Is the 307 combination as Terrible as what Ive read ?

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by greatinspirational

Looking at a natural P/SA car and adding weight down to Q/SA with a 307. Everything I?m reading about the 307 is bad though. Not sure I want to put the money into that motor or not

Depends where you read your information
Hot rodders and street rodders think the 305 4 bbl. in the worst engine ever made LOL

Also depends if you have the right car, and where you race.
The 71-72 Nova is de-factored down to 165...It's a Q,R,T car

Can't be all that bad, if you are a hands on guy.

If not , probably not the combo for you.

[Cglrcng]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

Depends where you read your information
Hot rodders and street rodders think the 305 4 bbl. in the worst engine ever made LOL

Also depends if you have the right car, and where you race.
The 71-72 Nova is de-factored down to 165...It's a Q,R,T car

Can't be all that bad, if you are a hands on guy.

If not , probably not the combo for you.

I will agree totally, if you fully embrace the slow, where you race and the type of car can be everything without spending a fistful of dollars. You can go low altitude and fly for the same combo (8 10's under, then take it to just a thousand ft higher, and barely run under the index). But, hands on, and willing to put in the hard work it can be rewarding.

Just starting the hard climb here of just ordering the parts to take an old EFI 80's Era car from the dark ages of locked up ECM/PM (pretty much non-tunable), into the 2024 higher tech, tunable Era, and get it right without taking it out to an expert to pay a fortune to wire it all up takes a ton of money and time, but the learning is also fun if you have the time to learn. And I would not have it any other way right now. The mission, to the means to the end, is half the fun of getting there!

My plan though, includes a (plan B), way to within a few hours (should a failure happen without a slew of spare electronics), to be able to rewire it right back to where it is right now, at the track if necessary & overnight.

With all the above opinions running from a great combo, to a lousy combo, sometimes success is in the hands of the holder like Paul and Yac said, knowledge and hands on, blaze your own trail, and find a way to succeed.

As late as March I thought I had the worst combo available under the sun, then I embraced the slow fully, after experimenting a bunch, and just found out what improvements it really needs, and though a bit expensive these days, with a bunch of hard work, some of the expense can be minimixed.

Give me a do over, and the old days and I would choose a carbed combo any day, and solve my current issues with a simple expertly put together jetting kit, and a 1 day track rental. But, that just isn't what I chose to compete with.

Whatever you choose it is a challenge, just embrace the challenge, as there are no magic bullets.

[Henrys Toy]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

Depends where you read your information
Hot rodders and street rodders think the 305 4 bbl. in the worst engine ever made LOL

Also depends if you have the right car, and where you race.
The 71-72 Nova is de-factored down to 165...It's a Q,R,T car

Can't be all that bad, if you are a hands on guy.

If not , probably not the combo for you.

Good morning Mark and to all,
At 165 HP that could be do-able. Problem today is going to be able to find engine parts like heads, blocks and intakes. That engine has small intake runners and intake valve. The venturi size isn't that far off for the engine that size. The later 305 Two barrel runs pretty well when someone that has an understanding of the combination goes to work on it. In the past I've found the 307 blocks to be pretty thick cylinder walls, and better late model oiling system. I used those blocks in 287 and 292 SB Modified engines a long time ago. Since it's not factored to death that might be a good combo to work with and mature.
Just my humble opinion.

Respectfully,
Henry Kunz 1534 H/SA

[Billy Nees]

Well, I guess it all depends on what you're looking for. 1.30 under ain't gonna happen. Not unless NHRA decides to give it a "gift" kinda' like the 302 FFFFords got.
It's a good, dependable combo and it's consistant. If you were looking for something to Bracket race and run some Combo races and an occasional Div. race, it will be fine.
I've gone .80+ under with mine in real good air. Oh, that's with a PG. A good metric would definitely step it up.

[Billy Nees]

Ya know, the best 307 combo would be a 71-72 Camaro. It fits U at 168 HP.

[greatinspirational]

Thanks gentlemen

Im actually talking about the

1973 - 307 Nova

They have it at 195 HP

That has it falling in P/SA which has a 13.45 index and this ex Jim McDonald Nova hasnt even made a 13 second pass even with good parts in it. When he ran it it was a T/SA. I asked NHRA if the 195 is a misprint because its ludicrous to have this car factored to 195

Apparently it happened on 9/27/01

Does anyone know who it was that got the combo hit that hard ?

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by greatinspirational

Thanks gentlemen

Im actually talking about the

1973 - 307 Nova

They have it at 195 HP

That has it falling in P/SA which has a 13.45 index and this ex Jim McDonald Nova hasnt even made a 13 second pass even with good parts in it. When he ran it it was a T/SA. I asked NHRA if the 195 is a misprint because its ludicrous to have this car factored to 195

Apparently it happened on 9/27/01

Does anyone know who it was that got the combo hit that hard ?

Not exactly the way it all went down..
The original 307 was at 200 hp
The 73 is actually showing the de-factored (SS) rating of 195 ,only .
All other years have S and SS split ,with lower ratings for Stock, in most cases
The 73 supposedly has a tad less compression but I don't see it as correct, in actuality.
The case could be made for the 73 to be a few hp less than Billy's 165 rating
But good luck .There are entities involved are going to make this a lot more difficult than it should be.
Are you an NHRA member with a Stock permanent number? You might be able to clear this up somewhat, by next year.
Meanwhile, I wouldn't spend a dime on that combo.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by greatinspirational

Thanks gentlemen

Im actually talking about the

1973 - 307 Nova

They have it at 195 HP

That has it falling in P/SA which has a 13.45 index and this ex Jim McDonald Nova hasnt even made a 13 second pass even with good parts in it. When he ran it it was a T/SA. I asked NHRA if the 195 is a misprint because its ludicrous to have this car factored to 195

Apparently it happened on 9/27/01

Does anyone know who it was that got the combo hit that hard ?

I believe that I've had my hands on this car at some point in time. The 73 307 is the absolute worst of all the 307s. It's the only one that has to use a 350 (993) head with big valves and big intake runners. Everything that a small carb, low RPM combo definitely doesn't need.
Best option? IMHO, run the 350 2V combo at 224 HP. It's not as good as the 69/70 2V deal but it uses the same head (993) and the 1.250v carb. I remember this car being a hatch? It would fit M/N/O.

[lewis Becker]

also easy to maintain during winter storage!