[GroundHawger]

my 84r/c has a 78 318 in it. Its stock, that i know of. it does have headers with dual exhaust. I was told it has 355 gears. It has 33/15.50/15 Ground Hawgs on it. 2 barrel. It just seems like it doesnt have ANY power. i cant get it any faster then about 90. what can i do to get better power with out rebuilding the engine? This wednesday i am putting an edelbrock aluminaum intake and a holly carb on it. what else could i do?

 

[Dork]

your's will do 90, you're better off than mine then

Happy Birthday man, I take it there's no new crate engine for your birthday

 

[Guest]

I have 3.55's and 33's. Even with the 360 the gears aren't tall enough. You need gears in the 4.10 range.

Why do you need to go over 90 mph?

 

[GroundHawger]

Well i dont actually need to go over 90. You guys would actually no what i mean when i say it doesnt have any power. when i put it in fourlow, it dont even spin the tires on dirt. it barely spins them in sand. What can i do

 

[Hybrid]

big block?

 

[Guest]

The four barrel will help. Maybe a real good tune up as well. But you still won't get much without the gear change.

 

[santak]

well, let's put it that way:
either your engine is plain tired and ready for a rebuild (did you do a compression check yet?) or you have too big tires for the gearing you have in there (as mentioned above, 33x15.5 is big for a 3.55 gearing). I run 32s with 3.20 gearing and it feels really boggy, especially at take off, but then again, I have the 2.71:1 reduction in my NP241 t-case which helps a lot getting those tires spinning in sand, if I have to. I will not guess what t-case you have in there, since you have such a variety of drive train components in your truck, but if you have say a 205 t-case you have only a 1.96 reduction, which just might not do the trick.

I'd say, you can basically try and upgrade your gearing, at least 3.90s or lower (numerical higher), or go to smaller tires. Probably the easiest. Or get a new engine/rebuild and if you just need to spin your tires in dirt with reduction, you can also look into a t-case upgrade or a klune-v box, which is a gearing reduction box.

 

[GroundHawger]

everything on the truck is a 78. exept the body. A buddy of mine has 31 inch tires i can throw on there and try that. I know the engine is getting tired. She is starting to smoke. it has the 203 tcase in it also.

 

[santak]

the 203 fulltime case has also only a reduction ratio of 2:1. I'd try those 31s and see what it does. Is probably the cheapest to try first. New gears cost some money, even if you're very lucky and can find some used 4.10....

 

[GroundHawger]

yea, ive been wanting to sell my 33's, so i guess now there forsale

 

[Monsta® aka Mudshark]

When you say power, are you talking about Torque or Horsepower? You want to be able to tow something till the cows come home or be able to reach higher speeds on the freeway?

 

[GroundHawger]

id like to have alittle bit more of both. Mainly Touque. I go up to silver lake sand dunes alot and i know right now the truck doesnt have enough power for there. i also haul alot of vehicals,

 

[Monsta® aka Mudshark]

After your new intake and carb, change out your exhaust, if that doesn't do it change the cam, then the diff gears.

 

[Evildriver-3]

Change your intake and carb you will be happier, try getting lighter wheels, those tires are heavy and you probably got heavy wide steel wheels killing your power

 

[GroundHawger]

im changing the intake and carb in a few hours. the exhaust is fairly new, it has i think its 2 1/4 duals out the back off from headers. cherry bombs.

 

[GoRamYourself]

hey pal i got a 89' RC and i'm sufferin the same i got the 318 which i have to say i'm pretty dissapointed with. I put the 4.10 gears in my diff's and found that they really didn't make much of a difference off road. Off the line they help ( not much) but yea personally i'd consider throwin a 360 in there there not much especially if u can find a used one it'll bolt rite up

 

[GroundHawger]

now that i put the new intake and carb on it. (four barrel) i have oil bubbling from the sides of the intake it looks like. also oil bubbling on a few spark plug holes. What the hell is the deal with that?

 

[Evildriver-3]

You need valve cover gaskets

 

[GroundHawger]

so its not the intake gasktes then?