Inliners International Forums General Discussion Bench racing 12Bolt shop pic's and happenings

This is a note from a customer. 64 Biscayne 230 3 sp stick w overdrive. Stock lower end and stock camshaft. He lost 1 MPG at 75 MPH but then made it back up with another mod which he discusses.
"Tom,
I just thought I'd let you know the results of installing the 1.84
intake/Standard Rocker performance head on my 230ci 1964 Biscayne daily
driver. The install went normally in May and since then I've put 5,500
miles on the car. I have driven this car since 1970 in Kansas below 1000ft
elevation and much of that was under federal 55mph mandates. Six years
ago I brought it to the high desert of New Mexico at 6600ft elevation
and the car lost over 20% of it's already meager hp to the altitude. As
a result the car stayed in the back of the shed and driven infrequently
since it was a hindrance to normal traffic flow, especially on the
interstate at 75-80mph. The Clifford intake with 2bbl carb helped but it
still wasn't really drive-able in normal traffic flow because of low
acceleration and frequent kick-down from overdrive going up hills on the
freeway at 75.
The swap to the performance head made all the difference. It now
performs better at high altitude than when it was new in Kansas. Even though
it only has a 230ci L6 with stock cam and lifters on a 3500lb full size
family car it can now easily accelerate and merge with traffic on the
freeway and only kicks down out of overdrive above 5,500 ft on the
steepest of interstate grades. When taken back to visit family in Ks the
performance is now really stellar at the lower altitudes.
Of course fuel economy suffered a bit with the higher horse power
available but recently that has been addressed with a Carb Cheater
auto-tune kit (thecarbcheater.com) that keeps the carb tuned whether
it's just a 2000 ft altitude change on the 35 mile trip into Albuquerque
or a 6000 ft altitude change over the 700 mile trip to Ks. Of these mods
the 12 Bolt performance head made the biggest single improvement in
performance and allows this car to once again be my daily driver for
around town or long hauls on the interstate without any loss of
performance or economy.