TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

So after alot of long thinking Ive finally made up my mind. Im swapping a 350 into my 1988 Trans Am, but the car came with TBI and instead of sitting around tuning I'm just going carb'ed. So I picked up my fully dressed 350 engine tonite from a local yard and had it tore down to pretty much bare block besides oil pan, filter, mechanical fuel pump, and flywheel with the help of 2 buddys in less then 2 hours. Casting number is GM3970010 K-10, 4 bolt main. Block year is anywhere from 69'-79'. Heres the plans for what is going on the engine:

1999' Vortec 350 Cylinder Heads casting #062
1.6" Eagle Rockers
Stock pushrods (may upgrade if it is needed??)
EdelBrock Vortec Carb Intake Manifold
(havent decided on carburator, but engine came with an EdelBrock, not sure on size tho.)
Possible EdelBrock Performer Plus Flat Tappet Camshaft .426" Max lift (any other reccomendations on cam??)
Swap V-Belt setup for Serpintine Belt
Lightweight Aluminum Pulley Kit
Stock Replacement TPI Fuel Pump w/ inline FPR.
MSD Pro-Performer Ignition Box
Hooker 2055 Super Comp Headers
Magnaflow 3" Hi Flow Cat
A/C delete
New Oil and Piston rings

Will also be having the stock 700R4 Rebuilt with Performance Clutch Kit and Kevlar Band. Already has Corvette Servo and B&M Street Shift Kit. Will be running 3.73 in the rear. I will be posting pics come tommrow as soon as i download them. Plans are to have new motor assembled and in car running by the beggining-middle of June. Then off to exhaust shop for full 3" exhaust and cutouts, also having shop install SFC's. Any imput about my build is appreciated and reccomendations on parts swapping/upgrading would also be great!

Atilla the Fun

With those heads, and that 3.73:1 gear, I'd say your cam is too mild. My .02 is the COMP DualEnergy275.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

yeah i may have to agree with you. In not looking for a radical race cam by any means, just a slight choppy idle with good low end trq. I looked into the 275 cam just now, seems to be what im looking for but my question is would i have to have my heads machined even if i run the matched valve springs with .462 intake/ .482 exhaust lift?

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Well i finished tearing anything off the block that wasnt needed. Cleaned the entire block with engine degreaser and a hard brissled bursh and toothbrush then repainted it Chevy Orange. Should be going into the shop monday to be torn down more to have new rings and a new rear main put in. then the reassembly process begins. Mind you its only taken me 3 days to get this far in the build process. Car may be done sooner then I thought. Will have pics up tommrow.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Edelbrock makes good intake manifolds, but their carbs and cams are sub-par.

Go with a Comp Xtreme Energy cam, Holley carb. Machine the heads while the engine is apart so you can use more lift. You need new valve springs, anyway, might as well get it done right the first time.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Do you have any reccomendations five7 on what model in the Xtreme Energy cams to run. Im looking to run Comp Cam's BeeHive Valve springs. Heard those were some of the better springs to run. Looking to go with a Holley 750CFM carb. I just ordered my Edelbrock Performer Vortec Inatke Manifold last night. Also looking to send out the heads to exept .500" of max lift since i dont want to run an extremely radical camshaft.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Heres some pics of my progress. Engine is down to bare block, repainted the block already. Cleaned all gasket surfaces. Just waiting on my parts to arrive from JEGS. Will post pics later of when i first brought the engine home.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Now heres some pics of my Trans Am. Ive been on here for over a year now and have yet to post any real pictures of my baby.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Bought the white gauge inlays from Hawks. I like the look, kinda hard to see the numbers at night.



My A pillar Gauges.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Out with the old: LO3 305 TBI. (mostly stock)

ModPog84z28

sounds like itll be a potent 350, quite the bump over the "snort-lacking" lo3 5.0. are you goin to bore/stroke the motor? and that intake is a dual plane, correct? kudos on the 3 in. exhaust and cat delete. i know ill catch flak for that. neway, good luck, should be a beast!

now if only my trade for this 91 'maro goes through, ill have that 383 5 speed combo

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

No I wont be bore/stoking the engine out this year as money is getting tighter. Will use next years tax return to do that. Im hoping to get the engine to dyno at around 340-370 with a stock bottom end. I actually have a 383 stroker engine in the corner waiting to go in the 92 camaro in the background of the pics also with a t-5.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The XE268 or XE274 are good choices.

