i have a 88 trans am that i swapped a 350 out of a 89 1500 truck its a gm goodwrench engine. what is the biggest cam i can put in with out exceeding the stock valve springs. Also could i put my 305 heads on my 350 and gain power and compression with the heads shaved and if i do how much hp. I think i have 260hp thats what it is rated at in the summit mag.

 

Stock GM castings are lift limited between ."460 and ."480. If your cam will be near that value you will want to measure very closey as to avoid coil bind. Although you would gain compression with the 305 heads you would be flow limited with the small valves. You would also be lift limited in the same manor as described above. I would stick with the heads it has now and look into another set. 350 TBI heads (193's) make decent budget performers when ported. You may want to consider those or go the vortec route. However, before you start swapping heads and cams I would make sure you have the skills learned to burn your own chips. Changing those parts will require it or else your car will run terrible.

 

well see ive done these type of things to other cars its really nothing to me. but the biggest lift for my stock 350 is .480 right. cuz i can get this cam set from cran cams it comes with the cam its either a .461 lift or .480 comes with lifters for $120 should i get it. and port out my heads later or go with the vortec. if i do vortec what kind of cars came with the 350 vortec and what intake will i use to keep it tbi?

 

So the engine you pulled out of the truck did not come in it stock or am I reading this wrong? If its a crate motor with 260hp your money will probably be better spent on other mods than a cam right now. What all mods have you done so far?

 

nothing is done to it yet i dont know where to start? i have a single exhaust ill put duals and headers on when the money starts coming in but right now christmas is coming and i have a taping noise so i want to fix that and put performance in at the same time so im going to put a .461 cam in it with lifters for $120 is that a good price? will that make a difference?

and im going with a carb later with a edlobrock performer intake for $130 and a carb i dont know yet. this guy i know will sell me a weiland kind of a high rise intake with a holley 650 double pumper for $150 is that a good price to go with to?

 

i would say the weiand with 650 double pumper is a real nice deal i'd go with that over the performer for 130.

 

Unless you go with a serious cam you'll never need a 650 double pumper, those things can dump some serious amounts of gas into your engine. I learned that one the hard way
I'm not sure why you would want to revert back to a carb, its easier and more efficient to stick with the tbi setup.

What are the specs on the cam you're going with? And whatever you do make sure you change the valve springs when you do a cam swap.

 

thats the thing i dont want to change out my springs i just dont want to exceed them there are two cams i can get for $120 one is a .461 and the other is a .480 which one could i use with out exceeding the stock springs?

and how much are chips burned for?

 

Stock springs are bad on a stock cam, a new cam is going to be even worse on them. You can pick up new springs for as cheap as $30
If you stick with the stock springs count on your top end being shot, pretty much anything above 4000rpm because you'll be getting some serious valve float.

Custom chips go from $70 on up. Dyno tuning varies quite a bit but they're usually in the $300+ range.

No matter what though I'd go with the lower lift cam to play it safe.

 

ok the cam im getting is .480 lift and the springs for $30 are for a lift of .700 does it make a differance in springs with the cam lift or do i have to get the same lift as the cam?

 

I don't know what cam grind you are referring to, but the L82 cam will run great in a TBI engine with some tuning. 224/224 @ .050, .450/.461" of lift, and 114.5" lobe seperation. The idle is near stock sounding with a hint of lope out of the exhaust. 15" of vacuum at 700 rpm and good response when you hit the pedal.