I've scoured the forums and can't find answers to some of my specific questions. I have a 1984 Camaro Sport (100% stock) and I'm going to swap out the 305. My plan is to get this baby track ready and have 10-11 second ET's.

I've been building a 1996 Vortec 350 for the last year, my first engine. It was machined/cleaned and built up with all new parts except for the crank and rods. I can go into quite a bit of detail, but for the sake of brevity, I will keep this short. The short list of pertinent specs are :
- Holly HP 750
- New Champion 3 core radiator
- Vintage Air Serpantine Kit (w/ A/C)
- Engine Quest CH350H Heads
- Headman Elite Ultra-Duty HTC Coated Hedders (Full Length)
- MSD Dynaforce Starter
- Keith Black Pistons 10.2:1

By estimations, and the radical setup, this engine should see low 500HP. The engine is all done, broken in on a test stand and ready to go in. My ultimate goal is to get a Strange rear end with 373 gearing and disc brakes, to replace the trans to something beefier and to get a new torque converter. All in all, not including the engine, that's another $5-6k which I don't want to wait for. I want to throw the engine in right now but am concerned with a few things. I know I will eat up the torque converter and tranny if I run it hard but I'm just going to do easy "keeping the battery alive" driving down the street if I do this. These are my questions...

1) How quickly will I eat up the tranny even if I go easy on it?
2) Will I screw up the torque converter immediately?
3) Do I have to do anything to the wiring?
4) What do I do with the computer? I planned on just removing it altogether since I won't be using it (unless people use it with new carb'd 350's)
5) Do I have to consider anything else before doing this swap?

I've had some advice from trusted people at the track, but they don't know third gen camaros...so I thought I'd ask the experts. Any advice from you guys would be great! Thanks!

 

Oh, and I also have a set of shorties in case I can't find someone to help me wrench in the long tube hedders. I also plan on getting a new tubular k-member but that might have to wait.

 

What are csm specs lift/duration advertised & @.050 LSA & ICL

And what cc heads are those pistons rated for as far as compression ?

91' bird 305 TBI T-5, trick flow 175 cc heads, 4.10 gears, lots of suspension upgrades......... 24mpg @ 2300rpm hwy 65mph ........ 8.63@ 85mph 1/8th on street tires... 8.000's soon

 

It's a custom grind from Comp, 3016/3037 HR108+4. @.050 230/236. Valve is .573/.571 and I've got Comp Ultra Pro Magnum 1.6 rockers.

 

U should b good u ain't gonna hurt nothing unless u put slicks on it IMO ... Stock stall is what 1800? U should b able to get that cam to idle under 1000 rpm easily 800-900 tops .... N good luck i hope u reach ur power goals ... I'd like to c flow numbers on the heads but I couldn't find them online... All I found was 64cc chambers 176cc intake runners 1.94/1.50 valves ... I don't think the 1.94 valve is a problem but idk if a 1.5 exhaust valve is gonna help u to ur hp goal at 350 or more CI. ... U are definitely gonna need the best possible exhaust system to help get the chambers evacuated ...longtubes ! ... Don't use the shorties !

91' bird 305 TBI T-5, trick flow 175 cc heads, 4.10 gears, lots of suspension upgrades......... 24mpg @ 2300rpm hwy 65mph ........ 8.63@ 85mph 1/8th on street tires... 8.000's soon

 

As long as you don't beat on it the tranny should hold you (can't say for sure how much spirited driving you'd be able to do though).

As for the computer, I removed mine entirely on my 83 Z and you should be able to do the same on yours. Be sure to get a non computer controlled HEI dizzy with vacuum advance. You will have to wire in a lock up switch for your 700R4, or just run it w/out the lockup (since you plan to get rid of it anyways, you'll just see slightly less gas mileage).

 

Hopefully those heads flow nothing like vortecs because vortec heads flow worse at lift over 500 and would not take advantage of that cam.

 

One of the most amusing myths in the hobby right there...

It's TRUE that the flow in Vortecs starts to go down at some point around .500" lift. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disputing that, AFAIK that's accurate, as far as it goes. However that's not THE WHOLE TRUTH.

Consider ALL THE OTHER TIME that the lift is LESS THAN .500". During ALL THAT time, the farther the valve is open closer to .500", the more it will be flowing. In point of fact, the best time for flow is when the vacuum in the cyl is high, which is, the first half of the intake stroke, LONG BEFORE the valve reaches peak opening.

Meanwhile, peak lift #s are a bit deceptive; the valve spends only a small part of the time ANYWHERE NEAR full lift. The VAST amount of extra flow gained everywhere else, MORE THAN overcomes the minor loss at peak lift.

 

I cant tell if this is a text or a reply

 

And the difference is what exactly ?

91' bird 305 TBI T-5, trick flow 175 cc heads, 4.10 gears, lots of suspension upgrades......... 24mpg @ 2300rpm hwy 65mph ........ 8.63@ 85mph 1/8th on street tires... 8.000's soon

 

Sorry for delayed response. I'm on call right now and every time I went to reply, I had to work. Anyways, thanks for the replay, that's good to know. I loosely based my build off of the Sledgehammer 350 Build from Popular Hotrodding (http://www.popularhotrodding.com/eng...k/viewall.html). There isn't much info on the Engine Quest heads...trust me, I've looked for a year and even called them for the info. The only info that's out there is this:

On The Flowbench

Tested At Shaver Racing test depression 28-in. H2O

Lift Intake Exhaust
0.100 60 54
0.200 117 102
0.300 173 134
0.400 216 152
0.500 225 162
0.600 232 169
0.700 237 172

I plan on using these and getting the engine Dyno'd then if I don't like them, upgrading to some nice Brodix heads with a bigger intake runner. Also, I couldn't find anything on the 1984 Sport Coupe stock stall. Is it 1800?


I really don't plan on beating up the tranny, but my wife thinks that I'll f it up because I won't be able to control myself. I'm just being impatient. I won't drive it often and definitely won't put her on the track until I have all my parts. I plan to have it fully ready for next year's Kingdon drags in Lodi. I've got an MSD Pro-Billet distributor, but it's doesn't have vacuum advance. I chose to stick with centrifugal advance since I would have such low vacuum. What does a lockup do? Is that like a trans brake?

From what I've read from that sledgehammer 350 build, they actually flow a lot better than Chevy vortec heads. I'm hoping they didn't "fudge" the numbers.

 

Before buying these Engine Quest heads, I read a ton of forum replies and books on flow numbers from vortec heads. I always heard "old school is about quantity where the new tech is about quality". To me, the proof is in the time slips. I never ran across someone doing a true track test with all parts the same except for the heads being changed out. That, to me, would have been a true point of fact for all the people who either like/dislike vortec heads. They were cheap at the time and I didn't mind testing them out and if I didn't like them swapping for new ones.

A lot of people just buy the vortecs thinking that the swirl effect will help them out alone, but forget all the other factors involved in that swirl effect. To me, they aren't the final old school replacements, but for the price they aren't bad. Again, this is solely based off my opinion from reading. I'll know more (hopefully) by next year when I have the time slips to prove it.

 

Vortecs don't "swirl". That's TBI crap.

Vortecs FLOW.

 

You are correct, sir. I got the verbiage wrong.

 

No, the torque converter lockup is just a function on newer transmissions that simply eliminates slippage when the car is cruising (that's the best way I know how to explain it). It's a gas mileage booster (though not by much).