Car craft dynoed the 350HO crate engine. It is rated at 330 horsepower and 380 ft lbs of torque by GM. Car craft reported that it made 348 horsepower and 388 ft lbs of torque with 1 5/8 headers and a 650CFM carb. I thought that was pretty impressive. For $2000 you can have a brand spanking new engine with a new block, new nodular iron crank, new forged rods, new cast aluminum pistons (bleh) and vortec heads and be in LS1 country.

 

that is impressive!

 

those are impressive numbers can you upgrade to a steel crank and forged pistons?

 

I dont believe so although that would be nice. I really wish that I didnt have cast pistons.

 

bah..who wants a carb?

wonder how much a tpi unit would choke the motor?

*busily piles up mini-ram money*

 

pretty impressive numbers

be nice if the engine had better pistons, but still very impressive numbers for the price.

i personaly would not go with the miniram. maybe a HSR or something.

 

me screw that high tech fuel injection junk! lol

 

Hell yes, its like golf, the lower the MPG the better .

 

Yeah, the 350 HO is deff. a sweet deal if your looking for a proven motor to just "slap in and go", and with Vortec heads and 9:1 compression it's a good base engine to bolt stuff on and improve upon (I think this is the point Car Crafts going to try and make in the next issue). But I would rather build my own and go with a fordged crank and pistons, and more compression and CAM!

 

wonder what I'm getting now. Sucks the gas down around town but on the highway it didn't seem bad at all

 

I suppose that's what they said in the article.

Not quite, I'm afraid. Little details like gross vs. net, peak vs. area under the curve, etc.

SDPC couldn't get 300 HP out of a 350HO and their Vortec TPI. With shorter/fatter runners, 58mm TB, LT4 Hot Cam (which required head upgrades), long-tube headers, they finally got up to the carb'd numbers.

 

hey, i just got 19.6 mph with my carbed 305 (too many mods too list, but it has a big cam, roller rockers and a 600cfm holley and a crappy torker II intake, enough to run 13's on 87 octane.)with 700r4 tranny and 3.73 gears.

 

I know for a fact that the 350HO is capable of running with LS1 cars. When my crate motor was completely stock it went 12.88 and 12.93 @ 106 on radial T/A tires. That was with radial tires, stamped steel rocker arms and the wrong spark plugs in the car (supposed to be .7XX reach, didnt know at the time).

 

five7 brings up a really good point on how magazines glorify everything. the 350HO, has such a flat torque curve that it has a ton of area under the curve, more than LS1. but yes, gross vs. net horsepower is forgotten.

the 350HO is dynoed with longtube headers, with facility supplied, cooling, fuel, and a filter-less air horn.

the LS1 is dynoed with all emissions equipment hooked up, along with all the accesories.

the 350HO is a great motor ( i own one) but don't let a magazine influence your buying decisions.

 

I ran my 350HO with shorty headers and a paper air cleaner, and it has beaten many an LT1 and LS1. I understand what you are saying about net vs gross horsepower though.

 

Ive been thinking about what I want to do when its time for a new engine in the 89 trans am. I thought about rebuilding the 305 tpi but am thinking the 350HO is the way to go. I cant bring my self to putting a carb in a 3rd gen and was wondering if anyone know how the Holley StealthRam MPFI System would to on the gmpp 350HO. I know its a lot more expensive than a carb but i like the looks of FI in a 3rd gen over carb and am will to pay the price.

 

Ive been thinking about what I want to do when its time for a new engine in the 89 trans am. I thought about rebuilding the 305 tpi but am thinking the 350HO is the way to go. I cant bring my self to putting a carb in a 3rd gen and was wondering if anyone know how the Holley StealthRam MPFI System would to on the gmpp 350HO. I know its a lot more expensive than a carb but i like the looks of FI in a 3rd gen over carb and am will to pay the price.

 

the stealth ram won't work with vortec heads.

SDPC sells a lower TPI base that WILL fit vortec heads, and hooks up to the rest of your TPI system, its $400

TPIS sells their miniram III that will work with vortec heads, but it is very expensive.

edelbrock sells a fuel injection setup for vortec heads, once again $$$

and GM sells their Ramjet manifold, and it is a little over $1,000 for everything needed.

the 350HO is a really good bargin for what you get.

 

What about the Accel 350 Street Ram settup, will that fit on the gmpp 350HO. If I get the right FI settup will I be able to do better than if I put on a carb. Also is this a good engine for supercharger cause that would be nice.

 

I own the engine and have decided a supercharger is not the best idea for it, mainly because it comes with cast pistons, not hypereutectic but cast. The rods and crank would be up for boost but I wouldnt trust the pistons.

You will not necessarily make more horsepower with FI than with a carb. This could be argued to death, but in every dyno test I have ever seen FI gives better low end numbers than a carb and is more efficient, but with a well dialed in carb its usually identical peak numbers.

 

I am also interested in possibly purchasing the 350HO. I have a '84 Trans Am with the stock 305 and would like to upgrade to an engine with more power. If I purchase the 350HO I will probably put a better cam in it before it goes in the car. Any recommedations for a good cam to go with this setup?

 

The comp Extreme energy 274 camshaft is PERFECT for the motor, you will need to do a few modifications to the cylinder heads but other than that its all good. PonyKiller is in the 11's with a vortec headed 350 and that camshaft, my car runs 12.4's at 110 with the 350HO, shaved heads to 10:1 compression and the 274 cam, on slicks it would have gone into the 12.1's for sure.

 

does that cam have a rough idle or what does it have?

 

the XE274, has too much vavle lift for the out of the box vortecs.

but before you put the engine in, the modifications are easy to do, to accomodate a bigger lift cam.

the heads need to come off, take them down to a machine shop, and have them cut down the valve guides, and machine them for larger diameter valve springs. they usually charge about $3 per valve so.... about $50

while you are there, you might want to have them install screw in rocker studs, but its not nessicary.

then pick up a good set of valve springs that wll handle that cam, one ones comp reccomends are about $60.

I have in my 350HO the XE268, and if wasn't worried about emissions i would have installed the XE274. and this is my DAILY driver.

The XE268 i have is very well mannered. 16-17" of vacuum @750rpm and i didn't feel any loss in low end torque over the stock 350HO cam.

the XE274 will idle about the same, but it will pull a little harder at higher RPM.

if your worried about emissions you might want to do what i did, but if you don't have emissions, i don't see any reason not to install the XE274.

 

It has a noticable idle but I would say it is a rough idle.

 

Ya I will probably end up putting the comp cams 274 cam in the 350HO. I do not have to worry about emissions since we don't have any in tests in Michigan.

 

Does anyone have a sound clip of this cam in their 350 engine, or is there a website that i can go to, to hear a sound clip of it?

 

Is there anyone else out there that would recommend a different cam for the 350 HO engine? I would like a cam with around .480 lift and a choppy, not rough idle.

 

Thats the XE274.