Hey guys,

friend of mine directed me to the site, I just purchased a completely gutted 87 Z for 500 bucks, hahah, motor's a 350 with an edelbrock aluminum rpm intake, holley 4 barrel 750 carb, heads have "a little work done" (which more than likely means that they might have been cleaned up a little, nothing impressive) stock cam, pistons, rear end, what really sold me on it was the transmission, summit turbo350 transmission, no ac or heat...hooker shortie headers and flowmaster 3 inch exhaust. Im kinda new to this, its my first toy, bought it because it looks like it'll be easy to work on and learn with, (considering how I can pretty much stand in the engine bay, lol.) But I wanna know, what are the cheapest, easiest starts to making this thing go faster? I've heard cam and rear gears would be a start, but my buddies are all running 5.0HO and 4.6 stangs and theyre just goin out and slappin superchargers on those things for easy horsepower. How do i start really pulling for a quick streetcar that'll break off the line nice with the carbeurated motor?

 

Welcome aboard.

There is absolutely no way to know what "stock" heads or cam really are. The factory used too many different things in "stock" engines to be able to say what is good or bad just because it is "stock".

Get the casting numbers off of the heads. You have to pull the valve covers to find them. Odds are they are 882's, which are going to hold back any improvements you want to make, even if they have had "a little work done" on them.

Until that is known, nothing else can be recommended.

 

One word SPRAY. Nitrous fixes everything, even if the motor isnt that heathy chances are a 100 or even a 150 shot wont hurt it, Just make sure your timing is setup and run high octane fuel.

 

Hmm.. well.. if your good at taking things apart and putting them back together I would say to get one of those engine rebuild kits that comes with a cam of your choice with fully assembled heads that match. If you dont want to do the work yourself just have a speed shop put it together for you. Call Jegs and tell them what you bought, see if you can get a tech to recomend a package and price quote for you, then post what they said here. Anyone here can double check the parts for you. I'd do that if I were you cause you never know who your really talking to on the phone. Here ppl have reputations and love to correct each others mistakes. lol Thirdgen is a good start to learn anything about your ride. I bought my bird for 900 dollars and used this site to research almost all of the problems that its thrown at me. And it throws a load of them... meh.. JEGS High Performance - Car, Truck, Street, and Drag Racing Performance Parts phone number is on the front page.

 

thanks for all the responses...had massive OT this week so no time to really pop the valve covers off the thing but I can say that this engine was not a TPI to Carb conversion, it isnt the original motor at all, car is originally a 305TPI i believe...he thinks its out of an early 70's chevelle...(although its more than likely out of a minivan or something, lol.)

Will see if i get time today, i'll pop those valve covers.

 

Those heads have a good chance of being good if they are off something late 60's.

 

There's an equally good chance of them being crappy, like from a '73 Chevelle.