Through some horse trading I have landed a good running chevy 350 for my project (36 chevrolet pick up). Basically I have a long block plus or minus a few parts. Specifics about the motor: From the casting and ID numbers I know that it is 350 made in Flint Michigan on March 10th 1975. It is a 165 horsepower 4 barrel motor that came from a 76 suburban. It has the 333882 heads on it. I heard it run and drove it in the suburban and it fired right up and performed fine. I need to purchase the following parts to use it in my project: Distributor Carb water pump plugs and wires exhaust manifolds rebuild kit Money is tight right now, but in the future I plan to upgrade the heads and top end to produce 400 horses using an edelbrock top end kit. I believe the kit I want uses a 650 carb to achieve those figures My question is this: Knowing that I plan to take it to a 400 horse motor down the road, where should I spend the money to upgrade (over stock replacement) the parts I need now? Thanks for any help you can give me
Your first major purchase should be at 7-11. Buy a slurpee and an issue of car craft. Read it. Then, before you buy anything else, drop the block and crank off at a local machine shop. God only knows what that engine has done since Gerald Ford took office. While you're there, find the recycle bin out back. This is where you will place the 882 heads.
Thanks for the reply but you missed the whole point. I originally said I plan to replace the heads in the future, I was asking what you would upgrade over stock of the parts I listed, if you knew that down the road you would be replacing the entire top end with new heads, cam, and intake.
Don't be discouraged littlered, You will get some good answers here, just gotta put up with the bullshit cowboys first , especially when you are new.. Your question is a very valid one. Many experts here will actually understand your question and give you some good info. Cheers.......
if you are happy with how it ran before, get the other stuff you need, put it in and drive it. You will get a feel for you project and then you can make your changes as you see fit.
I need to purchase the following parts to use it in my project: Distributor Carb water pump plugs and wires exhaust manifolds rebuild kit Money is tight right now, Why do you need these parts now? did you not get all of them with the engine? If you did get all of these parts then just install it in your project for now and save your money for performance parts for later?
Great question! I did not get any of those parts or I would run it in that configuration. Honestly I am planning on headers instead of manifolds. My main issue regards the remaining parts. I am torn between buying what I would run with the new top end or replacing what is missing in stock form. The carb I was thinking of going with a new edelbrock 650 with an electric choke rather then sourcing a Q-jet since there is not much price difference by the time I buy a used one and rebuild it. Thanks for any suggestions!
For your proposed plan I would concentrate on building a sound foundation for the "motor of the future". Don't skimp on good machine work, especially when it comes to block prep. Many will say I'm wrong, but forged pistons are an unnecessary expense at this power level. Keith Black hyperutectic flat tops are what I would use. These will last a good long time in a 5800 rpm street motor. The 883 casting heads ain't the world's best hot rod heads, if you're gonna use 'em any way just go for a standard valve job. Go ahead and buy and use the cam guy's reccomended springs. The regular old GM HEI distributor will get you where you want to go. I would call Lunatti or who ever you like and ask for a cam reccomendation. Buy what ever will be the most cam for what you have and hope that it will be enough for what you want in the future. A stock cast iron 4 bbl intake and a Edelbrock 600 cfm carb. You may find yourself happy enough with what you get that you live with it a long time.
If it was me in your shoes, I would just hit craigslist or your local pull a part type place and just get it running and in your project. As for the edelbrock top end kit down the road, Don't waste you money. By the time you build the bottom end to handle all that new stuff you'll be better off buying a crate engine. You can get a yearone power crate 350 making 400/400 for 3k and it comes with a warranty. Just my .02. I would buy a good gasket kit for the 350 you have and a good 1 piece rubber oilpan gasket. Oil leaks suck! Good luck with you ride and engine.
I would try to find a deal on better flowing cast iron heads, if you don't want to spend the money on aluminum aftermarket ones now. Then I would get some good valve springs and roller rockers, 1.6 ratio. maybe a mild performance cam and lifters kit. Aluminum intake (edelbrocks are less than 150 bucks new at autozone) and 600 or so cfm carb. Headers are an awesome upgrade to any motor.
Just a wannabe BS Cowboy havin a bit of fun with ya Red And I think you're on the right track with an Edelbrock top end kit. The parts work well with each other, and are pretty reasonable. There is a lot of value in a crate motor, but its all about puttin' together your own right? I guess my advise would be to leave a good running stock engine alone until you have all your parts ready to start from scratch. You don't want to re-use the old heads on a newly machined bottom end, and you don't want to put flashy brand-name aluminum heads on an old tired bottom. As far as accessories and ignition, the other guys here are right. Stock replacements with good gaskets and wires. But seriously, there is a wealth of good small block information in old magazine back issues
And if money is indeed that tight, don't look past some good ol vortec heads. A NEW pair will easily produce 400 horses at a price that makes machine work on an old pair seem silly. (hence the dumpster comment for the 882s)
As noted above....unless you have clearance issues....forget headers...good ram heads with a good flowing exhaust will do quite well...and most likely better than headers...unless you plan to race it, headers are more show than go for a normal street setup... Dist....HEI.... For now...keep it simple....because if you want to go to 400 horses....just about anything you do now will get tossed. By now you should have already had a couple of slurpee's...
