Recently I came into $1000 I can put into my car however I choose, and some new parts my father is now to ill to ever use. Looking for opinions. First thing is that ALL machine work is free. Well, is covered by my tuition to a high performance school. HP engine machining is my next class. I have new: Clevite Rod bearings, main bearings, cam bearings, pushrods, screw in studs, roller tip rockers, guideplates, Manely Race flow 1.94 & 1.6s, skirt coated Hyperu. and 383 FT pistons, ARP rod bolts, Felpro head gaskets, and other odds and ends. I have a used set of 5.7 rods that I will recondition, also a 350 4 bolt block I will machine completely. Also freshening my #083 L98 heads. I know the main item I need is a crank, cast will do for this build. (thinking $200) Misc gaskets & bolts ($50) head bolts ($50) New valve seals ($20) etc.... Now, I am debating taking my car off the road while building the motor so I can use the L98, 1 pc seal, roller cam block. That would jump the price of the cam, but Im still debating this move. I have always had solid rollers but I was thinking of just going with a cam like compcams 268H (218/.465/114) This will just be a daily driver with a little more pep. The car has SFCs but otherwise is a 100% stock dual cat car now. I was hoping to have enough $ left over to do a HSR. also within the $1000 but itll be tight, if not impossible. Or I could buy cheaper headers and a catback and keep the stock TPI. But Im leaning towards the HSR to remove the mess up top, and headers/exhaust can be done better when more funds become avaliable, whereas the HSR is good for more upgrades latter also. any thoughts/critisims? Being married = not much $$ for cars so I need to use it wisely right now

I think the comp XE268 is a good cam for a mild setup, you can easily make 350hp with that cam and good heads. You will defenetly need a new exhaust and intake setup if you want any hp. The stealth ram is a good setup. If I were you I would go ahead do the exhaust before the intake however because while the intake kills power it will still be nice and torquey down low, but the stock exhaust is going to rob you of at least 30hp throughout the hole powerband. Good Luck.

True, now that I think about it a bit more the intake wont help much with bottom end, where I drive it at anyways 99% of the time.

I would like to only do exhaust once, since on my S-10 I had combos of 3 different headers, 5 different mufflers sets. So I spent a lot more $$ than I could have if I had just done one setup and did it right.

I personally like the coated Headman 1 5/8" from ACS. I cant justify the expence of coated #2210s right now. And I see you can get a catback fairly cheap. Ground clearance comes into play though big time for me. Since I live in apartments, I go over 5 speed bumps each way, in and out!!!