ModPog84z28

gotcha, that should be easily obtainable power with the parts your going with. if not boring or stroking, im gonna assume youll hone the cylinders and all, new rings, bearings etc. good luck, i think thats gonna be a cruiser!

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

As a matter of fact Im bringing the engine to the GM dealership where I work this week and removing the crank, pistons, and rods out then going to deep tank the block to clean it internally. Then I will be honing the cylinder walls and using all GM Performance rings, bearings ect... I ordered my intake manifold and decided to go with the EdelBrock Performer EPS Vortec.
I will be ordering my camshaft kit on Friday, still kind of looking around and looking into the cams that Five7Kid reccomended. Thanks on all the imput guys, seeing how this is my first engine build and finding now its really not so hard, im ready to tackle the 383 sitting in the corner after this lol.

ModPog84z28

nice, keep it all GM. man i wish i worked at a dealership, perks sound sweet! the first is always an adventure, but youre right its not really that hard, its alot of fun too. good luck with it, that 383 should be sweet as well.

skinny z

Have you done any calculations regarding compression ratio?
The cam you select will have to work with the CR you end up with after all the machinig is completed. Or you target a compression ratio that is designd to work with the cam you choose.

naf

iTrader: (7)

The comp cams site has a cam selection program you can download and play with. You can enter all your engine/vehicle data and it will profile different cams. Under the cylinder head selection tab you can enter the flow numbers from the vortecs. Wouldn't expect it to be terribly accurate but it should provide some precision in comparing one of their cams to another.

I just discovered it last week so it's probably been there for a while...I'm usually behind the curve on these things.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

My target CR is 10:1 but depending on how much machine work is done to my heads it may be higher or slightly lower.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Ill have to go check that out for sure.

NemeSS-TyranT

iTrader: (1)

i bet thats gonna be a nice strong running engine.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

thanks for all the feedback guys! My parts should be here wensday so then i will be able to bring the engine to the shop to finish the teardown and then the rebuilding begins. Now as far as my vacum goes, am i able to run the stock vacum canister or should i buy a reserve canister?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The stock one should be fine.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

I got my intake manifold, exhaust cutouts and a few gaskets i ordered today. Will be ordering my carb and cam kit on friday. Will also be buying my piston ring kit, rear main seal and new main caps as well. Will get more pics up once i get the engine to the shop.

Blackbird66

I'm running the 350 HO crate from gmpp with the vortec heads, and I love it. I think a 750 carb is way to big for the power you are looking for. I would think that a 600 would be better.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Well heres an update. Been real busy, got then engine to the shop today and already took the crank n pistons out. Pressure water and heated the bare block in the parts cleaner inside the shop. Then got to honing the cylinder walls. You could still see some of the factory cross hatching still which meant this is no 100k mile motor. Got outta work bout 5:30'ish and headed to my dads where the car is being stored. Took the hood off and started disassembling everything. Will be pulling the motor and trans out tommrow and bringing the trans into work on Monday to have the transmission guy overhaul/ build the tranny. He says it will be done within the week. Still waititng on a few more parts for the engine and I still need to get my heads into a shop to have the guides machined. But the engine should be put back together minus heads within a week and a half or so. I have a question so, can anyone reccomend what Ignition setup i should use?? I was thinking the MSD 5 Series Ignition. Heres the link http://www.jegs.com/p/MSD/747785/10002/-1 but when it comes to ignitions im braindead sort of speak lol.... Thanks for all the imput so far guys, keep it coming.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

You could still see a hint of crosshatch in the 304k mile 305 I took out of Berlinetta #2. Stock bore, no hint of every having been opened up before (except intake manifold gaskets had been replaced).

