Supplying fuel to the Edelbrock intake will be a Speed Demon 750-cfm carburetor from Demon Carburetion/Barry Grant. The Speed Demon line is offered with either vacuum secondaries and an electric choke, or with mechanical secondary designs; we used the latter. The Speed Demon is also offered in a wide range of sizes from 575 cfm to 850 cfm. We're utilizing the Speed Demon for its reliability, drivability and power-making capabilities.
Next we readied the TFS timing...
Next we readied the TFS timing chain for installation, which contains a Torrington thrust bearing in order to control movement and reduce drag. Once installed, a cam button is employed to keep the roller camshaft from walking forward during operation.
To add a little fire, we called upon ProForm in Roseville, Michigan, for an affordable ignition set-up. ProForm suggested one of its Chevy HEI Racing Distributors, which is all new and comes complete-ready for installation. The distributor additionally includes a 50,000-volt spark through 7,500 rpm, a high-performance timing curve and a premium cap with brass terminals. ProForm also suggested that we use its Street Performance Chrome Kit including valve covers, timing cover, air filter and housing, breather, hold downs and wing nuts all in one complete kit. While the chrome kit won't supply us any additional power, it'll have us looking good!
Once our mill was complete, we went over to see Bob Oster at B&B Performance Machine in Rahway, New Jersey. Our low-compression 350 fired right up, ran like a champ and made great power.
After removal of the intake manifold we were impressed with the cleanliness of the engine. We removed the cylinder heads, exposing the low-compression pistons used back in 1973. Compression on these engines generally checked in around 8.0:1-not the most suitable when trying to make horsepower, but we like a challenge.
Our next mission was to remove the harmonic damper to gain access to the timing cover. After removal of the balancer and timing cover, we discovered the timing chain was in decent shape, despite having a lot of slack.
We enlisted a magnet to remove the lifters from their bores and then removed the camshaft carefully, not wanting to hurt any cam bearings (don't forget to pull the mechanical fuel pump if so equipped). Wow, take a look at that lifter, it's shot, and this engine was on borrowed time. The worn cam lobes also indicated that this engine would not have endured many more miles. Here's the new TFS piece being installed into the block. The TFS unit contains a lift of .558/.558 and a duration of 246/254. This thing is really going to breathe!