Hopefully your not laughing about a 223 and power. Anyway for you 223 guys I've got some questions. I got insurance and a tag and also got my exhaust fixed yesterday. The garage was on an incline and then I had to hop up onto the lift. I killed it three times and had to give her hell to get up the lift. I have a 1964 223 with an original 3 on the tree. I have a new carb, fuel pump, spark plugs and wires, coil. Whats a cheap way to give this engine a little more oomph? From a dead stop at a stop sign it takes off slow and vibrates the truck a little. After I get going it runs fine and will accelerate at an acceptable rate. Its just the dead stops that kill me. I will be doing mostly in town driving with this truck and need to get off the line a little faster. Is a new set of rearend gears my best bet or should I start upgrading the engine and keep those gears for better mileage. I don't realy want 55 to be her top speed because of a gear issue. Any suggestions welcome. Also I currently have an aftermarket (small) paper filter on the carb. I can hear a noticeable sucking of air sound when accelerating. Is this common? Do I need to hurry up and get my wet air filter back on for better performance and sound?

Thanks

Ben

 

Ben;where talking about and engine not really design for H/P or torque means,most books state 93 horsepower @3400 rpm's on a 1 barrel set-up; its just daily driving and light hauling, From the sound's of it you probably got a 3:25 rear end gear. I run a oil bath (wet) breather on my 240 66 lwb and power isn't the greatest either; IMO paper or oil breather preform or run about the same on my 66.
Compression could be lost on your engine to cause such a sluggish start; but I believe its just the engine size. Remenber 64 wasn't a fast pace society...
Hope this helps.
Mitch

 

check your vacuum advance unit on the distributor, 223's have no mechanical advance and if the vacuum unit goes bad it kills performance drasticly..hook up your timing light and rev it up and see if its advancing

 

Ben-

Ditto on the vacuum advance- makes a BIG difference. Compression check would be good too.

I run a 2 barrel- gives me a little more oomph. My Father in law had it lying around, so we made an adapter plate and put it on. The two barrel is actually a Rochester- came stock on '67 Camaro's with V8's....

Gearing is really one of the big issues with those engines- I'm running 3.89's, and have a 4-speed with a Granny gear, and it takes off fairly well, but my top end is hampered.

There's an article at http://cquesttechnologies.com/fspp/S...am.asp#TPhopup that details a recommended overhaul to hop up an I6- look at what is suggested, and it will give you an idea of what can be done, as well as what the weaknesses are.

The biggest weakness with these engines is lack of flow through the heads- intake, heads and exhaust. Generally, the "easy" things to do are install headers, bigger carb (or multiple carbs) and free-flowing intake. Maybe porting the heads.

Beyond that, you're talking about a major project. Good luck.....

Clay