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Well took 3 hours to pull the motor and transmission yesterday. Cleaned the engine bay with some engine degreaser. Still have lots of work to do such as removed the rest of the a/c, clean, scuff and paint the engine bay. Will get some pics up today.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Got the transmission rebuilt today. cost me 212 in parts and 200 for my buddy to rebuild it for me. He said i was lucky to still have reverse as the reserse clutch was so worn he could flex it by hand. Ill admit it had at least 3 seconds of delay when going into reverse. Engine is well on its way to being finished here very soon. Should be back in the car within a month if i can finish the engine bay by then....

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Well its been awhile since i updated so here goes:

was going to start removing the pistons and crank today but we soon noticed each main cap had already been marked with which cylinder it belonged to. Along with this, each piston has a marking on the bottom in pencil reading 4.0280. Does this mean the engine has been bored over? I have yet to clean the top of the pistons off to see if any of them are stamped yet. But now the bad news... 5 out of the 8 cylinder walls have scorching on them. Which means if bad enough i may have to have it bored over. My wallet is already tight enough as is, seeing as someone stole my cc # online and charged it numerous times. Ill post more when i know more.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Well come to find out, the engine has been bored .30 over making it a 355. But i may need to get it bored another .10 over so .40 total. What size would the engine be then?

skinny z

8 cylinders x 4.040 bore x 3.48 stroke = 356.879
Call it a 357.

Prickly

I was wondering if you had checked to see if the accessory brackets from a serpentine setup will bolt to your 69-79 project. Just a thought as I have been reading JTRs Chevy engine swaps guide. Supposedly less holes on the older blocks/heads.
--Also, are you staying with those (stock?) pistons?
--Something Ive read is too be sure you have .035 inch minimum between heads and piston INCLUDING head gasket compressed thickness. Start by finding how deep in the well the pistons are.
--Regarding camshafts-call CompCams and tell them what head youre running so that you can match the heads and cam properly for flow.
my 2 pennies, sounds like the build Im planning eventually GL

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Well its been a longtime needed for an update:

Had alot of stuff happen that put the engine build on hold for a little while but now im back to building. Engine is done and sitting at the machine shop waiting for me to pick it up. Fresh rebuild and overhaul. heres what was done:

Bored ".010" over to make it ".040" over total bringing the engine to roughly a 357.
Crank ground down ".010"
New Federal Mongul Flattop Teflon coated pistons installed w/ Hastings Cast Iron rings.
New Cam, Crank, and Rod bearings installed
ARP Bolts installed on factory rods
Cylinder Hone

Total machine shop bill: $400.56

This puts me a little over $1200 on this engine build alone not including another $400 for the transmission rebuild. Thats including the price i payed for the engine, all aftermarket parts and rebuild. Engine should be running 4th of July weekend hopefully. I still need to buy my FPR, tourque converter, and a few other gaskets. Full engine assembly will begin later this week if not Monday morning of next week. I will get pics up A.S.A.P.

Mgb86

iTrader: (3)

Hey I am getting ready to buy a pair of Vortec heads. I was just wanting to know what you have done to them and what parts you have added? What size value springs did you use? Car looks sweet man.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

The heads are mostly stock for now. I installed new valve seals in the when i first bought them since they had been sitting in a barn for quite some time. Springs are stock and should work fne with the cam I am going to run this year. These heads flow good enough for what Im looking for, but when tax time comes around next year a slight valve job and port and polish may be within reason.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Wow guys its been a VERY long time since I've even posted or updated any of my threads. Lost track of time and got to caught up in new things. But anyways, the engine was put in back in July, only hit the track 2 times after and wasnt very happy with the runs. Because its a new year, I feel the need for NEW parts haha. So i need suggestions on which parts to run this year on the new motor. Im looking for suggestions for a new cam which i can still use the stock valve springs on the Vortec heads as I just dont quite have the funds for headwork quite yet. I hear Comp or Crane has quite a few kits I may be able to use, but Im looking for a more low range power cam to get me off the line faster.

