As the long title states i want to add a good amount of horse power for a little amount of money. (close to $1000). I will be doing all the work myself with help from my friend who is a professional mechanic to help guide me along.

What im thinking of buying is :

- Used Vortec Heads from pick ur part on half off day next week for only 50+ tax for the pair. I heard i will need to get new holes drilled from a machine shop to line it up with a intake.

- Used headers on ebay or craigslist. something along the line of hooker headers for roughly 250 for the pair. Anyone have a preference of something similar in price.

- looking to get a Demon carb and intake mainfold. somewhere close to $350 plus the intake. Which demon have u guys used and found to be the best for the price and performance.

- A bigger cam not sure on brands or anything let me know what u guys like (mechanic told me he can find some for close to 150)

Thats all i can think of for now, please any advise in my price range would be great. I was told this would overall HP gain of around 90-120. what do u guys think.

 

You have to buy a Vortec specific intake manifold. There is no "drilling to make it work" since the head runners are taller, so a conventional intake manifold won't cover it.
You're going to need some machine work done on the heads to allow for more clearance that you're going to need because of the higher lift cam. And with a new cam, you also have to buy new lifters. I think you already well exceeded your budget.

 

You will need a used/new intake. Ebay $100-135 take your time looking. If you use the EX-268 with the 1.5 rockers you can just get buy with the factory springs. If you want you can have them machined for the Z-28 springs and go from their. Used headers should be no problem and easy to find. For the carb a new edelbrock or a holly street avenger will work just fine. If you have the motor out I would also get a set of new rods and main bearings with a new timing chain. Easly done for under you limit and close to 375-400hp. easly.

 

yeah i just found out about the intake manifold but i found one for 150. And i forgot to include lifters in my first post but yeah i do know i need them. and i have read that as long as i dont go over .480 on the cam i dont have to machine the heads. i read on multiple forums is this true and also i know nothing about cam sizes yet is .480 gonna produce alot more hp than stock? Any advise on a good cam to go with the vortecs? From the looks of everything im still about 100-200 under budget still.

YAV8- I have an edelbrock performer carb 600 CFM already will that be good enough.

Oh and im doing it with the motor in. So without changing new rods and main bearings with a new timing chain. how much horse power do you think ill be pushing.

 

The 600 carb is a good choice. If you get the EX-268 as a kit the lifter come with it. The idea of pulling the motor to install the rods and mains is to be sure it will survive the pounding it will receive from the new found parts. Its very cheap insurance for a longer motor life. If you spin a bearing the motor will need to come out anyway. Some people find that out the hard way when they are driving over parts.

 

If your current engine has a good amount of miles on it, and you take it apart far enough to replace the bearings, the crank will then be out which means you'll want to take it in to get polished at the very least, or ground down for undersized bearings at the most. Once you're at that point, removing the pistons to give it a ring job is just a half step away. If you get bearing deep into an engine with miles (worn), you'd be an absolute fool to slap it back together (halfass job) without taking it all apart and checking everything over. Be careful about what can of worms you open. A $1,000 accessory project could turn into a costlier rebuild. But that's only if you want an engine that's put together right, and made to last.

 

Ditto with what's been said already. Just so far apart to do cam/lifters, and heads, yet not pull the engine to check rings and bearings. Unless you know the engine is a very good one, with low miles, you're rolling the dice and may end up regretting it.
The heads for $50 on half price day are a bargain, but you'll still need to have them looked over, or you wont know if you got good heads, or bad. At the very least I'd do a leakdown test on the heads by filling the chambers with gas while sitting the heads upsidedown, and see if the valves are seated well enough to hold the fuel overnight. If you check them the next day, and any chamber is empty, you need to have them gone through. I'd also put new valve guide seals into the heads before installing them, even if the valves check good. They're cheap, and old dried ones will cause your engine to smoke and use oil.
Vortec heads limit what intake choices you have, so the used market is small for aftermarket used. You can find a few cheap ones on Ebay, and I'd stick with the 600cfm carb, if it's in good shape. It's fine, and will save your budget a big hit.
The EX 268 is a great cam, but if the budget is tight a Summit/Crane cam is pretty cheap. Summit sells their own Summit brand cams that are Crane cams in a plain box. They have some good grinds available, and well under the $150 you budgeted for cam/lifters. The SUM-K00172 is $134, and is a 274/274 with .450" lift, using 1.5 rockers, and works well in a mildly built 350.
Lots of good header choices that will be less than $250, even for new. Since you're not building a drag car, and wont be running open headers, any header will give you more power than the stock exhaust manifolds. Put a decent full dual setup behind headers, and it will be even better. Put the headers on with a restrictive stock exhaust, and none of them will work well.
If the budget is tight, and you can't build it well, then I'd save up a little more until I could. Otherwise you may toss $1,000 into it, and do it later again.

 

The motor only has 60,000 miles. Later on down the line when i can save more money i plan on rebuilding the whole block from top to bottom, so as long as this lasts 10,000 miles im ok. would be a bonus if it lasts forever longer but yeah you get the idea.

Thanks for all the help with the cam help but can you guys explain exactly what each number represents. (274/274 .450) sorry im still learning.

I had planned on after i get the heads taking them to a machine shop to see if any machining is needed and if the heads are in top notch condition.

 

Also do you guys no anything about these headers from summit? or are they cheapies

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ho...t/model/camaro

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hok-2451-1hkr