Have 69 GS and got original motor rebuilt using the TA 212 cam. Everything else is stock right down to the points except I have a 750 edelbrock carb. 1. I am getting 12" vacuum out of the thing and have the idle set at 800 rpm in Park. Is this normal for this cam? The vacuum reading is steady and I made sure to seal the intake gasket when I put the intake on. 2. When I bring the thing into gear the rpm drops way down to around 600. Is this normal? I am using a stock converter. Should I be using a higher stall with this cam? 3. The car accelerates and idles good but at part throttle cruising it seems to surge, run like its missing, whatever you want to call it. Does anyone know if this is the carb and how to get rid of it? Oh, I am running 12deg initial timing and a stock points distributor. Thanks, Dan
Dan you might check out this thread http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8021 TA recommends that this cam be degreed. I have the same cam in my 70 GS and it is a strong runner. Unfortunately, they did not mention this to me when I ordered mine.....so mine is installed straight up, but runs well. I run a HEI now with 20 and 34* total timing. Mine used to really "lug" when put into drive also and I had to turn the idle up a bit....which caused the car to want to creep at lights. I recently put a 2400 stall converter in and now it is perfect. It idles at about 1100 in park and when in drive at about 800. The converter drives just like before on the street, except when I power brake it, it doesn't really torque up until about 2200 rpm. The surging sounds like it could be your carb...possibly running too lean. I am not a "carb guy" so maybe someone like Jim Burek could spot the problem quicker than I could. Mike
Hey Dan Welcome to the board. Listen I had some of the same problems that you are talking about with my 72 when I put the 212 in. Poor idle and lower vacume. I spent a lot of money trying to track down the problem. I can't tell you exactly what your going to have to do but I can tell you a couple of things. First the Idle. when I first installed the 212 my idle went from 650-700 in gear to 450 rpm. When all was said and done I ended up with a 520 rpm idle. It really didn't matter what I put the idle in park at. I could have set it up for 1100 rpm and it still would have gone all the way down to 520 rpm in gear. Changing your torque converter isn't a bad idea. I changed mine to a 2500 stall and I love how it shifts, but evan with the stock converter It didn't drag so don't change the converter hoping for an improved idle. It's not likely going to help. Second the carb. If you have any doubts about your carb you better find some one that really knows how to tune it and that has a 4 or 5 gas analyzer. You can play around with your vacume all day long and still not make the changes that you can get with a good gas analyzer. I had to change the metering rod height in my carb to bring up the idle quality. I also changed to a bigger jet size from stock. Those two things more than any thing else made the car worth driving again. I really do know how you feel about the idle problem. Carb changes can really make a huge difference. And remember that every carb guy out there isn't the best one. So just because you took the car to some one who told you every thing was great with your carb doesn't mean you can believe him. It may not be. Third is timing Did you degree the cam when you installed it? A thread to my erlier post is already on this message but I can tell you now that if you didn't use a degree wheel then you have no idea what your working with. if you just put the cam in and added 4 deg. of advance on the crank you could still have a cam that is retarded. If you know what I mean. You may have a vacume leak that would cause that much of a problem with idle but from my experience with the same problem proved that not to be the case. look at the carb some more. This cam can run great with an Idle at 500rpm. I've been driving mine like that all year. Let us know how things turn out and good luck.