Also, Ive been looking into a Street Avenger carb, or just a Holley 750. Would 750cfm be too much on a 350 bored .40 over? Or should I look for a more tunable carb such as a 650 cfm Holley/Demon? I may even go the length and buy a new Intake as im using the EdelBrock ESP Vortec intake manifold and havent been very happy with it, but maybe im just fussy. feel free to post up suggestions for new parts, and I will post some updated pics of the car as she sits awaiting for the snow to melt. Thanks!!

skinny z

The only drawback to the Vortecs (in my opinion) is the limit they impose on maximum lift.
That being said, I used my box stock Vortecs with a single pattern 218/.458" cam and manged to push my combo into the low 13's. Stock springs, pressed in studs. Just limit your engine speed or you'll bend a valve on a missed shift like I did. 7000 rpm! The Vortecs probably respond better to dual pattern cam profile like the Comp XE256H. I'm not a fan of flat tappets because of the cam/lifter failure I had. ( I wasn't paying attention to using the proper oil/additive ). If you can upgrade to a roller, then do it.
I've read a few posts here by some of the engine builders/assemblers that have had luck with a class racing type cam spec that keeps the lift under the .460" limit for the Vortecs however the duration numbers are significantly greater the the 256H. Perhaps they wiil chime in here.
The RPM Air Gap intake is almost unparalled when it comes to all round performance. You can't go wrong with that choice.
I'm currently using a Holley Street Avenger 670. I haven't a bad thing to say about it. I've enlarged the power valve channel restriction which allows me to keep my primary jetting on the lean side. I get hiway speed AFR's of around 16:1. Excellent mileage. I would say that adjustable IAB's and HSAB's would be of some benefit which the Avenger doesn't have. 670 cfm is enough although some here will argue that a 750 double pumper is the only way to go.
Good luck.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Thanks for the imput Skinny z! I will be looking into that cam choice and also the ones that five7 advised earlier in the engine build. I never knew they made an Air Gap that was made to fit Vortec heads, as i've always been a fan of them and would of bought one if i would of known they had fit these heads. Ill be installing in my new Richmond 3.73's this weekend. As far as the oil mixture, ill be swapping over to Royal purple this spring but I ran 5w30 gm oil with gm additive for flat tappet engines and the oil pressure was good, but then my chrome oil pan started leaking at the gasket because it flexed, so i attempted to re-tighten it but it was too late. So i swaped over to 15w40 Mobil Delvac oil which we run in all the GM Duramax engines, and they still continue to manufacture with the proper amount of additive needed for flat tappet engines and the oil pressure always stays at a consistent 50psi on my Auto Meter gauge. Ok heres some newer pics of the motor at this point ENJOY!!! :

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/dscn0015j.jpg/

http://img705.imageshack.us/i/dscn0017.jpg/

http://img20.imageshack.us/i/dscn0021r.jpg/

http://img22.imageshack.us/i/dscn0022gh.jpg/

http://img20.imageshack.us/i/dscn0018y.jpg/

http://img22.imageshack.us/i/dscn0019q.jpg/

skinny z

If you have the funds, I would upgrade the Vortec springs to the Comp Beehives. No machining required. Then your cam choice is wide open.

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...ade/index.html

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

hey i am going to be building about the same engine.1999 vortec 350. i am to going to be using the beehive springs as per everyone including comp. this is the cam comp sent me for my build.
224-230-502-510-110 106 centerline. CS XR276HR-10 im carbed now and so is the new engine when i get it finished.

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

I thought even if you upgrade your spring choice, to exceed the stock max lift of the vortec heads, you still need to have the guides ground in order to have proper clearance for the valve to travel?

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

beehive springs-certain retainers and certain seals have to be used. people are using many cams in the lower 500 range with good success on vortec heads.

DiabolicalRS

did you do anything to your wiring harness cause i want to do the same. but i dont want to mess around with the harness. and was it also like plug and play kinda thing?

tdif4544

look into the lunati voodoo cams,

TADailyDriver

iTrader: (8)

Ok guys heres a cam I've been looking at for a long time now. Any suggestions on this cam? Are they good or fairly weak?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...=STRK:MEWAX:IT