[giles]

Please clarify what you mean by "play with" the motor. Are you talking porting heads. headers, etc?
As far as CR is concerned anyone building a motor should consider spec'ing it around the octane that they plan to run or what is available. Perfectly good, fast motors can be built to 87, 89 or 92 Octane levels. Obviously all else being equal, a higher CR motor will make more torque and power but a very powerful 8:1 combo can be divised is you lived in Denver where the max octane is about 89 or 90.
Air flow is the most improtant torque and power producing variable, everything else is secondary.

[giles]

Oops, spell checker is down....should be "devised"!

[RamAirThree]

Originally Posted by giles

Please clarify what you mean by "play with" the motor. Are you talking porting heads. headers, etc?
As far as CR is concerned anyone building a motor should consider spec'ing it around the octane that they plan to run or what is available. Perfectly good, fast motors can be built to 87, 89 or 92 Octane levels. Obviously all else being equal, a higher CR motor will make more torque and power but a very powerful 8:1 combo can be divised is you lived in Denver where the max octane is about 89 or 90.
Air flow is the most improtant torque and power producing variable, everything else is secondary.

Actually you hit in the nail on the head I had machining, Cam, an intake in mind, I was even contimplating the jets,etc. on the Rochester, but to tell you the truth after posting all this I decided to scratch it. I will probably just go stock right to the compression, since this will not be a daily driver and just use cam2 fuel in it, even if it is $6.50 a gallon..... . I think when this is done I will just grab me a project roller and build the machine I really want to blow steam with and sew the oats to say.

~Lou

[giles]

I'll leave you with this advice....When you rebuild it, you will need to determine if the engine needs to be bored based on the condition of the cylinder bores. If it must be bored you will have to get new pistons. Might as well go with a readily available 9.5:1 set. Won't cost any more. You won't have to make any other changes to the engine set up and you will be able to run pump gas and an optimized spark curve.
You can make lots of other changes but that should be a subject for another post bearing in mind what performance level you expect and how much you want to spend. After all HP=$$$

[RamAirThree]

Originally Posted by giles

I'll leave you with this advice....When you rebuild it, you will need to determine if the engine needs to be bored based on the condition of the cylinder bores. If it must be bored you will have to get new pistons. Might as well go with a readily available 9.5:1 set. Won't cost any more. You won't have to make any other changes to the engine set up and you will be able to run pump gas and an optimized spark curve.
You can make lots of other changes but that should be a subject for another post bearing in mind what performance level you expect and how much you want to spend. After all HP=$$$

Yeah I understand what your sayin and that is where I will decide , meaning if anything I will go with lowering the compression and ofcourse hardened seals. But thats it, I think you guys are right, just because its stock doesn't mean I cannot drive it and I have always loved these 71-73 cars like they pretty much are. I would rather put my sewed oats...lol on a car that I can basically due a to z without being called a butcher. ie: tubular control arms, sfc's, maybe a 9" rear conversion, a modified 700r4, some weight reduction and distribution and ofcourse a motor to go broke on. Most important either a Firebird base model or a Formula/Trans Am to far gone to be anything else.
Thanks giles, Cheers
~Lou