this is the engine i have come acrossn for my build... has 8,000 miles and i know the guy who had it, put in camaro to save the # matching motor and was left all stock..

http://www.jegs.com/i/GM+Performance...67353/10002/-1

i am changing the heads to patriot 225's

cam will be xe274 (should i bother to go hyd roller, i will if the power increase will be worth it, sure the heads would love the extra lift)

air gap

770 truck avenger

long tubes

msd hei and 6al

this is going into a 68 4x4 i am building, it is a stick and i don't mind having alittle cam, im not one to bitch about "no power under 2000-2500",... engines rev!! lol

probably wont need to spin past 6000 or so to get good curve...

i know the pistons are probably crap but they should hold up to a mild n/a build up like this right... or should i just change the pistons while i have it a short block, i don't want to but will if there gonna fail...

rest should hold up fine...

 

I have two of those that same engines. The piston dish + four valve reliefs are 12 cc's, so you may want to take that into consideration with the heads. A 64 cc chamber will put you around 9:1 with the felpro 7733 if my memory serves me correctly. With that said, you may want to consider running less cam, especially in a truck. Maybe like an XE262 or XE268 and smaller runner heads.

Those came with PM rods, but they still have the stock factory rod bolts and cast iron crank, which are potential weak points. The factory rates them up to 5500 RPM. Ive had mine up to 6k without issue and it had over a 100k on it when I pulled it (wiped out the rod and main bearings from abuse). But, I probably would consider 5500-6000 RPMs to be the upper limit for the engine.

As for the roller conversion, Im doing one now, and I can tell you that a) its a hassle, and b) its EXPENSIVE. If you want to keep things cheap, stick with a flat tappet.

 

, more or less. Those heads are too much for a 350, and they'll be happy at 6500. PM rods with ARP bolts are also good past 6500 rpm. However, cast pistons are a liability. With those heads, and the cam you propose, you could get away with up to 10.5:1 compression, so certainly put a set of forged flattop pistons, and a set of ARP rod bolts, in your shortblock.
Dunno about your cam, but if it's duration at 0.050" is around 230 degrees, you're on track. Match with a set of 4.10:1 gears.