im starting a first gen 350 build up i only wanna spend about $500-$800
on parts my goal would be in the upper 400-450ftlbs on pump gas so what would be the best parts to invest in? pistons rods good came ect.

 

What do you have so far?

If you need pistons, you're probably over your budget already with the machine work that will be required. Rods are rarely justified from a power perspective, although power handling is a different question.

If you have the typical 350 factory heads, 450 lbs-ft is a pipe dream. Again, getting something to do the job will bust your budget. A sdparts.com upgraded Vortec kit comes to mind, has everything needed to bolt the heads onto a ready shortblock, but it's about $1100 plus shipping.

Add some digits to your budget of the right size and in the right place, and you can realize your goal.

 

i have a motor and trans thats it, so shouldn't bother getting new rods? summit has a kit of hypertunic flat top pistons for 83.95 they seem like a bargin but there +6cc, i was also thikning of doing a turbo setup get one out of a junkyard rebuild it ect, would that be less of a pipe dream?

 

For turbo, 5-10x your budget.

 

so then what figures would i be looking at with that $800 budget

 

How much power an engine makes is irrelevant. How much power an engine makes in your car is what matters.

The best use of the $500-800 is to upgrade the entire exhaust on your car (and I don't even know anything about your car - you haven't said). Until you do that, 400 HP is impossible.

After that, you can consider something more under the hood. $500 would be minimum for a shortblock freshening - rings, bearings, hot-tanking. That's assuming the cylinder walls don't have excessive wear and can be deglazed without excessive piston-to-cylinder clearance. You could probably grind the crank and stay within that budget as well. For $800, you could add cam, resizing the rods, and ARP rod bolts.

Would need to know what head castings you've got in order to determine if they're worth touching. Odds are they are not. So, figure another $500-$1200 for decent heads, intake manifold, and what it takes to put it together.

With that, and a decent cam with new lifters, and a good intake manifold and carb, with the already-assumed exhaust system, 350-400 HP is easily obtained. And that assumes the rest of the drivetrain and car can handle it - not a very good assumption.

So, figure on around $2500-$3000 optimistically for getting around 400 HP, then figure on that much again to make the car able to handle it.

 

my car is a 92 firebird v6 the donor drive train is a 350 from a 86 vandura 3500 with a turbo 350 long shaft with 148k on it for the low low price of free

 

You need to really look at the entire project. For hoses, conversion parts, exhaust work, and so on you will spend your budget and still have done nothing more to the engine than replace the gaskets.

If you try to rebuild the engine just doing minimal things like using higher compression pistons and a bigger cam you will still have to shop for cheap parts and use a really cheap machine shop to hit your budget. Such engines don't tend to last though, somewhere in the mix something will be substandard and come back to haunt you. Even then, you will have a fresh engine that you can't afford to install.

With just a rebuild you could probably wrestle up no more than 350HP and 380ft-lbs. To get more you would need a better intake, and to go much more than 375HP you will have to get a descent set of heads.

Good luck.

 

yeah i did take into account for all that thats another part of the budget i just allocated 800 for the motor itself but it seems i need to go back to the drawing board, i was thinking of doing a twin turbo kit the kit is 700 and claims under full boost and 110 gas it will produce 1100 bhp so i figured run 5-8lbs of boost with the stock internals with a freshen up kit from summit should put me in that range and then i can upgrade the bottom end and go full boost but even then i would have to skimp on somthing and that would blow my over all budget of 2500
the way i had it figured out 800 for the motor 1000 for trans work (the only work i cant do myself) 200 for hoses wiring belts ect and 500 for a driveshaft if had to get one made but i was thinking of gettign a fbody tailshaft and use a 4th gen. and ill be doing all the fab work myself since i have he tools and im mechanically inclined. or is that budget unrealistic?

 

budget isn't impossible though it may be tough. If it doesnt bother you buy lightly used. Swap meets, eBay, and craigslist, are your friends.

 

You need an entirely new exhaust system. You might be able to use the van engine mounts. You'll need throttle cables, aforementioned hoses, modify the wiring.
I was under the impression the only automatic transmission available by then was the TH700. If that's what it is, that's good. But, a TH350C isn't all bad, either. The rear mount will be in a different place than the V6 transmission (not because it's a V6, but because it's a TH350), same as '82-'83 auto and 4-speed manual crossmember. Mounting the torque arm could be "interesting". The driveshaft will be the same, though.

The heads will be low flow low compression wonders. Probably not all that bad for turbo. But, I can't imagine only spending $800 to get an engine ready for a turbo.

Make sure you know exactly what you have. Heads, pistons, etc.

 

five7 it may be a Turbo 400, they were still using those in '86 in the trucks (I know the 6.2L diesels were using them for 3 speeds) ...dont' see why the vans would be different.

 

this sounds like a granade waiting to go off. put nitrous on the v6 and have fun lol...anyway, for any real power the heads gotta go, the trans wont just drop in so more money, I think you need to really decide what you want to do before you jump, and remeber if its too good to be true it probably is

 

Ah, didn't think about it being a 3500 van. So, could be a TH400 (but not likely a TH350).

 

i thought about getting a trans out of a 5.0 firebird i think they would bolt right up plus it would have the mounting bracket for the torque arm,

altho the nitrous on the v6 seems like a fun idea i dont think the motor would last to long i also thought about boosting the v6 but the v8 seems more logical