Im building a motor for my daily driver. 78 350, Mostly stock, Has performer RPM intake, Edlebrock 1405, and a mild cam from what i was told. I plan on adding some more parts i have sitting around the shop.


I have a set of 609 Vortec heads out of a 00 1500. What are some of the cheaper / easier mods to do to these to for some more airflow. I Plan on grinding the retainers to allow for .050 lift cam. I have heard that porting them on exhaust side is worth it, but intake there is not much restriction.
A few have told me to stick with the stock vortec valves as bigger dose not flow much better unless you have a bunch of work.

How much abuse can the stock pistons / rods take? I have a budget and if i can avoid buying some pistons / rods I will ditch the 1405 for injection system. I was thinking about going to the bone yard for some vortec rods and Getting some Flat topped pistons to keep compression down. Some new bearings / seals throughout, Hi Flow oil pump. But if people believe stock lower end can handle 350-375hp ill spend more on injection and do the bottom end some other time.

Suggestions would be great as im still planning for the best overall combo.

I was trying to get away with it for as cheap as possible without cutting into a durability as this will be a daily driver that i run hard from time to time.

 

In all honesty, I built a vortec headed 350. Good bang for the buck, great power too.
But for the price to have them ported, valve job, new springs, etc I'd just buy aftermarket heads.

 

Read
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...790-post1.html

If you buy these drop in valve springs , you don't need to do any guide mods

http://www.alexsparts.com/valve-spri...rf-hyd-roller/

 

Thanks

 

The first big problem that you might run into is if that engine has a lot of miles on it, you'll more than likely have to have it bored out, and have to buy a larger diameter piston anyway. You should also be able to find some information on stock components in the engine and their HP rating. I'm assuming its somewhere between 350-420ish but I don't know. Especially if it has a lot of abuse. And I wouldn't spend the money on a high-flow oil pump. Typically the stock pumps cover more than enough output. Most of the pro engine builders don't upgrade the pump unless it's in the beginnings of a race engine. Id personally save the money and buy decent headers or another upgrade for the engine. Goodluck with your 350 build!