I just got this very clean and completley rebuilt 79 Vette motor.
brand new bottom end .. mains,caps, .. rods, and bearings. The Chevy casting numbers said it was found in a truck in 79
as well ... anybody know??


we are using this block .. with LB9 heads and a fairly new TPI
plenum,runners and intake that came off a good motor.
these heads are pretty too.

I wanna go with a all roller motor.
I already have on the 350, a roller timing chain and gear
still looking at cams, pushrods, lifters and rockers.
looking for what best suits the street.

right now, she has brand new all hydraulic stuff.
Summit racing hydraulic flat tappet cam (-lift: 282/282 -Duration .465/.465 SBC) .. brand new hydraulic lifters .. and pushrods in good shape.

cool thing is .. I only paid $500 and still got my L98 roller to
rebuild and make better !!!

 

Its not a "vette" motor, its 4 bolt main 350 chevy. By casting number it could be from a truck, vette, etc. The important thing is this, once it comes out of the vette, its no longer a vette motor. It retains none of the magical characteristics that some people imagine. Once rebuilt, its whatever you build it to be.

You may have tuning issues with that cam, you may want to look into something a little more designed for the TPI. Also, why lb9 heads? They do have smaller valves than the L98 heads.

 

but the aaahhhh factor is much higher with a vette 350 than one from a chevy truck, even if the 79s bearly made good boat anchors.

 

The engine was budget .. but a engine that is gunna stay alive prolly longer than the car.

yea .. we will get decent to good horse out of it.
itll be a good motor to get me back and forth to work untill I build that L98 that got trashed.

what wrong with a 79 block?? .. pistons are flaptops ..
the heads are junk, and we threw em aside ..

I know the LB9 heads will perform better than those 79 heads
even for emssions purposes too.

I want it to function properly and cruise.
the LB9 heads seemed logical cause they were free, and good looking with all new springs,seats and guides.

yea the 305 heads have a smaller intake valve ..but the exhaust valve is the same.

its gunna run no matter if the car likes it or not !!!

 

No .. I forgot to mention, its a 2 bolt main 350


I know cause we popped the pan and did the mains, rod bearings .. etc etc

and im saving the l98 heads for a later purpose..

im keeping my l98 all in one piece, I aint gunna borrow from it

 

I dont think vettes used 2 bolts. Regardless though, there is nothing wrong with the block, at least not in theory. Is this block one of the 3970010 castings? Probably the most popular from that era, was made into everything. Thats whats in my car now. They did have some problems though. Back then there some poor machining tolerances that led to lifter bore problems (not bored strait to the cam, causing them to eat cams) and also an issue with the starter bolt holes not being right. As long as it isnt one of those blocks, you will be just fine. You will be fine with the setup, even with the 305 heads with stock valves. You can probably still make low 13's with the right tune and cam. I wouldnt guarantee anything though, with that ancient old cam design that is in the motor, coupled with the stock 305 heads. Have to get her going and see what it can do.

 

The specs he listed for the cam seem like a standard TPI street cam. Mild duration, low lift.

 

Do you mean it got new steel mains and they were align bored and honed ?

Im not really sure what the answer is your looking for, or really what the question is..

Do you want to use the '79 block or the roller block?

 

i dont know, 282 dur. on a single pattern grind? I would almost bet that it being a single pattern, with that duration that is is a 110LSA also. The lift is low, thats for sure. Too low for that kind of duration.

 

Need to see his actual timing events to give a real opinion, but It seems the cam would goto about 5500rpm max.

With 1.6's thatd be like .496/.496 which IMO is still in street terrirory.

-- Joe

 

like I said, Im on a budget .. spun bearings in the old block
made me pull my roller.

My friend, chevy guru had one with no heads on a stand.

work is really the only purpose for this motor.

this wasnt really a question thread. or a story

I have posted over time about my build ..this is to inform the people who followed threads from the begining.

I posted a thread "$600 rebuild" 40-50 days ago ..

thats when I thought I was gunna just rebuild my roller the "halfass" way