As usual "Experts" are wrong.....

I love reading tech articles written by self-proclaimed "Experts" who dispense advice that is either wrong or is generic advice that they read elsewhere-in someone else's article or on the internet. Their so adamant about what you can and can't do, and act like your a moron if you disagree with them.  Some of my personal favorites.  # 1. Fuel Injection makes more Power than carburators. While electronic fuel management and ignition control-knock sensors, self-adjusting timing through ecms, variable valve timing etc-have enabled modern manufacturer's to get maximum power out of modern engines, the big switch from carburators to fuel injection in the late '70's and '80's was because of ever-tightening emission standards, not lack of power. Many Porsche and Ferarri collectors prefer the carburated versions of the 911 and the 308 GTB / S over the fuel injected versions. I was in Bill Pennington's shop when they removed the Tuned Port Injection from a then-new Corvette and installed an Edelbrock Torker II intake and 750 Holley carb and made a dyno pull. It made 50 more hp than stock, and that was before any jetting changes. NASCAR teams made 850 hp from their race engines with a carburator-sometimes a 750 cfm carb with a restrictor plate, or a 390 cfm 4-barrel!!  I love the modern musclecars like the Challenger Hellcat or ZL1 Camaro. No question that electronic fuel management has done wondrous things.  But if your restoring a '60's or '70's car-you'll be fine with a carburator. # 2. You need a single 4-barrel to go fast, multiple carbs don't work. Again-GM, Ford and Chrysler went away from multi-carb setups because of tightening smog laws, not lack of performance. I see it every Hot August Nights. Whether it's a 409 Impala, 426 Hemi, 427 'Vette, 440 Six-Pack, Tri-Power Pontiac or whatever-guy will spend umpteen thousands restoring a car-and then drive it like grandma on prozac. If it's driven more than on and off a trailer, it never sees the high side of 3,000 rpm because their so goddamnded afraid of blowing it up. Then, the second it fouls a spark plug, they start screwing around with the carburators. Pretty soon it won't even start. The buff magazines tell their readers to use a single 4bbl to try to be idiot-proof.  I have a lot of experience with multiple carbs, and if their tuned right, they can really rock. I remember a truck pull winner back in the '90's who was running 4-Webers on a 454 Chevy with alcohol!!  The earth shook when that thing fired up. Most often-guys run the wrong combination. I know 2 guys running Tunnel Rams on the street. One car really rips, the other one's a dog and doesn't run as good as it did stock. Here's why. The one guy has a Nova with a 327 and a 4-speed. He's running 4.10 gears, the "350 hp" Corvette cam and two 450 cfm Holleys on his tunnel-ram manifold. He revs it up to 3,500-4,000 rpm and drops the clutch hard. The car leaves with just enough wheelspin to get the car moving and up on it's torque curve, and he shifts at 6,500 rpm. It'll rev to 7,000, but he'd just be beating up the bottom-end and valvesprings-it doesn't really make any more power above 6,500. It runs 12.80's on street tires, and 12.30s on drag radials. It's a fun car. It doesn't have a lot of bottom-end torque, but the 4.10 gears help mask that and from 3,000 rpm on it's a rocket. The other guy has a 396 Chevelle with an automatic and 3.31 gears, and he's running the stock L34 hydraulic cam, and dual 660 Holleys. It's a slug. It bogs off the line, coughs and spits and doesn't run as well as it did with a quadrajet. The problem is-it's WAY OVER-CARBURATED!!  1320 cfm-is way too much for a stock 396, with a lazy cam. The stock cam starts to run out of power about 5,000 rpm-which were the manifold is just starting to rock-n-roll. I'd go to two 500 cfm Edelbrocks.  Plus the Automatic trans and stock converter hurt it, as does the 3.31 gears. For it to run properly he'd need a stick, or at least a 2,800 rpm converter and some 4.10 gears, and a short duration, high lift hydraulic or solid-lifter cam. # 3. You gotta run a dual-plane manifold on the street. I beg to differ. I love single-planes. I had a Torker on my 442 and my brother has a Torker II on his GTO and they both really ripped on the street. I know-"Sure, with 400 or 455 cubes and gears they work fine."  Well my Olds had 3.23:1 gears when I got it, and my brother's Goat has 3.36:1 gears. And they both showed a noticeable improvement over the stock intake, even before we changed the cam or anything else. A friend had a '72 El Camino with a 350, TH350 and 2.73:1 gears. It had a 2bbl from the factory. I told him to buy a #2101 Edelbrock Performer intake and #1405 600 cfm vacuum secondary carb. He bought the 600 cfm carb, but the speed shop was out of SBC Performers and he bought a Torker II. We installed the carb and intake, and the improvement was huge! If it lost any low-end torque it wasn't noticeable, but you could really feel it "hit" about 2,500 rpm, and it pulled hard to 5,500. If he'd had a hotter than stock cam, I don't doubt that it would have kept pulling to 6,500 and beyond. Even with the stock 2bbl cam,and 2.73:1 gears it still ran like a scalded cat, and was quicker in a drag race than other friends who had 350 / TH350 4bbl Camaros and Chevelles, one of whom had a Performer on it.  My '77 T/A with a 403 Olds had 2.56:1 gears and it ran great with a single-plane Holley Street Dominator intake. Even with the salt-flats gearing and the 403's lazy "smog" cam-it showed a huge improvement from 2,800-5,400 rpm. Which brings up......# 4. You have to remember that the test mule for everything is a small-block Chevy. So manufacturer "Guidelines" that are for a 350 Chevy are probably not optimum for a 440 Chrysler or 460 Ford, or 455 Pontiac!!  Larger engines can take more "Cam" without ill effects than smaller ones. For example-the old standby-the "350 Hp" 327 Corvette cam for a small-block Chevy. It has 224 duration ( @ .050 ) and .447 lift. This cam would ruin a 283 or a 305. It works pretty good in a 327 with a stick and 3.70 or stiffer gears. It's better in a 350 with a stick or an automatic with 3.42 gears and a 2,500 rpm converter, and it's really sweet in a 383 / 400 regardless of transmission, even with 3.08:1 gears.  So guidelines aren't set in stone.....Mastermind