alright so my engine came from a 1984 corvette its a L83 350 TBI its stock horses are 205 with 290 torque(GARBAGE!) i need to know if i were to dump some cash into new internals, crank, cam, rebuild kit stuff like that if its going to be able to make the same horses as a later SBC 350 is there any difference other that maybe minor chamber size differences? if i invest in a new block and build it up from there would it be worth the 500 bucks it would cost me to find a seperate block?

 

If your asking how to make more power than the answer is simple, better heads/cam/intake all contribute to more horsepower. A different engine block certainly isn't going to help make horsepower output.

 

A 350 is a 350 - might as well keep it if thats what you have. Power is made in the heads, and the cam is a big player too. Intake and carb are just for tailoring it to suit your needs.

Spend your parts buying money on heads first - not the cool looking intake or valve covers. Good heads will get you 10x farther than the best intake out there or any carb. Spend you money on heads first, then pick a cam to match the heads and what you want the engine to do (drag racing, street/strip, daily driver?). Everything else, like the headers, carb, intake, etc... is all just for fine tuning. Heads and cam is where the power is made.

My suggestion.... have the shortblock rebuilt with good quality parts, find out what you really want to do with this engine, and be realistic (ie. dont build a 12:1 compression, solid cam, 600hp monster if you are going to drive it to work every day) and then determine what heads and camshaft you should use to get what you want from it.

Theres plenty of info on this site on building almost any kind of small block you want, and good info on most of the popular parts and combos out there as well. Lots of knowledgeable people here with lots of real world experience too, and we wouldn't be here if we didn't want to share some of our secrets

Good luck!

 

i was just curious if there was any change in the block from 84 to anything newer to make a hp difference. id probly end up getting a summit head cam and intake package and go from there. it will be a daily driver i gotta register it in another state so i can take the emissions garbage off of it. i might just find a block on craigslist just for the ease of access this is my only car currently so id have to tear into it every weekend i got new parts. the only thing im sketchy about is wiring i havent had to work with any engine rewiring. for the most part is it just matching the sensors back up along with the ignition/starter and re programming the computer?
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i actually found a solid 350 engine with a trans attached to it. it looks nice(painted block, and chrome dress up kit) i dont know whats inside of the damn thing but they only want 5-600 for the two so if i can grab that ill just dump both of them into my car at the same time and sell my current setup when im done with it. i figure even if the internals are crap id be throwing the rebuild kit into it anyways as long as the block isnt cracked ill be fine.

 

In '87, passenger cars got roller lifters. An arguable improvement, but probably not worth passing on an older, cheaper, non-roller block.

You can only "dump" that engine/transmission into your car if they came out of a 3rd gen f-body. Would need more details about what they are in order to say more.