'78 Camaro Rebuild Question
 

So I'm new to the forum and to the Chevrolet side of the track. I just reasently purchased a '78 original Auto 350 Camaro. The car is pretty clean on the outside and still running. My dad and I are going to work on the car when I get back to the states.
My question was about the Cams and Heads. I'm wanting to rebuid the motor for a street machine with a 383 stroker kit, some Street aggressive cams, and some really good heads. What Cam/Head setup would be a good pick for me?

The cam and head choice will come down to two basic factors. What do you want out of the car and what is your budget.

You are basically redesigning the motor, what do you want out of it? What RPM range? what HP/torque? what compression? What are you going to do with the car?

Once you know what you want don't come back here. If your spending the money and know what 383 kit you are getting (Piston type mainly) and what you want out of it just call a couple of head manufacture tell them the above information and they should tell you heads intake and cam that will work together for what you want. Careful of the dyno queen mentality. You can give up all you mid range HP to make your max dyno numbers higher but those gains may only be in the 6000+ RPM range. It the mistake most cars make on their first motor. They want max HP. What good is hp at 6500 RPM when you are driving on the highway at 2500 RPM and you can't pass a mini van without using a gallon of gas.

Have you thought about a LS swap? By the time you buy all the above parts you could install a LQ9 6.0 with Different Cam and tune and hit 500 hp and get 20 MPG while your doing it. That is one swap that could cost less then building a stroker and your car would be worth more when it was done. If that is not enough you can switch over to e85 and slap a turbo on it and hit 650 hp with out a lot of risk. Stock turbo Lq9's have been know to stay together for 2 or 3 season at near 1000 hp. LS 6 bolt mains for the Win! lol

I.M.O, do not spend money on your stock motor (if it is the matching number motor to the car). Just keep your engine standard and save the money and effort to buy a nice ready to install engine. If you like small block go for 383 stroker engine like Summit. You can find them less than 4K


https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...3ct1/overview/


This is only my opinion. Good luck.

Number one question is what will the car be used for? If its a fun toy then build it for that and dont worry about the gas mileage. If its a daily driver then dont build it into a race car.

Theres a LOT of good/cheap enough heads out there. Whats your budget like? If it were mine and I wasnt made out of money I'd just use the original block. Numbers matching for a '78 is one of those "who cares" sort of things. A couple of grand ish will buy you the parts to buy a nice streetable engine including machine work.