamics 300H, which was pretty much the biggest hydraulic they made. The problem is I ended up with a stock 12 inch torque convertor for the 727. That car would leave like a dog, and then it was like someone grabbed your shoulders and pulled you back into the seat at 3000 RPM. I actually won a lot of races in that car, because guys got out on me and figured they had me covered and started to back peddle, and I would pass them on the top end like a freight train. I later put a proper convertor in it and I think I got it into the 11's

66 racecar.jpg
 
I did the classic mistake while in high school.
Did a ring and bearing job on a 318, added a MP 484 cam and set of J heads.
It was a toad, sounded great but a pos until about 4,000 rpm.
No compression, too much cam.
But it was also indestructible.
 
I had a 318 dilemma as well. 2nd motor in my 87 Dakota. Reringed and bearing nice solid 270s cam. Heavy ported 302 heads. I never changed the 3.23 gears and 2200 stall. Ran a disappointing 14.6 at 94 mph. Seemed slow to me for what it was suppose to be. I was young though and probably missed some steps, now that I think of it I never zero decked it.
 
Last edited:
My 1st 360 build KB107 flat top pistons, x heads, 280/474 cam. 727 and an economy Dacco 10" 2600-2800 stall converter. 8.25 rear with 2.45's! Bad combo for sure. Converter slipped quite a bit because of gears. Once @ say 2900 to 3000 rpm it would start pulling. Later added 3.55s and it was all well.
 
Great idea for a thread!
I remember back in the early '80s when my brother bought a '70 Challenger 340 slapstick auto plum crazy body for $300 and flat towed it home. (about 60 miles)
It had no engine and transmission, and an 8 3/4 rear end.
And the body was rough and faded with dents everywhere, half sanded, rust patches where it was sanded, a sad black interior, a real P.O.S. looking car.
He wanted to get it running as cheap as he could and drive it as is.
We got a demo derby car after the demo with a 383 and automatic for free. (A '67 Fury 4 door if I remember correctly)
We pulled the engine out of it and put it into the Challenger.
He had the tranny freshened by a local tranny guy for $50 and beer one Sunday afternoon.
He bought a new 3,000 stall converter for it.
Then we put it all together with some badly rusted B-Body headers literally taken out of the junk pile, a old used street hemi grind cam that was laying around, reused the lifters off of the 383 2 barrel, grabbed a 383 4 barrel manifold that we had laying around from my '69 Super Bee with the AVS carb, put it together with no gaskets just silicone on everything, grabbed a worn out 3:55 sure grip that I bought out of an old stock car, assembled everything with a shitty exhaust that was laying around that we made fit, and started it up.
It sounded good, and it went like a banshee, low compression on one cylinder, junk wires, points ignition and all!
We actually drove the car to Spokane, Wash and run it at the track where it clicked off a 13.63 E.T. @ 102 mph.
All for the paltry sum of about $600 and a lot of work............
It shouldn't have worked, but it did.
Those were the days!
 
Last edited:
Take a 440 six pak engine with a .509 MP cam out of a well running 70 Charger R/T with a 4 speed and 4.10 gears and drop it in a 72 charger with an automatic (stock converter) and 2.76 gears and wonder why it won't get out of its own way.I learned about cam selection/torque converters/and gearing very quickly.1985 when I was 20 years old.
 
Guess I should put mine, not that it's terrible but less than idea. This is how I bought my 68 Valiant 380hp/360 crate engine with a 2800 stall and the main problem 2.94 gears. In town under 40 mph got to drive in 2nd so it don't lug, got to get up to 40 mph in 1st before hammering it to get a sense of it's power. But it still fun and able to peel out from a light and goes pretty good from a light, Gears are definitely needed to get into it's powerband cause it is a little soft under 2000 rpm.
 
I have no doubt some will think my 400 build is "a terrible" build. Under 8:1 compression "and all that". I think it's going to turn out ok.
 
My......full of water, rusted seized, 140,000 mile, low CR 400 re-ring build is actually what I consider one of my success stories.
 
My 273 bracket racer (stock heads) ran a best of 12.72 @ 108 MPH. Notched the block for valve clearance, and opened up the valve reliefs in the forged pistons in order to install 340 cylinder heads with 2.02 intake valves. Everything else remained the same, including the 340 Tarantula intake manifold installed on the 273. Never broke out of the 13 second bracket after the switch.
 
-
Back
Top