I feel like i dont have any of the power i should have. i have a 350 4 barrell stock. i have a new fuel filter, and air filter. my brakes are not dragging, but my acceleration is sluggish and i feel like i top out at around 3500-4000rpm. even little 4 cylinder ricers are beating me! any suggestions?

A stock 350 Camaro for 1978 was a wheezer even when it was brand new. Restrictive exhaust, wimpy cam, low compression, etc.
Any modern "sporty" car will run circles around it.

Has performance fallen off dramatically recently? If so, there is most likely some sort of ignition tune up issue.

If you simply want more power from the car then it needs the usual old school "Hot Rod 101" tricks:

- dual exhaust
- headers
- cam
- intake
- cylinder heads
- performance ignition
- numerically higher gears

If your shortblock is in good shape you can double the power output of the engine with bolt on parts without ever removing it from the car. Add some gearing to it and the car will be lots of fun to drive.

Of course, this all takes some money. How much is going fast worth to you? Said another way......"going fast costs money. How fast do you want to go?"

The good news is that you are on the right side of the law of diminishing marginal returns. Dropping a few seconds of a 1/4 mile time of a factory stock car can be done relatively inexpensively. Dropping a few tenths of a second off of an already fast car will cost just as much (if not more).



[This message has been edited by MikeM79 (edited October 05, 2005).]

like mikeM79 said...im betting you have a 2:41-2:56 rear in the car.a steeper gear alone will wake it up

Well, 3500-4000 is a little low, even for a stock emissions motor. It should pull to 4500 at least.

Usual culprits:

1. Secondarys on the stock Rockester QJet are not opening. Often a problem with the choke not getting fully open, believe it or not. There's a linkage attached to the choke that prevents the secondary throttles from opening unless the choke is FULLY open.

2. Centrifugal advance inside the distributor is gummed up or worn out and not advancing. Also a good idea to check your initial timing while you're at it, maybe bump it up a couple of degrees over factory spec.

3. Exhaust restriction. EFE valve not opening (valve at the pass. side exhaust manifold outlet) or the cat is melted and plugged up inside.

I have recently done a timing tune up. i set it to 6 btdc just like my chilton book says. how can i check if that exhaust valve is stuck? or if the cat is bad? and how much more power would i get if i replaced the entire exhaust including headers, and make it true dual exhaust?

Listen to Damons advice. I recently played with both the distributor springs and the q-jet 2ndy hanger on my sons 80 Chev pick up 350. (moved it to a G as per Damon and it had DPs in it!)We woke it up big time especially with the distributor springs. Your Cat convertors possibly clogged??? You don't need no stinkin Cat convertor unless your local laws say so. Do they? Excellent reason to go with headers and a good dual exhaust. It will amplify all other improvements you may make later as well.