I pulled the instrument panel again and figured out the problem with the tach install. I had posted to the BrickBoard and a reader pointed out that I probably forgot to plug into the circuit board. He posted a picture and sure enough, that was the problem.

Now that I have a tach I can see this car doesn’t rev very high at all. The only time it went over 3k RPM was today driving 65mph up a long hill with overdrive switched off. I see now the B230F hits peak torque of 136 lb/ft at 2750 RPM. No wonder the red block engine last so long. There’s no pressure.