OK here's my list of what I have to run.

1988 350TBI engine
swapping swirl port heads for a set of 416's with stock valves but porting and polishing done along with valve job
Weind dual plane intake
Holley 4160 750CFM

I will be running some shorties and hopefully a 3" single exhaust. No cat as the car is beyond emission testing age. Car will have absoultly no emissions controls or ECM and currently has no factory exhaust system parts left. I plan on installing an aftermarket lockup device for the tranny.

Now these parts may seem somewhat strange and mismatched, but I am on a tight tight tight fixed budget. After much research and frugal shopping, I got the heads for $100, the intake for free and the carb for $150 fully rebuilt. I did not get any of the original engine parts as well as the engine itself was long gone.

My car came with no engine installed and the 1988 smog motor on a stand which only has about 25K miles on it. It's not gonna be a daily driver, but it does need to be semi reliable. I'm not concerned with smooth idle and low noise, I just need to wrap my head around the proper cam choice. I like the Comp Cams XE268 but it may be too much for my parts. Getting the heads redone with bigger valves is not out of the question as well.

Anyhow, what do you think of me putting in that cam? I plan on getting the full kit that comes with pretty much everything except pushrods. The shortblock is in excellent mechanical condition so I am sure it could handle the stress. I'm looking for the powerband to be pretty much from 1500-5500RPM (or higher if it can handle it) and I plan on some light duty drag racing as well.

On a side note, I feel with my combo it isn't worth going with a higher stall speed converter and a cam with a higher RPM powerband since my drivetrain is stock other than the transmission was rebuilt 4 years ago. I also believe the motor to be a 2-bolt main although it should handle the 300-350HP I hope to make. I will be doing all the labor so that is not a factor.

Thanks in advance!

 

Anyone?

 

The intake valve is kinda small for a 350. The cam will work well, but will need screw in studs, better springs, and possibly machine work to allow for the extra lift. I assume that your going to use a flat tappet as the engine is from a truck?

As for the stall, go higher. The stock stall will be too low. The last cam I had was about the size of the 268, and it didnt have a whole lot of low end torque. That will be doubly so if your running carb with a standard dist. and cant do anything fancy to offset the low torque at off idle.

Also, what kind of gears does the rear have? 2.73s?

 

As for the lifters, dont use the ones comp gives you. Lots of the aftermarket ones are junk. From my experience, GM has the best ones. They have a hardened spun-welded foot on teh bottom and are much quieter that the aftermarket types. You should be able to get the cam to last with those and ZDDPlus, which is manditory with a flat tappet.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NA...1044/?rtype=10

 

I'm hoping the car has 3:23's, I really need to find the RPO codes and see what it came with. Either way, it will probably have 4:xx's by the end of the summer as gas mileage is not a factor in my build.

As for the heads, I am in the process of finding a local machinist so I can open them up to 1.94's. I wish the swirl port heads weren't such crap as they have the bigger valves.

I've rebuilt the distributor but am running a stock style HEI for the short term since I won't have the cash to build the motor right for anything much over 5500RPM anyways so anything more to me would be a waste for now.

I'll also look into converters seeing how the motor is out and now is the time to change it. I had thought the stocker might be too low but I wasn't sure. I haven't built a car in a long time and this time I want to do it as right as I can the first time. I don't really need it driveable any time soon so it sounds like I need to concentrate more on saving for better parts than just working with what I have.

One other question, would I be better off with different heads altogether? I have had no luck finding any decent Vortecs and I was somewhat reluctant to use the 416's although they get good ratings once they are opened up. I'm dreaming of a set of aluminum aftermarket heads, but I can't see anything more than $1500 being devoted to them and I'm not sure "budget" aluminum aftermarket heads are worth the cash.

 

You could probably get by with vortecs and offset retainers and/or beehive springs. I dont remember exactly what the max lift was for them, but I seem to remember it being enough for something like an XE268 once you take teh stock springs off and go to the offset retainers when I was messing around with a set of 062 castings. Might be something to look into and research. Keep in mind that you will need another intake, which kind of offsets the savings of using the stock vortecs.

There are also hybrid type iron heads out there that flow well and still use the conventional SBC port style.

There are some OK budget alum. heads like the trickflow super 23's, but they still run about $1100 or so, and a bit more once you get the right springs and such. I went that route, and it worked well, but still would cost more than iron heads would.

The 416's seem to be good once theyve been ported, but it requires an investment in time.

 

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