I'm looking to take my '77 Cordoba to an open street legal track event next summer. It's all stock except for the exhaust. I can't remember the pipe size, but they're dual straights. I'm 17, but pretty mechanically inclined. I'm looking mainly for stuff like timing adjustment tips, and such. Thanks a bunch!

 

anything specific that you need help with?
what kind of times are you looking for?

 

I'm new to timing Mopar engines (or any engine, but it seems straight forward) and I'd just like some insider tips on what to look for when timing it. The guy I'm going with suggested advancing the timing, but he's used to working on four and six cylinder cars so he won't be much help. The event won't at all be timed, it's just a cheap way to get your more aggressive driving out of your system. I was also wondering how much of a difference it would make to remove the A/C compressor drive belts. Thanks a bunch!

 

well, when the car is running, and the a/c is off, having it connected with the belts giving minimal to no resistence to the motor, so thats ok.

bumping the timing will help. the general rule is advance till you ping, then back it off.
check to make sure that your spark plug wires are making good connections, and that the actual wires are not dried out.

what else?
keep the questions coming, do not be afraid to ask away

 

Fuel. I've only read a bit about fuel in general, but what is going to be my best bet here? As is she runs fantastic on Chevron 85. Would doing octane boosters be a good idea, or would it wind up with a crappy result vs. race fuel (which probably won't happen since it's so bloody expensive, and I spend enough on gas anyways) And also lead additives. Does it have any sort of a positive effect beyond an octane boost? As far as I've read it will only damage the cat, which has been gone for years. Just clean straight pipes and mufflers. Also so you're not "worried" the plug wires were replaced last year. I just replaced the plugs with the factory specified ones, will putting platinum or whatever help me when I bump the timing up? And what about carb adjustments?

 

-if the car runs fine with the fuel that you have in it, then leave it.
if it pings when you bump the timing up, just go up an octane.
-i was never a fan of octane boosters.
-lead served as a coating to the head seats. cars that were made for them, without them, the heads will wear out quicker. but this could take 20k miles, so i wount worry about that.
-factory specified plugs should be fine for your application
-as adjusting the carb., i would just start with basic stuff (idle speed, idle mixture)
get all of that right, then you can move onto jetting if you want to
-what kind of carb. do you have?

 

It has the ceramic base Thermoquad. Turned out to be a real biotch when I got tired of trying to figure out what was wrong with it (damned auto chokes! Replacement coil coming Saturday!) as my mechanic wouldn't look at it with the ceramic base. He did tell me the choke wasn't working right.