[TCSGTO]

A Northwind should fit under the hood of a 1st gen Bird and would be a better compliment to a big engine like the OP is building. After the welding and porting the TII would need on that set up, cost wise you could get a port matched Northwind and have money left over. It would give the option of using a Dominator also.

With a Northwind a 14x4” filter fits under the hood of my 68 A-body with a Chevy L88 air cleaner base and a 1/2” spacer under the carb. IIRC the Northwind with the 1/2 spacer was about 1/4” lower in the back and 1/4” taller in the front than a TII with a 1” spacer. The Northwind carb flange is level where nearly every other manifold has the carb pad slope down in the front.

The air cleaner/carb/spacer/manifold can have a bigger effect on performance than a slight cam mismatch once the engine is installed in the car. Get it wrong and 20-30HP can easily be lost at the wheels.

There is a 246/252 @.050 HR in my 517 and it is pretty mild. I thought about going up about 10 degrees but the engine makes more power than the car can handle now the way it’s set up, and the power is useless on the street, so what’s the point?

Look at loosening up the converter too if you are thinking about a [email protected] solid roller and want to get everything out of it. It would make idle tuning easier too. A 2800 stall could work but talk to some good converter people and get some recommendations.