I have a question about stock hood clearance. It actually has to do with the fuel line going into the carb. I recently put a Chevy Vortec 350 in my 79 coupe. When I close the stock hood, the bottom of the aircleaner hits the fuel line and causes a leak. I've got a short K&N filter in and replaced the steel braided fuel line to the Holley 600. My mechanic fashioned a custom bracket that has temporarily solved the problem. But that's only temporary. Anything else I could do short of getting a new hood?

Thanks,

Andy

Hi Andy!
I'm running the same engine in my '81. I originally was using a 670 Holley Street Avenger (dual feed) with a standard K&N 14" air filter, and had to bend the fuel feeds just to clear the heater hose connection on the intake. But no problems with hood clearance. I'm assuming that your Holley 600 has a single fuel feed. My only advise that I can think of, would be to try something from Earl's or Russell's or even Aeroquip hoses. They carry many different types of adaptors. Your local "speed shop" most likely deals with these manufactures. You may have good luck by consulting with them.
Good Luck,
Sarge

Thanks Sarge,
I got the problem fixed with a different adaptor. By the way, how long have you been running the crate engine. Did you go with the bare-bones or the deluxe (carb, air filter, oilpan etc.)? Have you had any issues with the engine?
Thanks again,
Andy

Andy,
Thats cool you fixed the clearance problem. As you asked before...I bought the engine in "long block" form. I did buy the distributor,flywheel(4 Speed)and balancer seperately from GM. The intake is a Edelbrock Perf. Vortec. The carb. is a Edelbrock Perf. Q-Jet 795 cfm. Had a Holley 670 cfm Street Avenger on it originally. I had no luck with that carb. Heck...I can't even sell it. lol. The exhaust manifolds are a set of modified '72 "Ramhorns". As far as any problems or issues with the engine....I haven't had a problem yet, and it's been in for 2 yrs. now. I followed the "break in" procedure as per GM. and now I can twist it to 6000 rpm's on occasion without a stutter out of it. I'm more than pleased with this engine. The bang for your buck factor is well worth it. The only thing I plan on changing in the engine (down the road) is going to a roller cam and roller rockers. Just to squeeze a few more horses out of it.

Now if I can only figure out how to get the pic of my vette to show on my postings. I'm going nut's trying to get it right! Help!
Sarge

Sarge:
Had the same problems when I went ot post my signature pic as well. I think Adam needs to rewrite his instructions.

Take out the www.C3VR.com part of the file name and it should post.

I'm sure others will help if this doesn't work, but I think that's what I had to do.

Thanks for the info. I'm still breaking mine in and don't think I've gotten above 3500 RPMs. 6000 sounds fun though. I went with the deluxe because a friend of mine was putting it in as a favor (less to mess with). I put on Dynomax Ceramacoat headers (polished). On a bright day (most days in Vegas) it looks like a light show when I open the hood (lots of chrome) . I bought the car in California but lucked out because in Nevada there's no tamper test for cars pre 1980, only tailpipe smog. (made it by a year) So I decided to rip out all of the CA emission stuff and go with the headers and a true dual exhaust. I love hearing the secondaries open up when I give it a little extra gas especially in the tunnel.

By the way, what octane fuel do you run? have you noticed a difference in the MPG with different octane fuels?

Thanks again,
Andy

Andy,
That's cool that you don't have to smog test your car. Where I live here in NY they aren't real strick on smog testing yet. Only on the other side of the state (NYC). We just have a visual (emission) inspection with the safety inspection. I know a few people in the business to get around the visual emission check. ;-) The answer to your question you asked earlier...I run 93 octane all the time. I tried 89 octane but I was getting a slight ping in the engine, and forget running 87 octane. Fuel economy in any of my vehicles (94 jimmy 4.3L HO V6, 96 tahoe 5.7L CPI) is less by 1-2 mpg with low 87 oct. vs. 93 oct. I have to step on the gas a little more with the 87 oct. to get power equal to having the 93 in the tank.

Mark, thanks for the tip on the sig pic. I modified the address..but to no avail, it's still not working. I give up for now.
Later guy's! Sarge

Here's how I got your image to display:
?IMG?http://www.c3vr.com/member_uploads/201_300/225/vette.jpg?/IMG?

Replace the question mark characters (?) with the vertical bar character (|) and it should work for you.


Jim O.

|QUOTE|Sarge81 said:
The exhaust manifolds are a set of modified '72 "Ramhorns". |/QUOTE|

Sarge, I am exploring crate engine options (see my posting in Engines) and was wondering what modifications you did with those rams horns? I would like to avoid headers. Thanks, Joe

Hey Joe! I had to grind off the square "tabs" on the top of the manifolds and neatly contour it to the shape of the "horn" part.
Otherwise the square "tabs" will contact the valve cover, not allowing the manifold to seat flush to the cylinder head. I also plugged the A.I.R. ports with the brass plugs, then carefully cut and smoothed the plugs to give it a clean appearance. Then I bead blasted them and gave 'em a coat of Eastwood's Stainless Coating. It's a few hours of work start to finish, but it was worth the effort. If you want a pics to give you a better idea of what they look like, give me a day or 2. Let me know.

DavidR. If your still out there, I know that I owe you some pic's. I didn't totally forget.
Later Guys!

And I still can't get my sig. pic. to show!