Hello I am new to the forum and wanted to say hello haha I have a 1981 camaro that I will post pics of soon I am only 17 so help from the more experienced camaro restorers is greatlyy appreciated I bought the car in decent shape had a nice foot powered motor in (no motor) I am putting in a chevy 350 and would love to go for as much pony's as I can get so tips on getting more hp pleaaasee

 

Welcome!
The 350 is a great choice. If you can give a general idea of the Camaro's use, then maybe we can give some tips on how to build the 350. Also a general budget for the build too. It's easy to get a decent motor built under $1500 if you can do the hand assembly, but you could also get $4-5,000 into it if you just turn it over to a shop to build.

 

1500 is around how much I wanna put into the motor I have like a 7 grand budget for the whole car I got all the rust out painted the engine bay there is no interior but I bought carpet and racing seats and I am planning on building the dash center console door panels out of fiberglass and vinyl wrapping them but yeah 1500 on the motor most likely maybe a little bit more

 

Ok, for $1500 you will need to do all the assembly and disassembly. You'll also need to buy an engine kit, as that's the cheapest way to go for a total build. Don't buy anything until it's at a machine shop and they can tell you if it needs boring, and if the crank needs to be turned. You'll need to keep the stock crank at that budget, but that's not a bad thing.
If you have to have it bored, crank turned, block align bored, and heads done, you'll end up around $700-$800 in machine work. Don't worry about any balancing, or special work hi tech macine work, as you wont have that in your budget for a modest build.
If you can find a good set of Vortec heads you would be money well spent, as they will give more power cheaper than buying other heads, and possibly about the same as rebuilding your's.
A engine kit with a good set of hypertectic pistons will only run you around $220 at Summit. A cam kit will run around $125 for an Edelbrock Performer Plus, and around $170 for a Performer RPM. If you go for the Vortec heads you'll need an intake for them also, as they wont use regular 350 intakes.
I'd also go for a inexpensive set of headers to finish it off, and a good carb, if you don't already have one. Might go a bit over $1500 depending on what you presently have, or what you might find new or used for intakes.
Hope this helps.

 

This helped a lot I don't know anything about the motor yet I pick it up tomorow I'm so excitedi am buying it off the automotive teacher at my school it only has 4k miles on it so its fresh and new haha I don't want the bright orange though so I am thing black wit chrome and purple valve covers I like black and purple on cars haha I am sort of thinking about supercharging it though and I know nothing about regearing the rear axle I know the car had an original 305 but the guy I bought it off had a 350 in it but just stock no performance parts so if i. Do supercharge and switch to performance parts will I also have to regear the axle?

 

If the motor is fresh, then disregard the rebuild info. Could have saved a lot of typing if I'd known that!
I'd wait until you get it and ask him what all it has in it already, then we can help spend your $1500 more wisely. (or more of it!)

 

Alright sorry about wasting yur time on the typing ill repost tmro once I get the motor and tlk to him about it

 

Not a problem. Looking forward to hearing more about the project!

 

haha I'm sure ill be asking plenty more questions I read the other posts and you reaaalllyy know what yur talking about haha