Ok, I got A stock 1979 350 block with dish pistons, stock cam and so on. I also have a carter afb 700 carb and performer rpm intake. heads are stock 624's. how much HP do you think this it is at right now as it sets and what are recomdations to get it to 350hp or somewhere around there cheep lol? I got it all torn down right now and gonna start reassembling.

 

I'd say about 160 at the wheels. Thats being generous btw, but for a stock short block it's pretty ideal for some form of forced induction.

A home built STS type turbo setup will get you there easliy enough as will a weiand mini blower. It makes no sense to spend a ton of money putting power into a 30 year old stock 350 so a procharger or some high end turbo setup proabably isnt in the cards.

N2O will get you there also but leave the car rather slow 99% of the time.

As for the NA side of things headers and exhaust should be obvious, but a set of vortec or aftermarket heads are really what you need. They will make the intake you have and the exhaust you should have work harder and allow you to use a real cam.

But with the dished pistons compression will be hard to get and with a stock bottom end high revs are not an option either.

So a budget minded FI setup is the best way to go imo, the heads would make a huge difference either way but 350 whp is doable with the current set with fi.

NA I dont see you even making 300 whp with that bottom end.

 

I have never ported and polished a head and wanna give it a try. I know that these heads are crap so I was thinking about trying to port and polish them so if something goes wrong then im not out much lol. how much would that help? then a cam? I think I can get my hands on a set of flat top pistons also.

 

here is kinda my plan flat top pistons, porting and polishing the head, cam (specs valve lift 422 intake/ 444 exhaust/ lobe sep. 207) and leaving the rest stock.

what mite that net me? at the flywheel?

 

porting seems to be going ok lol. I got 1 head started or matched to the gasket if that's what ya call it. You sure can talk allot out if these heads. I will have to post some pics.

 

porting is a science....a lot of people port too much. you need to be careful not to over do it....you need velocity (which is made by smaller runners)...there is a lot that goes into heads, (velocity, runner volumes, radias curves, quench, etc.)..it's good that you're learning, it should give you a bit a power! Good luck. I think there is a link on main page under techical articles called porting heads that nmight help.

 

I am trying to follow the flow just make it better. the heads had some like humps or raised spots in them and I grinded them out along with cutting them bigger to match the gasket. kinda paranoid about going in under the valve lol. but that and smoothing it out with 80 grit wheels is next. I followed the curves that were there when I matched them to the gasket. I gotta get some pictures.

 

yeah,you'll be okay if you're smoothing out and staying with original shape...get rid of all the rough spots and ridges and that will help for sure.....to get more into extreme porting you might need an experienced porter (if you go too deep you can hit a waterjacket) look foward to pics!!

 

ok got a couple pics

Before




After


The first pics are of the other head this one was is worse shape around the edge

 

If you happen to get some factory pistons that come with in the samebalance tolorances as the dished pieces (iirc all the 350 were built with in the same lolorances) then you should be able to swap them without issue. But getting them installed on a set of rods can be tough for an amature and begins to chip away at the budget idea.

For a couple hundred dollars you can pick up a rotating assembly from any number of suppliers that's already balanced and will drop right into your 350 block.

For a little more you can get a 383 rotator, and for a little more than that you can get a nice high comp 350 shortblock and save a ton of trouble lol.

In short swapping some old factory flat tops into your motor is a lot of work and will still cause you to visit the machine shop, and in the end you still have some old factory flat tops and every thing you change using old parts is a chance to mess something up. Like overheating the rods, marring the pistons while swapping them or just breaking one. And balance will be a question until the motor is running again.

The way I see it is if you want to stay NA and be cheap then you need to concentrate on either the top end or the bottom end.

You are already working on the heads but even with the best head porting in the world those heads will not perform like other newer heads.

I would leave the block un touched for now, you already have a decent intake and carb so spend money on parts to move air.

About this time next year you'll be wanting better heads than the old practice pieces and you'll have some experience under your belt so you might be able to do some light porting on some vortecs or some of those Procomp china heads and be well ahead of where you'll have been.

Both may require a new manifold but for a carb SBC aplication it's not all that expensive.

At that point you'll possibly be getting over 300 HP at the wheels, now is the time to look at the short block.

 

that make allot of scence. but the pistons I can get already have rods on them does that make a difference? they are used stock ones tho. I planed on getting a newer block with vortec heads on it and building it for next year thats Y I dont wanna stick allot into this one. between the cam and rebuild kit for this one I will only have around 200 bucks in it. 180 to be exact. this is not my first engine build but it is my first sb chevy build. I was thinking about turbos but how good do they work with carbs? I have worked with turbos before with FI systems but never with a carb. I dont understand how the turbos will work without a mass air flow senser and so on. scence the boost changes and all and the ecu compensates for that with fuel. will this carb work with the turbos? I cant afford superchargers or blowers and that good stuff lol. wont the change in boost mess up your fuel to air do to the change in boost?