So I am cruising another forum, and a guy is building a 403 in a 80 Trans Am. Edelbrock heads, mild cam, Ed intake, headers, decent build really should run good for a street car. Its like they dont even read what he says, and start telling him to swap to 3.73 gears, throw away the heads, change the stock valve springs, and pull the gas tank. One guy even said touching valve springs with sweaty hands ruins them.
Why is it everyone thinks you need 3.73 or deeper gears to make a car perform? Is it the small chevy mentality where they dont make enough torque down low to move a 3.08 gear? Are they thinking its a truck? I understand that most people dont know that the 403/425/455 Olds and similar size Pontiacs dont need lots of gear because they are grunt engines, but damn, why is it the first thing they start spouting?
Then they start with the you need 10:1, or 9:1 so you need to mill the heads or run smaller chambers. Why? If you run to run any octane camel whiz gas, you dont want to run lots of compression. You want to keep it under 9:1 if you want to run 87. Not everyone wants to run premium in their toy, just like not everyone wants to run E85 in it. Sure you get a performance increase, but its a small one compared to what it costs for premium now. If they go a bit too far and tolerances stack up then suddenly they need more octane than 93 can give them. The difference in a healthy engine that runs 8:1 and one that runs 9:1 is barely noticeable on the street, and maybe a few tenths at the track. He has aluminum heads so he can run more compression for the crap 87 gas, but why is it supposed to be mandatory?
They have never owned an Olds or Pontiac engine, yet they keep posting the same drivel over and over. A couple of them dont even own what we would consider a hotrod. If someone starts talking about Mopar builds, I read it and try to learn something, I dont do them but I still like to know. Since I dont build them I am not going to tell someone how to do it. Why do people with no clue try to tell someone who also has no clue how to do things? Sure everyone can be wrong about something, but just making stuff up?
I dont profess to know everything, but I do know some things. I do my best not to guess because it could give someone poor advice and cost them. Why does everyone throw that thinking out the window and start telling them to build a 403 like a 305, 350 or 327? The 403 Olds and 2.73 gears is a seriously fun combination with just a few bolt on parts, with the engine he has that thing will tattoo a smile on your face as long as it is tuned right. 3.73 is way too deep for it, the 403 just doesnt have the RPM to make up for it, they are all done by 5500. Why the fascination with RPM and pushing ideas that will make people slower, burn more gas, and have a car they really dont like?
Why is it everyone thinks you need 3.73 or deeper gears to make a car perform? Is it the small chevy mentality where they dont make enough torque down low to move a 3.08 gear? Are they thinking its a truck? I understand that most people dont know that the 403/425/455 Olds and similar size Pontiacs dont need lots of gear because they are grunt engines, but damn, why is it the first thing they start spouting?
Then they start with the you need 10:1, or 9:1 so you need to mill the heads or run smaller chambers. Why? If you run to run any octane camel whiz gas, you dont want to run lots of compression. You want to keep it under 9:1 if you want to run 87. Not everyone wants to run premium in their toy, just like not everyone wants to run E85 in it. Sure you get a performance increase, but its a small one compared to what it costs for premium now. If they go a bit too far and tolerances stack up then suddenly they need more octane than 93 can give them. The difference in a healthy engine that runs 8:1 and one that runs 9:1 is barely noticeable on the street, and maybe a few tenths at the track. He has aluminum heads so he can run more compression for the crap 87 gas, but why is it supposed to be mandatory?
They have never owned an Olds or Pontiac engine, yet they keep posting the same drivel over and over. A couple of them dont even own what we would consider a hotrod. If someone starts talking about Mopar builds, I read it and try to learn something, I dont do them but I still like to know. Since I dont build them I am not going to tell someone how to do it. Why do people with no clue try to tell someone who also has no clue how to do things? Sure everyone can be wrong about something, but just making stuff up?
I dont profess to know everything, but I do know some things. I do my best not to guess because it could give someone poor advice and cost them. Why does everyone throw that thinking out the window and start telling them to build a 403 like a 305, 350 or 327? The 403 Olds and 2.73 gears is a seriously fun combination with just a few bolt on parts, with the engine he has that thing will tattoo a smile on your face as long as it is tuned right. 3.73 is way too deep for it, the 403 just doesnt have the RPM to make up for it, they are all done by 5500. Why the fascination with RPM and pushing ideas that will make people slower, burn more gas, and have a car they really dont like?
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