I bought a '78 Camaro earlier this month. It has a 350. I was going to build a 383 stroker out of it. I posted that info in another thread. Now I'm leaning towards just rebuilding the 350. There are a few reasons for this...money being the biggest factor, plus I'm building more of a driver then anything else.

Obviously I have to pull the engine (which actually runs pretty good), tear it down, take it to be checked. I'm going to have the cylinders bored and torque plate honed, the mains line honed and the decks trued up. I'll have the complete rotating assembly balanced.

I'm looking at a rebuild kit from Summit ($440). It comes with forged pistons (pressed pins), moly rings, bearings, gaskets, HV oil pump. Pretty much everything to assemble the engine. Scat cast crank ($190) and 4340 "I" beam rods ($212). I might as well buy these, by the time I have mine turned/resized, buy new rod bolts and have them put in I'll have just about the same money into my old parts.

World Products S/R Torquer heads, 2.02"/1.60" valves, 67cc chambers which will give me right around 9.4:1 compression.

Comp Cams Xtreme Energy hydraulic flat tappet CSXE268H-10 cam. 224/230 dur @.050", 268/280 adver. .477"/.480" valve lift with a 110° lobe sep ang. 1600-5800 RPM range.

Edelbrock Performer RPM intake. Holley 650 vacuum secondary carb.

I just put Hedman 1 5/8" full length headers and Flowmaster 2 1/2" full length exhaust system on it.

I'm going to use a TH350 with about a 2000 RPM stall converter. I'm going to use 3.42 gears. The car has 14 inch tires and wheel on it right now. I think I'm going to use them. I'll probably go with a 235/60-14 or 245/60-14 tire.

I'd like to get 325 to 350 horsepower with good street torque out of it.

What do you guys/gals think?

Thanks, NYH1!

 

sounds like a good setup

 

I'm leaning towards Summit's Vortec heads instead of the S/R Torquer heads. They flow just about the same and are a lot cheaper. I'm also leaning towards the next size smaller Comp Cams.

 

Soiunds like a pretty well set up engine, and I'd agree on going with stock 350 over a stroker for cost savings. I'd consider keeping the stock crank and rods too, as going to a aftermarket cast crank wont save anything, or be better. No reason to change rods, or rod bolts, just have the rods checked and trued for around $8 ea. At least that's what my machine shop charged.
I used the Summit rebuild kit too, and it came with TRW forged pistons, and all name brand rings and bearings. Great price, and super quality! I also went with one of Summit's cam and lifter sets, which turned out to be Crane or Competition Cams; don't recall which now. Just ordered the one that had the lift and duration I wanted, along with lifters for a super price!

 

1971BB427, I was thinking about using my crank and rods again. If I use the rods again, I was going to use ARP bolts in them. I can buy a new set of Scat rods ready to go for about $200. I'll have to compare the price difference between having mine rebuilt/resized and buying new ones. I think for what I'm going to use this engine for the stock crank and rods should work fine. It's going to come down to cost. I can get a new Scat or Eagle crank for $180 or so.

I'm looking at two different rebuild kits from Summit. One has forged pistons and will give me 9.4:1 compression, the other has hyperutectic (spelling!) and will give me right around 9.0:1 compression with 67cc chamber heads. I want to keep it as close to 9.0:1 as I can.

I'll probably pull the engine in the next month or so. I'll get the block, crank and rods checked to make sure they'll make good cores and go from there. Right now I really don't know what I have. I don't know if the engine has ever been rebuilt before or not. It's not the engine that came in the car I know that, the car came with a 305.

Thanks!

 

Sounds like an excellent choice. I personally wouldn't care if it's the engine that came with the car, as it's a better choice than the 305 anyway. Guess I'm just not that picky about originality, as performance is more my thing.

 

Oh I'm glad it came a 350 instead of a 305, actually I wish it came with a 400 lol . I was just saying that it's not the original engine, someone swapped them out. All I know about the engine is it's a 350 per the casting number. The cylinders could be .060" over and the crank could of been turned .020"/.020" already for all I know. I doubt it because it burns oil when it get warmed up. At first I thought it was just the valve seals leaking. Now I think it's more then that. It definitely need to be completely rebuilt. Hopefully it hasn't been touched yet and will make a good core!

 

Sounds like compression rings, and rebuilt or not, it might just be that they are original, or never properly seated and burn oil. Probably be just fine after a proper rebuild.

 

I did a quick plugin of the specs from your original post into Engine Analyzer and it came up with 385 hp @ 5200, 416 Tq @ 4000.

Question for you. If you are looking at buying a crank, rods & pistons, you are not far from the price of a stroker kit. Why not go for the extra power? Also, with the alum. heads you can easily run the compression higher and stay on pump gas. If you do stroke the engine do not be afraid to change to a more aggressive cam like the 280AH. The strokers are more forgiving to radical grinds.

Excellent choice of gears and converter, nice street combo.

 

My Comp Cams Desk Top Dyno 5 says my first combo makes 375 HP @ 5000 RPM, 436 FT. LBS. of Torque @ 3600 RPM. The HP #'s between both of our computer dyno's are pretty close. Our Torque #"s are within 20 FT. LBS.. The RPM's on the Torque is off a lot. Mine only measures in 500 RPM increments though.

I can get a 355 rotating assembly for $550-$600. A 383 rotating assembly cost $150 plus more. I have to make every penny count. The $150 I save there is my cam and lifter. I might reuse my crank and maybe even my rods too. I'm going to compare the price having mine rebuilt/turned/polished/resized maybe even bushed to buying brand new ones.

I can't afford aluminum heads. I think I might duplicate GMPP's 350 H.O. engine. It makes 330 HP and 380 FT. LBS. of Torque. The Vortec heads (which come on GMPP's 350 H.O. engine) I'm looking at cost $600 to $650 per pair. They're assembled read to go.

Yeah, I don't want to use any more then a 2000 RPM stall converter or any lower then 3.42 gears. I'm going to put larger anti sway bars on both the front and rear. Good road type shocks. Radial tires, either 235/60-14 or 245/60-14 all the way around. Or 235/60-15 front and 255/60-15 rear. I'll probably go with one of the 14 inch wheel set up's first. Maybe switch to the 15 inch wheels next time I need tires. No matter which tires and wheels I go with, my suspension isn't going to be set up for drag racing at all. If I get wheel hop I'll put a set of traction bars on it. Just to get rid of the wheel hop.

I'm not going to be able to put the extra power a 383 would make to the ground to effectively. I think a 350/355 would work better for what I'm look to do.