you say there's nothing wrong with the motor? then this is exactly what i would do and if you have the money, do it all at once.

long tube headers, y pipe, catback of your choice
i'd put some gears, probably a 3:42 or 3:73
a higher stall torque converter

then the real fun begins. you have a whole mess of options to do engine-wise. if it were me, i wouldn't even pull that engine right now. i'd leave the bottom end completely stock and throw heads and a cam at it. as i mentioned before, advanced induction and lloyd elliott would step in here and spec a cam and heads to match your goals. i've seen both of their heads and cam packages reach 430rwhp on the stock bottom end.

then if you end up blowing up the motor later, those heads and cam will work very well in a 355 as well. that's what i'd do if it were me...but its up to you bro!

 

But wait wouldnt it cost alot just to take out the motor and install the Longtubes and new cam and heads anyway? I was thinking of doing that but I was like might as well go big or go home while I have the motor out cuz I can gain a crap load of horsepower if I build the motor from the bottom end and up

 

dont have to take the motor out to do those things. need to take the radiator out and move the a/c condenser to the side a bit to do the cam.

 

Oh really? what about the headers and everything?

if thats the case then i wonder how much lloyd elliot would charge to port the heads on mine... obviously everything would work with the bottom end I have and another thing is would the bottom end be safe getting high up there in mileage?

 

130k isn't too bad of mileage really. and if it can't handle it, then you're doing a rebuild anyway. there really isn't too much more HP to be had from a 350 to a 355. you make the power in the top end(heads, cam)...the bottom end just holds it together better and adjusts your torque and HP curves

www.elliottsportworks.com
visit his site, you will probably be looking more into the range of his LE2 package

 

once u get the heads out of the way the headers will go in.

 

Oh ok so basically I should do this for now and just work on a LT1 build in the mean time?

Also would it be wise to get gears and a stall while im at it?

 

K Thanks man... and everyone thanks a lot for your time... ill probably need some more advice as soon as I get the heads and cam done

 

and yes...you should ABSOLUTELY do gears and a stall...most cams expect you to already have gears and a stall

 

im gonna call lloyd elliots right now... um as far this issue when my tranny goes from 1st to 2nd it makes this weird kick out noise as if someone is kicking my floor board from the tranny area and sometimes its sounds like its by the axle... I wonder if I should just do a new rear end like a 12 bolt or ford 9 inch with the gears and get a kit for my tranny to beef it up a bit to handle the power