'68 Firebird - need some help - newbie

hey guys. i recently bought a 1968 firebird. it has a 400 big block with a torker 2 high rise intake and edelbrock 750 carb., a turbo 400 tranny, 383's, and flowmasters. anyways, the car does not run very good and it sounds to me like all 4 carb barrels aren't opening up. it starts up fine and idles smoothly, no knocks or anything, it just doesn't have any punch.

i'm a total newbie when it comes to engines in general. where should i start? i'm just looking for waysssss to make it run better(faster).


thanks

get rid of that edelbrock crab right away they are garbage or at least they have been whenever i encounter one

get a holley or carter carb they are quite good

all the other stuff sounds pretty good that car should haul some major ass maybe your timing is off that could be why its not running so great

if your not to knowledgeable about engines or cars find someone who is close to you that knows more and talk to them and take them your car and find out exactly what is wrong

demon carbs are also good

Or go back to a Q-Jet.

hahaha Q-Jet thats a good one, he wants to run the engine not break it down more,
part #4779
this is a Holley double pumper
best carb ever 750cfm

Now, wait just a second a Q-Jet is a very good carb if you know (or someone you know and trust knows) how to properly tune them. It has been my experience that unlike holleys they stay tuned for a long time. He could always get a Carter as well.

well up by my place i have so many q-jets i cant give them away no body wants them cause there junk and PERFORMANCE car u see will no have a q-jet bolted on, there good for normal cars but not high end performance cars
just my opninion of q-jets

Well the main problem is that most of the adjustments are internal. So to tune the carb dissasembly is required. It is more work than some want to go through. If you're willing to give them away I'd be more than happy to take them. :grinyes:

if u want my quadrajet ill sell it to you for $20 bucks
it needs a rebuild though, all parts are there

I posted quite a bit on 400 engines there. If your 400 is stock from 68 it will be very easy to wake up.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=128928&page=7

A friends 400 build was pretty much stock except these changes:

- Edelbrock RPM (RAIV) Cam
- 1.75" x 3" headers and a 2.5 inch Flowmaster exhaust system with the "H" pipe.
- Ported Heads (done by a real Pontiac machinest)

Tranny was a 2004R transmission that was built by CK Performance. He put in an Auburn gears Pro Series differential and 4.11:1 gears.

This gave him mid 13's in a fairly heavy optioned out 69 400 on street radials.

---

IthePeople - I might need to take you up on that, I rebuilt my carb with dads help. (Helps dad use to be a mechanic heh). If you have a couple I have the time to rebuild them this winter and have some friends in the states who might want them and I can give them a good deal on it getting them for $20. Maybe even sell one back to you all done up right. At cost for Pontiac people of course.

Toss me an e-mail: [email protected] and we can talk about this, I'm also Canadian.

i have a quadrajet off a 350 pontiac
a quadrajet off a 305 chevy (2 of them)
a quadrajet off a 350 chevy
probally got a few more layin around....
if u want them i can look around
20 bucks for each of them, if u want them u can send me the money via paypal
i might have more at the shop ill have to check around

Sounds good, I'll need pictures first but thats about all. I live in Alberta.

I do agree with you on Holley's being better for a race car as they fare better at WOT for longer periods of time then the Q-jet, but for street/strip duty it seems the Q-jet is fine, after all it was the carb used by the original engine designers.

lol original engine designers. hahaha if they were good then we wouldnt have aftermarket products loaded up on our cars!!
hahaha :lol2:

We have aftermarket parts because of emissions, legalities and keeping prices down so the company is forking out so much. You can't be giving everyone 500hp Geo's now can we.

Some aftermarket parts are better, mostly at the true top end. For a street/strip car you can get by with well choosen factory part combinations and a few aftermarket parts.

If you are going to be running 8000RPM through the traps in a 1500hp 455 yes you'll need a lot more aftermarket parts, probably almost the entire engine. On the other hand for a 400hp 400 you'll probably not need any aftermarket parts.

So far we know the best performing street/strip intake for a Pontiac is either their OEM 68-72 dual plane of the Edlebrock performer based on the same design. Obviously they knew something about what they were doing.

lol original engine designers. hahaha if they were good then we wouldnt have aftermarket products loaded up on our cars!!