Man, you don't know history much do ya???? It was Jimmy Carter that took over in '76! Same year I got my drivers license... Damn, I'm old!
Never claimed to be a history buff on things not concerning an internal combustion engine.... But I was going off of the 75 build date of the motor... I'm pretty sure that Carter ran and was elected in 76 and took office in 77
Just put the engine in your car, put in a 2 1/2" Flowmaster and tell everyone that you are making 400+ HP. I can't believe all the guys that tell me this yet their car can't even break the tires loose. 400 HP out of a 350 is not as easy as one might think on pump gas. The newer crate engines use roller cams, great flowing aluminum heads and not Edelbrock carbs. I run a true 420 HP Pontiac engine and added 150 shot of Nitrous for about 550 true HP. The nitrous kit is not set up perfectly. To make this power, your compression will be close to the limit of pump gas, you will need a big cam and you will also need great flowing heads and a carb that is at least 750 CFM. After you do all this, you now will be making good HP but thats not all . If you build the power with small cubes, then you bring the power level up in the RPM band. Now you need gearing and a good stall of at least 3,000 to utilize the power or your car. So until you can afford to build the engine/ driveline better, I would wait till you can put most all of these together. Also for the price of Forged pistons over Keith Black hyperutectic pistons, go for the forged. Oh and do you really think you need 400 HP in a 1936 Pick up? I think you will be frying tires and won't be able to hook even with 300 HP in such a light truck. My car with 420 HP and 3810 lbs with MT ET drag radials, cal tracks and all weight transfer, I still have a very hard time hooking up. Check out this video. http://www.youtube.com/sixt8bird#p/a/u/0/6dTfMAH9UL8 Its a movie my car is in and at 20 mph, if I floor it, I fry tires. At the track with all the VHT track bite and the best Darg dradial tires, I still have a hard time with traction but when I do hook up I do 1.60 60 ft times. So I guess my whole writing of this is, 400 HP will be way more than the 1936 will be able to utilze unless you decide to pro-street it but then this forum wouldn't fit.
good thing about sbc all accesories interchange find you an old chevy with v8 sitting around buy it get parts you need off sale/scrap whats left get your money back.you will be amazed at parts you will accumilate with no money in the end.also keep cash in pocket always run across great deals just asking people if they would sale parts setting around.if your having a hard time coming up with money for these parts 400 hp is a long ways .get it running enjoy it then gradually upgrade.
You are dead on Rabid. With Edelbrock performer top half and a lot of cam, 400 is theoretically achievable, but not very likely. And all but impossible for a budget build... Perhaps an unrealistically lofty goal for a first-timer.
I was looking at these short headers, http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PTE-H8036/. Clearance is going to be tight for steering etc and I am running full fenders and a hood. I liked that they basically took up approximately the same amount of space as the stock exhaust manifold but moved the collector to the rear and look like they would flow better and mimic designs like I have seen on better flowing exhaust manifolds. Thoughts on them?
Yeah, I know those heads are bad. I assume you are referencing these heads, http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-25534351/ I have been reading and researching for several years and several magazines. I have done several builds before but I have never built a performance motor. I have always done stock rebuilds so I am trying to avoid a misstep, which is why I asked the question. Thanks for the help!
Thanks for the advice! I assumed 400 horse would not be likely given my constraints, but I figured if I aimed for it then I could get to at least 300 ft lbs of torque which should roast my tires quite nicely! I do not want to pro street it in any way and I have no plans to race it but I do want it to perform. I plan to run a 8 inch wide rear wheel but am undecided on the final tire size. Ideally I want to make good power in the 2500 to 4500 rpm range as that is where I will spend the bulk of my time driving on the road.
My car puts out 472ft lbs of torque at the rear wheels with non ported 43 year old valve heads. Not bad for a cheap Pontiac 400 engine. You could always give up on the 350 and go with Pontiac torque!! LOL!! How about aq stroker kit for Chevy 350s? They have to be pretty cheap?
I built a 350 a few years back & was quite pleased with the performance. Like they said, don't skimp on good machine work. Have the block decked and line honed. I had to go .60 over which they usually say not to do because of overheating problems - I never had any overheating problems in the 55 chevy it was in. I just ran a desert cooler radiator (4 core). I have always been happy with the CompCams valvetrain and Rhodes lifters. I also like to use multi-carb engines and have yet to go wrong with the Edelbrock carbs and dual quad intake. Just my 2 cents worth.
400 hundred horses is not unlikely on a budget 350. A set of Vortec 906 or 062 heads (no need for port and polish), .525 lift after market Vortec valve springs, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and cam and some high flow headers. ATop it all off with a 650 cfm carb and you should be real close. The key here is the vortec heads. These heads will flow somewhere in the neighborhood of 240IN/180EX at .500 lift. And there cheap. I got mine on craigslist for $100/pair, assembeled!
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