| 73LeMans |
02-23-2011 01:28 AM |
Two reasons to love the Pontiac Community - Shaker455HO and Len Caverly
Sent my three circuit dominator to Shaker455HO (Jeff) for a two circuit conversion and let me tell ya, I could not have spent smarter money. Not only did he do the conversion, but he hand delivered the carb back to me and then he and Len Caverly (yeah, the Engine Masters guy) together spent the next 4 hours tuning my combo on the car. Oh the carb ran great right away; that wasnt what needed the tuning. It was my distributor that was all out of whack, and they fixed it right in my own garage. Who does that??
Jeff had some idea from our conversations that my HEI may be causing some issues so he came prepared with a trunk full of tuning equipment and some custom machined bushings to straighten it all out. Sure enough, as we dove into it he discovered the HEI was taking 3-4 degrees out of the initial timing once the car was placed in gear. Fixing this cured my low rpm stall. And here I was always chasing the carb as the root of that problem. On top of that, we discovered the distributor was adding in way too much timing as the RPMs increased. This distributor had been curved some years ago and the car doesn’t see a lot of run time. I would never have thought the springs were giving up. Sure enough though, the springs in this dist were fatigued. Changing them out and modifying the curve just a tad made the car run so much better.
I dont know about you guys, but living in the big city like I do where neighbors dont talk, crime is high and people are all in it for themselves, its hard to remember that there are people out there willing to step in and help. And a day where I can learn from some guys that clearly have their heads on straight, talk Pontiacs and have fun with strangers like we've been friends for years, is a day well worth having.
So to anyone wondering if Jeff is the man to make this happen, rest assured not only will he do the job professionally, on time and with pride but he'll stand behind it all once its out there and on your car. On top of that, for two guys that know a whole hell of a lot of Pontiac knowledge, they never once came across as arrogant or pompous. Just two great guys helping out their Pontiac brethren. They’re a credit to our sport and the Pontiac marquee is better for having them.
Good to meet you Jeff. Extend the gratitude to Len again for me too, will ya? His insight into intake manifolds, engine plates and pump gas, camshafts, cylinder heads and everything else we talked about has me ready to make some changes to discover more power. We'll see each other again for that track rental. Maybe the TA will make an appearance? Be great to see it. Work on Len too – Id love for him to roll out some of Pontiac missiles.
Mark
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