[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by petes67bird

Thanks. I went to my local shop yesterday and chatted about some things. His train of thought was that my compression may be lower than what I had previously thought (he thinks it may be closer to 9:1 or even upper 8's) which would adversely affect the cam I have that he feels would benefit from a higher compression above 10:1. His suggestion was that we can leave the cam where it is, I can install heads (he wants me to drop to 72cc Eheads that he will go through and change the springs on and get me near 11:1), and cleanup my intake and 750cfm carb (said it looks like my accelerator pump is leaking gas). He said this should raise my compression, add about 50-80 horsepower and he can then time and curve everything for me on his equipment. He personally did not like the #96 heads, he also said that all the Kauffmans he has flow tested have not reached advertised numbers, which is why he is wanting me to go with the Edelbrock. We ended up chatting for several hours while he showed me all of his work, great guy.

He might be a great guy but he is wrong. I ran a bigger cam than you 239/247 @.050 with 8.5:1 compression on a 455 and it ran 12.70. It launched hard. My guess is your ignition timing is way off. Get that straightened out before you spend a bunch of money. Also there is nothing wrong with 96 heads. I guy I know went in the 11,s with them on a street car.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by Bruce Meyer

He might be a great guy but he is wrong. I ran a bigger cam than you 239/247 @.050 with 8.5:1 compression on a 455 and it ran 12.70. It launched hard. My guess is your ignition timing is way off. Get that straightened out before you spend a bunch of money. Also there is nothing wrong with 96 heads. I guy I know went in the 11,s with them on a street car.

Agreed.

Another low-compression 455 with an even bigger cam (244 / 252 @ .050 8.6:1 compression) running 12.0s, could easily have been high-11s in more favorable weather.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...5&postcount=19

Surely some basic tuning should wake your combo up. Easy to visually check for full-throttle with the air cleaner off, get your wife or a friend to mash on the pedal while you look.

Get a good timing light and check for total advance with the vacuum hose disconnected and plugged, you should be somewhere in the 32 to 38 degree range. When I was first sorting out my bracket 455 was conservatively timed at 30 degrees, when I bumped the timing up to 38 it picked up at least 4 tenths.

No way will those #96 heads give you less than 9:1 compression, your 9.3 number is pretty close and even 9.5 isn’t too far fetched.

[petes67bird]

Originally Posted by b-man

Agreed.

Another low-compression 455 with an even bigger cam (244 / 252 @ .050 8.6:1 compression) running 12.0s, could easily have been high-11s in more favorable weather.

https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...5&postcount=19

Surely some basic tuning should wake your combo up. Easy to visually check for full-throttle with the air cleaner off, get your wife or a friend to mash on the pedal while you look.

Get a good timing light and check for total advance with the vacuum hose disconnected and plugged, you should be somewhere in the 32 to 38 degree range. When I was first sorting out my bracket 455 was conservatively timed at 30 degrees, when I bumped the timing up to 38 it picked up at least 4 tenths.

No way will those #96 heads give you less than 9:1 compression, your 9.3 number is pretty close and even 9.5 isn’t too far fetched.

I plan on checking the timing first, but I cant see that the timing is so far off to make a different. The car has started and drove extremely well for 2 years and almost 3k miles without a hiccup, I drive it everywhere. The guy in the example had those heads ported, mine are not are are likely 190-200cfm.