dennis6

Buy a:
1992-93 Caprice, Fleetwood 5.7L / 350 Engine
http://www.sdpc2000.com/cart.asp?act...id=128&pid=105
then port the heads.
and add my Holley 600 vac sec and performer intake.

or

Buy a
350 2 - Bolt Main L98 Shortblock
http://www.sdpc2000.com/cart.asp?act...id=514&pid=620
add ported L98 heads
add the 49 dollar vortec roller cam
and add my Holley 600 vac sec and performer intake.

or

keep my L03
get ported 305 TPI heads
add the 49 dollar vortec cam
and add my Holley 600 vac sec and performer intake.

or
LT1 Carb setup!!??

I am ditching the TBI. It works fine, but I realise it will be a future bottleneck. I also like the clean look of a carb. I am shooting for something near 300 hp at the flexplate.

dennis6

BTW... I have the summit version of a Crane 260H cam. It is however flat tappet.

onebadwagon

plans for the car?

build a good short block, seriously. something like a nice 355, 4 bolt if you can find it, otherwise 2 bolt is just fine, the one piece rear seal makes it a little hard to find aftermarket oil pans.
take it to a good machine shop, most of them will only want 1/2 down,

torque plate bore, 200$
line hone 130$
recondition rods/crank w/ arp hardware 200$
cheap-o depot TRW forged pistons 200$ (theyre heavy, but will get the job done)


that would be my low buck shortblock, just make sure and put decent bearings and a NEW oil pump in it.

the prices i listed are the MOST ive heard of in my area.


adam

dennis6

Thanks Adam.

I don't think I want to build an engine in my apartment though.

onebadwagon

i have done it

thats what the machine shop is for, they will give it to ya, nice and assembled.


adam

dennis6

My landlord wouldn't appreciate it, nor would my back after the stairs.

Machine shop work defeats the budget build up. Might just save up for the ZZ4.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Rent a garage/storage space/workshop. Yes, I'm serious about that.

If a storage space, make sure they allow mechanical work.

I hope you realize that the TBI itself is not your real bottleneck. Heads & exhaust are. You didn't mention exhaust in any of your options, but I assume you realize that. You obviously know the heads are.

For budget purposes, your 2nd to last ain't bad (and you could keep the TBI to save even more, including down the road).

dennis6

I was planning on using hedman headers if I went a budget route. If not, I was planning on Jet Hot coated Hooker Super Comps. Sorry for not making myself clear.

I know the swirl port heads, peanut cam, and restrictive exhaust are my biggest bottle necks. The open rear end with 2.73 gears don't help much either. However, it seems to be more expensive to me to make power with TBI, it also seems more time consuming.

For a TBI setup, I would need a 150 dollar programmer, 40 dollar Eprom eraser, a decent laptop computer, decent software for the laptop, countless eproms (they only last so long),then add a nice computer friendly roller cam, aftermarket tbi intake manifold, aftermarket or ported heads, and countless hours of learning how to program the car. When compared to the simplicity of a carb and the price of carb related parts on ebay, TBI becomes only practical for gas mileage. If I was really worried about that I would have bought a geo metro.

Thankyou for the heads up on the second to last combo.