Yet another 350 thread
 

Yeah just another boring 350 build lol. OK, little background, I bought my 1984 Z28 camaro when I was 16 and just recently turned 40 so I've had her for a while. I drove it everyday all the way through college. While I was a poor college student the old 305 blow a head gasket so I thought I'd be smart and instead of spending a lot of money on a 200K+ mile turd of an engine I'd just upgrade to a 350. Problem was that I didn't know much about engines (I hadn't discovered thirdgen.org yet lol) so I had to trust them mechanic at the machine shop to build one for me. While it ran OK, it didn't feel THAT much stronger than my 305. I did dig into the build and figured out some of the specs. Basically it has 9.3:1 CR, 193 heads, and an old tech L82 cam (222 duration @.05 .450-.460 lift 114 LSA). On top it has a performer intake and a Holley 650 DP carb and below it has Shorty 1 5/8" headers and a Hooker 3" exhaust.

So that is the background, as it sits the 350 still runs alright, it has good oil pressure, doesn't smoke, idles fairly smoothly after warming up. At THIS point I don't want to rip out the whole engine to upgrade it but when it blows up I'll go with a roller block, bump compression, etc. Right now my thoughts are to work on the top end and get some improvement but use stuff I'd transfer to the new engine eventually. My first thoughts are:

Get some Jegs branded Profiler 180 cc heads to replace the 193 junk
Replace the Performer with an RPM intake that I've had for years
Help crutch the old tech cam with some 1.6 rockers for a bit more lift. It still will be under .500 so the springs that come with the assembled heads will be fine.

If it seems like I'm going very conservative it because I am. My car will likely never see the track again and rarely even see the high side of 5000 RPMs. That's the reason for the 180cc Jegs heads. I know I could likely get more power from some AFRs but would the slight bump be worth extra $400? I could very easily be wrong here so let me know if I am please. I'm just wanting to know if the parts would work OK together and if there are better options for my goals.

Thanks in advance!!