Like a Civic? How many cars have you seen that perform worse because they made bad part choices or improper installation of these aftermarket parts. A big thing is adding rims, but people don't stop to think that the Engineer who designed their car probably spent days getting everything to work just right with what the car came with.

thanks for the suggestions. i got the edlebrock for free, so i can't complain. and the timing is good. it just doesn have any punch. i was thinking it's probably my intake and carb that's holding me back. i know something's not right with the carbuerator, because not all 4 barrels are opening, i think.

what do you guys think about the the torker 2 intake for my setup?

thanks again

hey guys. i recently bought a 1968 firebird. it has a 400 big block with a torker 2 high rise intake and edelbrock 750 carb., a turbo 400 tranny, 383's, and flowmasters. anyways, the car does not run very good and it sounds to me like all 4 carb barrels aren't opening up. it starts up fine and idles smoothly, no knocks or anything, it just doesn't have any punch.

i'm a total newbie when it comes to engines in general. where should i start? i'm just looking for waysssss to make it run better(faster).


thanks No bolt on's are gonna wake it up if it's not healthy to begin with. I'd start with a compression test. should be around 120-140lbs in each cyl. no drastic difference cyl to cyl. . can also do a leakdown test. if it holds air it's ok. if not see where it's leaking to. air leaking pass valves, means a valve job, pass rings, need rings, or possibly pistons too. everything checks out. do a tune up. new plugs, rotor, cap, wires, set dwell if points. set timing. about 10 degrees, with vac plugged. see if vac advance works, hook vac up watch timing see if timing advances. I'd replace that single plane Torker with a dual plane like Edelbrock RPM. I've had :) :) good Holley's and mostly bad Holley's if they sit very long. needle and seat often stick on my 750. I replaced it with an Edelbrock Carter carb. it was great. never had to touch it. Quadrajets are good too. long as no one's messed it up.

Check the timming could be all out of wack there too

No bolt on's are gonna wake it up if it's not healthy to begin with. I'd start with a compression test. should be around 120-140lbs in each cyl. no drastic difference cyl to cyl. . can also do a leakdown test. if it holds air it's ok. if not see where it's leaking to. air leaking pass valves, means a valve job, pass rings, need rings, or possibly pistons too. everything checks out. do a tune up. new plugs, rotor, cap, wires, set dwell if points. set timing. about 10 degrees, with vac plugged. see if vac advance works, hook vac up watch timing see if timing advances. I'd replace that single plane Torker with a dual plane like Edelbrock RPM. I've had :) :) good Holley's and mostly bad Holley's if they sit very long. needle and seat often stick on my 750. I replaced it with an Edelbrock Carter carb. it was great. never had to touch it. Quadrajets are good too. long as no one's messed it up.

Thanks alot! your post is very helpful. i'll have a compression and leakdown test done asap, and i'll bee on the lookout for a good dual plane intake and new carb.

what are the advantages of a high rise over a regular intake and vise-versa? how much should i ask for my edelbrock highrise alum. torker 2 intake and 750 carb if i need to sell them? they are both in good condition.

sorry, but the pontiac 400 isnt a big block, its not really a small block either, since all the blocks are the same and most of the parts are innerchangable, its not really correct to call it either one.

as for the edelbrock carb? i run one on my 428 and ive never had a problem with it, ive never had a problem with any edelbrock carb ive had, so of coarse i suggest just replacing the 750 if you think thats the problem.

and you intake? those are great intake manifolds, i suggest that over a duel plane anyday, but it sounds like your carb might be giving you some trouble, or maybe you have to big of a cam? or maybe not enough stall convertor? the torker intake is a higher rpm manifold, so that might be giving you some probs

Thanks alot! your post is very helpful. i'll have a compression and leakdown test done asap, and i'll bee on the lookout for a good dual plane intake and new carb.

what are the advantages of a high rise over a regular intake and vise-versa? how much should i ask for my edelbrock highrise alum. torker 2 intake and 750 carb if i need to sell them? they are both in good condition.

i wouldnt sell them until you find out what the problem is, the are very good parts, and like i said, i run them on my 428 and i have amazing throttle response and ALOT of punch