(When i get the money). Should I spend my money building up the engine i have now or use the money to swap in an lt1 or ls1? The engine i have now is a 350, outta an 87-89 c-10(originally fuel injected), 462624 heads(probably outta the same truck lol), edelbrock 600cfm carb, mild cam (unknown specs). The car feels powerful but not very fast, and the trans is starting to slip (so thats not helping). So should i spend money on this engine, if so on what? Or buying another engine to swap into it? (planning on getting a nice amount of money next year). but honestly with as little as i know about cars it'd probably just be cheaper to buy a thirdgen thats already been built up (not that im not learning).
Matt

 

The best bang for the least buck would be to get you about $895 together, go to www.competitionproducts.com and get a new pair of aluminum Patriot heads, assembled, 64cc. This'll shave 50 pounds, and net you at least 50 horses.
What cam do you have? The truck cam?
Get the GM "HOT" cam, after you get the above heads, and find at least another 50 horses.
You do have aftermarket intake manifold, right? Headers and 3" cat-back?
If not, do these with the heads.
With all of this, you should have 420+ HP around 6000 rpm and 430+ ft-lbs. around 4000 rpm.

Headers $500 or so. gotta spend $800 to do LS1 headers,
catback $300 gotta have this either way.

so:

Heads $ 900
Cam $ 200
used roller lifters $ 20 from salvage yard 305 car engine.

You can't do an LS1 or LT1 for $1120. $650 will get you a truck LQ4, and another $90 for the computer, then another $1000+ for wiring harness and VATS elimination and hood or intake manifold. Add another $300 for a cam, and you'd have around 460-480 horses. But you need swap mounts, that's $???.

 

I'll have quite a bit more money than that (hopefully). And i don't know any of the details bout the cam(pretty sure its not the truck cam). Its got an edelbrock intake, and headers already. Thanks for the help, any idea what i should do bout the trans?

 

These?
http://www.competitionproducts.com/p...number=PAT2181

 

it depends just how "fast" you want to go. me personally, i would swap out the 350 and go with either a 383 stroker, LS1, or possibly (depending on how thick your wallet is a nice 454 or chevy crate engine. but thats what i want to do because i don't like my stock 305, but you said you dont want to spend a whole lot so what you could do is change that 600 carb to a Holley 1050 dominator, that'll give you a few extra horses, get some good headers, full exhaust, and maybe a nitrous set-up (wet kit) i'd say a 125 shot at most or you'll blow your engine. just some things to consider.

 

+350-400hp sounds pretty nice. i think i'd be better of sticking with this engine (for now at least). and i'd rather not use nitrous for now i'd like to keep it as reliable as possible.

 

You don't put a 1050 carb on a 400 horse engine. You found the heads I was referring to. At the 420 horse level, a Holley Street Avenger 770 would do okay, as would a Road Demon 725 from Barry Grant, or an Edelbrock 800.
A 600 isn't quite enough carb for the build I suggested.
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As for the trans, if you have a 700R-4, I'd get a good 700 to make it a direct replacement, and if you do the build I proposed, a B&M 2400-stall lockup torque converter. This will want at least a 3.42:1 axle, and a 3.73:1 would be ideal.

 

[quote=Atilla the Fun;3975424]You don't put a 1050 carb on a 400 horse engine.
Yeah i thought that sounded like a bit of overkill

 

I would go for a LS1 for two reasons:

First it will take 150lbs (or more) off the front end of your car compared to an iron head & block.

Second, they are super strong and can easily be pushed past 450hp without new internals.