new guy to the forum... Here's the deal, I have a customer that wanted some performance mods done on his 81 z/28. He basically we did the entire top end, all Edelbrock and smog legal. Performer heads and cam/lifter and intake. We used the stock exhaust manifolds that I gasket matched. We used the stock carb, and all of the smog equipment... factory computer is also being used.

Before we started the project I test drove the car, it was very slow. Fast forward 40 hours and all the new parts are installed... off the bottom from idle the car pulls better, but not what you'd expect. From a roll, into the passing gear and all 4 barrels coming on it pulls very good. I know the rear gears have alot to do with acceleration, but the motor is just not responding.

So my questions,

Is there any way to tweak this computer for more performance?
If not, outside of a new distributor and carb what else do I need to bypass the computer (after we pass smog of course)

 

You did not state where you are, so not knowing what emissions regulations you have makes it difficult to answer. One question I have is why no exhaust mods? You are working on an engine that was de-powered for emissions. Heads will help (depending on chamber), but performance is severly limited by the slugs under them.

The computer on those models did very little. Trash it.

 

sorry... so.cal. The customer opted out on the headers for some reason, he is rfunning a pair of hi flow cats and turbo mufflers. The heads are the 64cc performers.

 

the first thing needed for performance gains, is a way to let the exhaust gases get out of the system. you are pushing more through the engine but there is no way for the extra to get out. you need to have less back-pressure in the system to free everything up, and that's where the headers come into play.

just my two cents