Technical Cleaning up a old 350 sbc

im planning on building a better motor later, after I get everything figured out and the body work on the car done.

 

the letter in the VIN you're looking for is not on the engine, it's on the car it came from.

 

car is nonexistent lol, anyway to figure out if that 100 dollar cam and timing chain will fit my motor?

 

I think you can swap them over without any trouble....they used flat tappet cams in the truck motors those years, same block.

 

Any tips for picking the right cam shaft for my motor? sorry for so many questions.

 

The cam needs to match the vehicle, and it's intended RPM range. If you are using a stock transmission and gearing, then a stock or almost stock cam is right. If you are adding a high stall torque converter, steeper rearend gears, etc and you'll be running headers, then a longer duration cam will let the engine make more power at higher rpm, and you'll have a quicker car.

So, figure out what exactly you want the car to do, then pick the right cam for that. And beware that as the cam gets "bigger", you also want to change other things in the engine to work with it...such as better flowing heads, more compression, higher rpm range intake and carb, stronger bottom end to live at the higher rpm, stiffer valve springs, etc.

 

Maybe stop a a machine shop that builds race motors. They may have a used roller cam from a recent build so no rust. I know most guys don't like used cams, but budget builds require sacrifices. I know the machine shops by me usually have a lot of "good used ****" laying around. Sometimes they are happy somebody makes use on it.

 

read this for what you can do on your own with limited mechanical experience. Then let me know if you have questions.

http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tear-down-and-inspection-is-this-still-tech-week.679583/

 

Hey so my buddy has this old chevy box van and said I can take whatever parts off it I want, I was thinking I could take the radiator, Distributor (till i get a new one) Alternator and brackets, maybe the flex plate if it will come apart. Anything else yall think I should try and grab?

 

I've done a few stock car engines on the cheap, bought most out of junk cars since I ran in a claimer cl***. We would clean up the engines more on the outside to get someone to try to claim it for $800. New paint, move over the go-fast parts from the previous engine that was too tired to use. They would last a whole season at times... or go up in a cloud of smoke, just pray we could use the camshaft again.

 

I don't know what you are planning to do with the motor, so I have no idea what parts you'll need.

 

No one can make a shopping list but you. Getting the wrong thing, forgetting something and making mistakes are all part of the experience. Good Luck