well found out today that the LO3 in my parts car has a blown head gasket so i decided to talk to my friend and he is gonna sell me a 350 out of a 1997 chevy pickup thats been sitting since pulled...what are the pros and cons of this motor and how much hp do u think i will see and whats a good edelbrock carb and intake option to give me some tire shredding hp...plus im wondering what would also be a good cam...but the engine is gonna be stock for now...and im just corious if its gonna haul a$$ in my car with a 700 r4 behind it...plus i have one wheel peel.


thank you !

nick

 

Good heads, poor valve springs, limited valve lift without modification, roller lifter, decent shortblock, stock EFI is weak performance-wise (but you talked about carb, anyway).

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "good edelbrock carb". Intake depends upon the cam you end up putting in it. If you have the heads modified to take "normal" SBC springs and cut the intake guides down to accept positive-type stem seals (a one-step operation by a competent machine shop), you can run a decent cam that will take advantage of an RPM Vortec intake. A roller version of a Comp XE27x-ish cam would certainly do all that. If you don't want to pull the heads, you're limited to about .450" lift - just stick with the XE series cam. But for sure change the valve springs.

TH700R-4 isn't a big deal, but a higher stall converter would make it all come together.

 

is there any heads i could get like lt1 heads or ls1 heads?

 

There's nothing wrong with the heads on the motor, they're the Vortec heads, just swap the springs, and if you put a cam in, don't go overboard on the lift.

 

Yes.
No.


But, like said, there's no reason to try to improve that which is already very good.