... if you were in my situation:

I have an 88 Formula L03 5-spd with over 150,000 mi. The motor's really tired and turns around 16.2 quarter mi. times with my current mods.

In my garage I have a 350 (.030 over & previously Carbed) which came out of a 1986 Quarter Ton Suburban.

If you had about a Grand Budget, what would you do? What kind of combinations would you suggest? I would like to try to stay emissions legal, but its not a necessity.

I am pretty good mechanically, me and my father took out the motor, and are also the ones who took it out 2 years ago and had the work done to it. So I would be doing all the work myself.

Also let me know if you think the motor's not worth it. As far as I understand it does not have a Roller Cam. Does this pose a performance problem?

Clueless at the moment,

KZad

 

a fresher motor is always a good choice, especially when it is free
one thing about old school flat tappet cams, they are really really cheap. a brand new cam with lifters is only $90-125 from all the major brands. this means the need cam upgrade won't hurt your budget too much.
if you go the route of using a converted carb intake or find a used edelbrock tbi intake that is another good upgrade that any stock motor can use.
the one real question woudl be compression. what is it on a rebuilt suburban motor. i am guessing it will prolly be kinda lame, which brings us to head selection.
heads are the best way to control compression form a performance point of view. any good machine shop can do the work to upgrade the heads with a good valve job and a mild port and polish. to raise compression you just have the heads milled a little to make the combustion chamber smaller and gain those extra few ponies. a mild set up liek this shoudln't cost more than $450-500 unless the heads really need a lot of work, which any good shop will tell you before they start cutting anyway.
only thing tha tis really expensive that you will want will prolly be a holley or big block tb and injectors to help feed your new beast. even that stuff cna be foudn on ebay at a good price though
teh 350 is definately a good deal. just take your time to pick parts up at good prices and match up your parts. you will eb happy with the gains.

later
tim

 

What I was really thinking was ...

1. Cam - dont know anymore
2. L98 Aluminum Vette Heads
3. Intake - open for possibilities
4. Headers - SLP 1.75's
5. chip - custom

That should be around 1200 give or take, no? That would fit in the budget. But that's not including the 'odds & ends' which alway seem to run up the tab. Would I need anything else to complete the swap?

Kurt

 

I like that list except....
-You really only need the 1 5/8" headers from SLP.
-L98 heads are not a bang for your buck head. Do you have to be emissions compliant?

Take the cam's duration to around 220* @ .050" with a LSA of 114. Get the most lift you can.

Get a Holley Stealth 4bbl intake with a TBI to carb adaptor plate.

 

Well depends......

Depending on what heads are on the 350, they are most likely boat anchors. Post the cast#, as a good majority of the truck 350's in the 80's had those crappy "high-swirl" port heads which just plain suck for performance.

$1000 huh?

Now the following ASSUMES the 350 doesn't need to be gone through ( rings , bearings, pistons etc )...so keep that in mind.
I'd AT LEAST run a compression / leak down check on the engine before going any further.


If you're keeping the TBI, and IMHO, you should unless you go TPI.

( And to those carb fans, I worked and tuned Q-Jets and Holley's for a long time, and YES you can tune a carb to get good gas mileage and performance, but it's not easy, and tuning for performance usually kills the gas mileage ....but fuel injection is constant, more effiecient, and carb just lose their tune when driven daily )

Vortec heads $750
This includes the heads, bolts, valve covers, gaskets, and a dual plane intake. Several online vendors sell this package for right around this price.
Comp Cams XE268 cam and lifters $125 or so ( and you can use this cam with the STOCK Vortec springs without a problem )
I'd look for a 350 or 454 TBI unit from the bonyard $50 or so
Perform the normal TBI mods
Headers $300

Puts you over you're budget a bit, but this would be FUN, QUICK engine to drive everyday, and it wouldn't break you at the gas pumps.

Also figure in you'll need an adapter to bolt the TBI to the intake, but this was a factory piece on TBI 454 trucks, GM still might carry it for cheap.

I ran some numbers, and this thing will put out an easy 320-330 HP and at least 350 ft/lbs of torque right where you want it on the street.

In fact, I know a guy on one of my email lists that runs a '70 Monte ( a BOAT compared to a 3rd gen ) with a 355, Vortec heads, XE268 cam, dual plane intake and 750 cfm carb, and it runs 13's in that monster!!!!

HTH

 

Thanks for your help guys ... this is starting to look good. I agree with the 1 5/8 headers, i just figured that the 1.75's would be better for the 350. That makes things easier.

Yes, I am trying to stay emissions compliant. That doesnt mean I have to.

ctandc - where online can I find these kits? I wanted to got Vortec origionally, but heard that I would be better off with the L98 Vette Heads. 750 seems to be a really reasonable price.


KZad

 

Check HERE


HTH

 

The Comp 268AH under Computer controlled hydraulic flat tappet cams has nearly the same specs and 114 degrees of lobe separation to help keep TBI happy.
<a href="http://www.competitionproducts.com/page5.html">World Class SR torquer II heads</a> also are nice plug and play type heads but the Vortecs are very hard to beat for the price. Both are far superior to the stock swirl ports.<p><img src="http://www.tbichips.com/images/comprollercam.jpg" alt="comprollercam.jpg (201064 bytes)" width="1418" height="814"></p>

 

Yeah that's a nice cam however it's flat tappet. You should get the 87-up factory roller camshaft. I ran the 262HR-12 in my car and it made great power to 6000rpm with the stock chip, no AFPR and no ultimate TBI mods.