Hello everyone.
I recently purchased a good wrench 350 crate engine with a little under 10,000 miles on it.
I plan on putting it in my 85' z28 because the 150 horse 305 is not too quick.
From what ive read on-line the engine is rated at about 250 ish with headers.
I was wondering if anyone knew a good combo of cam and intake for this to get this engine to the 285/300 range as far as horse power.
I still want drivability and reliability.im almost positive the engine has 8.5:1 compression but id like to keep the heads it came with.
Also do i need to put sub frame connectors on?
I appreciate the input as i am new to the engine building and their seems to be quite a lot of avenues to take.
I just want a nice reliable street ripper that will fry the tires and have a decent rumble.
Thank you

 

1st thing Id tell you to do is ditch the heads for something better and to help bump up the compression.

 

Heads are where the power's at.

Your biggest gains will be from
Heads
Exhaust
Compression
Cam
Intake
In that order.

I can understand what and why you are doing what you are, and keeping with the stock heads.

In that case, you can not go very big on the cam. Summit K1102 204/214@.050", .421"/.444" lift is a nice little bump up from stock that will still work good with the low compression. (It's listed as 8.5:1 but has been measured by many during overhaul or upgrade and comes up short.. 7.8:1 to 8.3:1)

They used .036" to .039" thick head gaskets.. So that kills quench and compression. If you wanted to pull heads to install fel pro 1094 .015" thick gaskets that would help a good bit

The stock cam in the good wrench is #14088839 194/202@.050", .383"/.401" lift

Edelbrock performer or summit stage 1 intake, 600 cfm carb,


The goodwrench with stock carb intake, Qjet carb, and exhaust manifolds will make around 230-235 HP and 320-325 ft lbs torque.

I think it was super chevy years ago did a good wrench 350 test and build. Stock, ported heads, bigger cam, L98 heads, vortec heads, etc

(it was super chevy, I just looked it up)

With an edelbrock performer intake (the intake GM uses on those engines to dyno them with), and 1-5/8" long tube headers it made 265 HP and 350 ft lbs torque.

The next steps they did was... Had valve back cut, ported the stock heads, had heads milled to reduce chamber size to 73cc, installed new stronger valve springs, fel pro 1094 head gaskets, Comp Cams Xtreme Energy 268H cam..

Used the same intake, carb, headers, etc and made 336 HP, 377 ft lbs

Next they swapped out the heads for a set of 58cc, L98 alum heads, (the small chamber heads got compression up to 10:1)

Engine made 348 HP, 380 ft lbs torque

Now add edelbrock performer RPM intake, holley 750 carb. 355 HP, 405 ft lbs torque

Very mild port work, more like clean up work on the heads... 361 HP, 401 ft lbs torque

Swapped to vortec heads, modded with springs and what not to handle lift, again mild clean up work, edelbrock performer rpm vortec intake, and made 384 HP

Roller tip 1.6 rockers, 1-3/4" headers, 408 HP, 430 ft lbs torque

Next was trick flow 23* 195cc runner alum heads, 416 HP, 423 ft lbs

 

Until you're prepared to swap heads, don't do anything internally to the engine. The tiny gain for the dollars and time you'll sink into it are not worth it.
If you're in a rush to get the engine into the car, and don't have the time to wait for a good used set of Vortec heads to come along, then you may want to consider a cam swap to something in the 205-215 intake duration range. BUT.....this is ONLY if you're committed to swapping the heads soon. I only suggest this option because a cam swap is easy now, but not as easy after it's in the car. Head swap at any point is pretty easy.

 

I appreciate all the god input, I don't plan on doing the swap until spring but since the engine is out I guess I will have to find a set of decent heads to put on. I guess first things first I should get a decent exhaust system for the car.

 

and before/if you ask... NO Procomp heads. The heads will be expensive, but it's the only way to make any kind of power without wasting your hard earned money. Get a nice set of iron heads if you can't afford the aluminum stuff and have fun with the car.