Opinions Needed

Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forums and I have a question that I need help with. I have a 215" Rear Engine Dragster with a SBC 355 cu.in. pushing roughly 600hp and 565 ftlbs of torque. Now the problem i'm having is it doesnt want to start easily, we have an XP starter in it good to 18/1 compression, we are running 13.4/1 it has a Holley 950 carb, we are jetted for our weather conditions here 82 fronts and 80 rears. All the obvious things are checked, the battery is fully charged, timing is set..blah blah, you know the drill. We do have a retard box in it, it sets the timing to 16 deg on start then jacks it up after the RPM's go above 1400. I am desperate for ideas.... please, any and all Ideas/Comments are welcome.
Thanks for the help
-Driver :banghead:
P.S. If you wish to see the car, check it out.. http://www.eight90s.20fr.com

Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forums and I have a question that I need help with. I have a 215" Rear Engine Dragster with a SBC 355 cu.in. pushing roughly 600hp and 565 ftlbs of torque. Now the problem i'm having is it doesnt want to start easily, we have an XP starter in it good to 18/1 compression, we are running 13.4/1 it has a Holley 950 carb, we are jetted for our weather conditions here 82 fronts and 80 rears. All the obvious things are checked, the battery is fully charged, timing is set..blah blah, you know the drill. We do have a retard box in it, it sets the timing to 16 deg on start then jacks it up after the RPM's go above 1400. I am desperate for ideas.... please, any and all Ideas/Comments are welcome.
Thanks for the help
-Driver :banghead:
P.S. If you wish to see the car, check it out.. http://www.eight90s.20fr.com


Check your ignition box or distributor ...

Hello Everyone,
I am new to the forums and I have a question that I need help with. I have a 215" Rear Engine Dragster with a SBC 355 cu.in. pushing roughly 600hp and 565 ftlbs of torque. Now the problem i'm having is it doesnt want to start easily, we have an XP starter in it good to 18/1 compression, we are running 13.4/1 it has a Holley 950 carb, we are jetted for our weather conditions here 82 fronts and 80 rears. All the obvious things are checked, the battery is fully charged, timing is set..blah blah, you know the drill. We do have a retard box in it, it sets the timing to 16 deg on start then jacks it up after the RPM's go above 1400. I am desperate for ideas.... please, any and all Ideas/Comments are welcome.
Thanks for the help
-Driver :banghead:
P.S. If you wish to see the car, check it out.. http://www.eight90s.20fr.com
Do you mean it cranks slow, like the battery or starter are weak, check the amp draw and voltage drop also make sure the starter is well grounded, 16 initial is pretty high with that compression , try lowering initial timing, that will not affect performance as you know.

I agree with the initial timing being too high, try something around 8 and it should light faster. What's the cranking capacity of your battery? You might need one with a little more oomph to it.

Bob

The distributor is locked out at 40 Deg, the retard box takes 24 deg out for start up. Unfortunately we cannot take anymore timing out because it DOES effect the performance on our set up. We think it may be over carb'd, were running a Holley 950 HP, thought are for us to go down to an 850.
Thanks for the replys all and more are welcome.
-Driver

What ignition setup? Are you running a distributor just for secondary, or are you generating a trigger from that too?

I know that my 388 is hard to start when i blow a power valve in my carb we run a 850 dp demon.