Hey guys I am looking for performance on a budget as I have a child and a young family. Heres what I have. Its a 76 model 2bbl 305 with the 354434 heads its completely stock. I have a set of 416 heads off my 86 monte ss. I have done a little work on the intake and exhaust bowls but thats it. I want to put the comp xe256 cam, it is 212/218@.050 lift. I was thinking of the edelbrock performer eps intake with a 600 4 barrel carb and a set of shorty headers from hooker. The car already has true duals with an x pipe that i just installed. does this sound like a pretty decent setup for my daily driver to you guys?

 

Use www.camquest.com

That's Comp Cams camshaft selection tool with built in engine dyno simulator. That should give you a good idea after you get it all plugged in.

 

Looks okay to me.
Go ahead and swap heads, with FelPro steel shims, but don't scrap those '76 heads. There's some small demand for them, as all the '77 castings became thinner and lighter.

 

Thanks for the input guys the cam website was cool. What do you mean by steel shim gaskets? I was thinkin about a .028" thick with 3.870 bore gasket but I dont know.

 

also what demand is there for the 76 heads lol I dont need them so I would like to sell them.

 

Theyre useless boat anchors.

Also, your combo sounds like a great daily driver but dont expect huge horsepower numbers from it.

 

I figured they were junk lol but maybe somebody needs them. And I am hoping 240-250 horse I figure with the th350 and b&m holeshot 2400 converter with 3.42 gears it should perform good enough for the daily work routine lol.

 

A TPI 350 makes 240hp. Nothing in your combo is better than a 350 TPI except the cam, by a small amount. I'd expect around 210hp. I pulled that out of my ***, but it's basically about the same as a 305 TPI. A worse intake, better cam, similar heads... decent exhaust hopefully, so about 205-220hp is my guess.

I've seen well set up cars with 416's do some amazing things, though. You considered going a little bigger on the cam? With the gears and converter you could afford to go bigger. If you get a Holley 4 barrel, a Performer RPM instake, and a 220/220ish cam you could easily push 250hp.

mw66nova had a 305 with a holley 4 barrel, 416s, and some hard to find intake and did 12s with a 305. I dont think a Performer RPM would leave too much on the table compared to what he had.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ates-pics.html


The key is that his car was light, and he had a massive solid roller cam. I think you could get into a 13s easy if you went bigger on the cam. An xe262 would be nice, an xe268 would sound absolutely wicked, and I'd steer you away from that... except that you already have a stall and gears. It may not be quite as streetable per se, but it'd be quick.

Peruse what he did to his 416's and see if you can copy parts of his combo for great success! I also think his compression ratio was REALLY high, but that massive cam made it work. But it was kind of a dog for day to day driving, but he did it anyway lol.

Anyway, 416's are NOT bad heads. If you can get a cam and compression ratio to match it in the right range... you'll have a damn quick 305. Are your pistons flattops or dished? If dished you may want to consider shaving the 416's down.

 

My pistons are dished and I might go with the 218/224 cam from comp but with the 416 heads I will only have 9:1 compression so I cant go to big and I just bought the rpm intake and I have a holley vac secondary 750 I know its to big but its whats laying around.

 

If you go with the 256 and nothing larger there's really no need to swap intakes and converter. It's a fine budget cam for a stock drive train. Excellent cam for a daily driver and perfect with the stock manifold and carb. Decent mileage as well.

 

Consider shaving the heads slightly and going with a bigger cam if you want more nasty than practical. If you want somethin drivable, the xe256 or 262 will work out well. The 262 has a nice sound to it in a 350, it'll sound pretty wicked in a 305.

 

I'm considering the xe256 as well. Infernalvortex, will the 262 work with the stock stall converter?

 

I only got to drive it around the block one time with the 700r4 in my original 350 build... the cylinder wall cracked after that drive around the block and I had to start over with it.

But aside from the TV cable being off, it drove just fine. But understand I just drove it around the block in my neighborhood, and it was a 350. Im not sure what other issues would have cropped up under more stressful driving. But it drove very normally.

http://www.youtube.com/kylep133#p/u/16/7hgGPeH6seA

You cant tell much from that and like I said, it was my very first time around the block in it so ignore my pontifications. They werent to sound "wannabe gearhead" (I hate when people have a slow car and say "Dur I think the timing is just off!"), they were because it was the first time I'd ever even take it around the block. But notice I was just idling it down the drive way and quickly gassing it. It accelerated perfectly fine from the 3 stops it made. It wouldn't have been the fastest way to get that car/engine down the track, but it would have worked.

Currently I have a T56 with 3.27 gears, and the T56 first gear with my 3.27 rear gear is VERY close to the 2.73 with the 700r4 first gear, and the 262 has plenty of torque to climb that gear ratio. It's a little rough just getting it moving since you have to deal with the clutch and that gear is SOOOO tall, but the power band is huge and wide and very streetable. I think in a 305 it'd be a little nastier, so your mileage may very, but it's a wonderfully forgiving 350 cam. I wish I'd gone a little bigger, but Im not sure an xe268 would have really given me much more power than I have. The torque kicks in hard as soon as the engine is running fast enough to atomize the fuel from the carb (around 1400 RPM for me)