My wife and i bought an 88 camaro t-top with a v6 for $250.00. I had a 350 4 bolt main out of a van give to me. I have read other threads and have an idea of what i need to do to convert from v6 to v8. We want to build a mild to moderate street/strip car on kinda a low budget. My question is this. What would be a good cam for the 350 that would work well with vortec heads? I can get a comp cam 12-206-2 from my local o'reilly for around $75. Any other proformance sugestions would be appriciated.

 

You'll have to give us a little more info on the motor. What intake are you gonna use? what compression will it be running?
Also, what gears are you going to use in the rear end?
That cam is a good cam for a mild build, you can go a bit bigger without much worry though. BUT, that all depends on the rest of the motor...

 

I would like to use an edelbrock proformer vortec or the summit equivalent. I'm not sure what kind of compression i want to run. I'd like good performance in the idle to 5500 or 6000 range but don't want to have to run racing fuel to drive the car. I havn't given much thought about the rear end. I want something that will be good for street/strip without getting 5 miles to the gallon.

 

Are you going to build the motor up, or are you just going to swap the heads and top end? With stock pistons and 64cc heads you'll be somewhere in between 9.0-9.5 compression, so you would be good with pump gas... Vortecs on that set up with that cam will probably give you between 315-330 horses is my guess. You can go a bit bigger with the cam and still not be too bad with an overdrive tranny. You can step up to the 268* High Energy cam and still be a streetable car without killing too much mpg, and you'll get a bit more power out of it.
If you plan to do a complete rebuild, you'll probably end up with close to the same thing it'll just be fresher. Possibly a little bit more compression depending.

 

I want to put new pistons but not nothing too fancy. I'll be running a manual trans so a bigger cam won't be a problem. If i go with a bigger cam will i need to change the stock lifters. I had thought about roller cam and lifters but if there isn't too much difference i'll stay with regular hydraulic due to the price difference. I may be dreaming but i'd like to get around 400 horses.

 

You have to replace the lifters ANY time you get a new cam, unless it's a roller cam. The flat tappet cams are not made to be used with any lifters except the ones that are worn to it.
If you want 400 horses, you WILL be sacrificing low end driveability and mpgs. You'll have to get a nice cam to make 400 horses in a 350 with 9.5 compression and a 750cfm carb. Check out Comp Cams Extreme Energy .490 lift cam, that should give you good mid-range and close to what power you're looking for.

 

does anyone have any idea about how many mpg i'd get with 400 horses? i know noone can be exact.

 

Depends on how you drive it. you could get as low as like 8mpg in the city if you drive like a nut. With a 400horse 350 on the highway with an overdrive, probably between... 13-18mpg? hard to really say..... you're not gonna be the most economical car on the road I guarantee that

 

If i wanted economical i'd get a metro. But i would like to pass at least one or three gas stations before having to fill up again

 

lol, that's the spirit
With your set up your best bet at about 9.5 compression and vortec heads with a 750 carb, I would go with the Extreme Energy cam I mentioned earlier... I think it'll give you 95% of what you're lookin for.