Your jetting isn't out of the question for a rowdy little small-block with a lot of camshaft. This would be a good baseline until you can straighten out all the other tuning parameters; 36 degrees of spark is another good baseline for your engine combination. We wouldn't increase the spark advance until you figure out your overfueling issues.
A stock HEI was never designed to keep up with your engine combination. We'd move to a Digital 6-Plus MSD Ignition Controller (PN 6520). This features launch and high-side rev limiters, a single-stage retard for nitrous use, and a start retard to ease pressure on starters, flywheels, and the engine. All the features are built in and adjustable right on the box with simple rotary switches. This will give you the spark energy you need to keep the fire lit under high cylinder pressures and clean up the idle with the multiple sparks over 20 degrees of crankshaft rotation at idle. When you install the Digital 6 you'll need to install an HEI coil (PN 8225). You can trigger this box with your HEI distributor or step up to a MSD Pro Billet Distributor (PN 85551). If you go to the MSD distributor you will want to run the Blaster HVC coil (PN 8252). This will give you a complete matching system that will light your fire.
Finally, when it comes to starters, you get what you pay for. There is nothing worse than getting late in the rounds of a race or at a cruise night with a hot starter and it won't start. There are many good mini starters on the market, but as we've said in the past, we really like the permanent magnet gear reduction starters that are factory equipment on GM vehicles. These lightweight starters are very powerful and have full support at the end of the pinion gear. For a 14-inch, 168-tooth ring gear, check out PN 9000852; for a 12 3/4-inch, 153-tooth ring gear, order PN 10455709. We've used these starters on race cars for over 13 years without failure. Remember, these have passed durability testing for over 100,000 miles. Are any of us going to put that kind of mileage on our hot rods or race cars?Sources: gmperformanceparts.com, msdignition.com, quickfueltechnology.com
Chip Shift
Q: I have a '70 Chevelle with a 383 and a TH200-R4 transmission. The trans has a B&M shift-improvement kit and a 2,200-rpm lockup converter. When the trans is manually shifted, it takes a long time for the shift to occur. It does shift firm, but late. When I was running a TH350 trans it shifted almost instantly when manually shifted. If I try to shift the TH200-R4 at the same rpm as the TH350, the engine ends up hitting the MSD rev limiter. What can be done to improve the delayed shifting of the TH200-R4?
James Workman
Mount Sterling, KY
A: You know we're going to give you a snarky response, like shift the thing earlier to keep it out of the chip! If you've been playing this game for a while you've noticed that the TH350s and TH400s shifted very positively and right when you moved the shift lever or handle. The later-model TH200-R4s and TH700-R4s have their own unique shift timing caused by a complex valve body and fluid pressure management. The earlier transmissions used a very simple governor and vacuum modulator to get throttle pressure. The later overdrive transmissions use a governor, but a cable-operated throttle pressure valve to signal load to the trans. We've never seen a quick-shifting (by the shift handle) overdrive-type transmission. The 700s seem to have a delayed 2-3 shift, and the 200s have a delayed 1-2.