I have a 1982 Z28 camaro with a 305 that needs some serious help. Since a friend and I are looking to build a side by side dune buggy on a sbc platform, and I found an almost complete 350 for under 200 bucks, Ive decided to swap up to the 350 and tune up the 305 later. I'm planning on borring her .030 over as the cylinder walls would need a .010 over anyway due to a little bit of surface rust. This will be my very first V-8 motor rebuild and I always hear you need to pick the cam and build from there. So I guess my main questions would be

1. What cam(s) should I be looking at for a nice street build
2. How well with the stock crankshaft and rods hold up
3. Is there anything I should know or sort out ahead of time to make this build go smoothly?

Thanks for any and all advice

 

You need to decide if you want a hydraulic cam or solid cam. The solid needs periodic adjustment and typically you can get more out of them than the hydraulic. The hydraulics are set it and forget it.

Personally, I look at what I want to do with a motor when building one. Do I want to focus on an RPM range for power? Do I want to focus on low end torque? Do I want to have something I can redline? There are a bunch of questions you should ask outside of just "what cam should I use?" These questions will dictate where you should go with even just a cam!

If you want a decent motor build (300-400hp), you can take that 350 + about 1500 dollars and get there without too much of an issue. I assume you plan on boring it yourself? Personally, I would just pony up the extra 1000 and have the machine shop do all that work. In addition, have them port, polish, balance everything for you. That's a gain of anywhere from 30-60+ hps and it should be done to maximize air and fuel flow. You will also get a small boost in low end torque. You will also have a very smooth idling engine which is always impressive in my book.

Stock crank would be fine. The 350 can handle a 400 crank - making it a 383 stroker, but then you have to be careful of the chamber size of the heads. Too small and you will have pistons smashing into valves and that's never a good thing. If you are going with stock heads, then a 400 crank would be fine so long as you don't use dome top pistons (though I don't see a reason why you would with stock heads anyways). No need to go forged if this is just a tool around "i am going to hobby with this car" setup. Forged is great for anything over 500 hps or if you are considering turbo or supercharged.

Then the cam - don't over cam, but don't under cam either. Choose something that suits your RPM range for power. Typically for a std 350 street car with 400 hps or less, something that kicks in at 2000 RPM to 2800 RPM is good. Anything outside of that you are going to be fiddling with getting it timed right, rough idle, low vacuum, and possibly overheating issues from not having it timed right, the advance set right, etc.

I'd start with something like this

Isky Racing Cams 201272-282 - Isky Hydraulic Roller Tappet Camshafts - Overview - SummitRacing.com

and work from there.

Bascially what you can do is call around to local engine machine shops and see what they charge for the work to work the motor to perfection. Add new bearings all around for the crank and cam, new cam, pistons, gaskets and seals, new lifters, new push rods, and if you have some extra dough after that, look into MSD ignition and possibly an upgrade in carb (if you are working with a carb motor). Then, take the list to say summitt tech support hotline and ask them. Call local street shops and see what they have to say. Maybe they know of a better working combo that they have had experience with and give you some advice. Always ask LOTS of questions, and don't be afraid to ask "what did you put in your motor?"