Next week, i'll be getting a free 350. it's out of a 77 chevy truck. apparently, it has a four bolt main, and burns a little oil, but runs strong. i was thinking i should get a rebuild kit and go .030 over. i need to be emissions legal, so i'll be reusing my carburetor (after a rebuild) and distributor and all the emissions stuff. do you guys think the heads on there are good? if not, can i use my heads off my 305HO?

 

from what I've heard the heads on that era motors are crap, I would port your 305 H.O. heads and bolt them on the 350, they will raise compression some but it shouldn't be to the point of having trouble.

 

also, will i need a new chip or reprogram the prom? how can i go about doing that if i need to?

 

I used everything but the heads from my HO on my 350. I used the carb, intake, exhaust, water pump, distributor. Nothing was reprogrammed either. My uncle did rebuild and tune the carb though.

Runs really good with those parts. Would probably run even better with the heads if i used them

 

are there any good aftermarket heads that will keep me smog legal, or will the 305HO heads do fine after some porting?

 

Technically, you aren't "smog-legal" with a 350 in there. But, you shouldn't have to worry about being "for all practical purposes legal".

Pro Topline and World both make good, affordable, "smog-legal" 350 heads (i.e., legal if a 350 was legal, and would get you past visual & sniffer if you can avoid saying "It's a 350" to the inspector).

 

cool, thanks for the info. as long as i can pass visual and the sniffer, i'm good.