At 11:26 AM 3/9/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>3. My friends nagged me and nagged me for a long time, so I told them it
>would be a 1 time deal, I stomped the gas (no powerbraking etc, just pure
>muscle) and my 74 imp laid rubber for 1/2 block. I was just wondering if
>this was normal power you would expect from that year of car?
Nathan, I do not own a 74, but according to road tests I have read, the
later Imperials had considerably less torque than the late 60's 440s with
the higher compression ratio. The 74 Imperial has I believe a 3.23 gear
ratio. which will help in the rubber burning department (60's cars had
2.94), but even with the lower ratio, low speed acceleration still
suffered. The following could be happening with your car: A) You may have
too small tires that is too easy to loose traction (right size is
235/75). B) You may have an even lower gear ratio that what was installed
by the factory. You could try to find the tag, but ultimately, you will
have to disassemble the gears and count teeth to know for sure (there is
another way that you may be able to roughly estimate your gear ratio,
e-mail me separately and I will explain if you want to know). Finally, you
might have an earlier model year engine with the higher compression ratio,
or your engine could have been rebuilt with higher compression
pistons/heads. You can look in the serial number of the engine behind the
AC compressor. If it starts with E440 for example, its a 69 engine. F440
would be 70, etc
D^2, 2x68
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