Re: 400 less wot rpm
if you're running a new outdrive, you said "one of those sterndrive outdrives" did you mean a drive by sterndrive engineering? If the drive is brand new, and you mentioned it had a louder whine to it, then that is most likely robbing you of the 100-200 rpms at top end. Give the drive a 100 hours or so to wear in and you'll probably see close to your old wot rpms.<br /><br />The outdrive ratio isn't enough to cause a noticable difference. At 4400 rpms, 1.48/1.5 is 58 rpms.<br /><br />Mark has some good points but i disagree in regards to wot rpm and that they are a bolt on carb. That is one of the nice things about them, you tell holley you have a 302/305, 350/351, 454/460 and they send the right carb with the right jetting and pwr valve for that application. Once at wide open throttle or the engine making max power, it wouldn't matter what power valve is in there, it's going to be open, intake manifold vacuum = 0. If he wasn't getting close to wot, then I'd agree the pwr valve might be the culprit, but if it get's to 4000 no problem and sounds good, it's not a carb problem (necessarily). A holley will maintain the same air/fuel ratio regardless of the motor, only in regards to airflow. If the max airflow is exceeded to what the carb is capable then it'll lean out but I highly doubt this is the case here since it's still a 302. Maybe if you got the cc difference between the old and new heads and you can figure out if there's a max cfm difference of the new motor compared to the old, then you may be able to determine if a carb adjustment or change is necessary. But I still think you're just losing the power through the new outdrive, if it is new.<br /><br />forgot to mention, I just happen to have a almost brand new, in the box, holley 450cfm 4-barrel marine carb, for the 302. I bought it for a friend who never paid so I still have it. It's only been used for about 2 hours so I know it works, I have no need for it so if you or anyone's interested let me know.
