i am purchasing an 86 TA with no body left on it. i currently have an 84 Monte carlo SS that the LB9 motor will be going into. i was just wondering what you guys though on short block preferance. i have a 350 4 bolt main that i can get a pair of 2.02 heads for. or i could also use the same block with the 305 heads... or my third choice of just rebuilding and upgrading the 305 motor. what would you guys do, and why? the tpi system will be getting ported and polished, and upgraded with the basic mods (i.e. fuel pressure reg., drivetrain enhancements, so on so forth...) and placed ontop of either one of these engine combos.

also, wondering what type of cam would go with any of these projects. and if i should swap over the 700 r4, or stay with the three speed trans allready in the monte ss (i believe its a turbo 350 trans)


thanks a lot guys, brian

 

The 350 will be your best bet, but be forewarned, if the 2.02's are off of an older 327 (they were pretty common on corvettes) then you're going to have real problems getting all your accessory brackets to bolt up (think major fabrication work). depending on your compression ratio, the 305 heads may not work on a 350 block. I sat down and did the math one day, and if you have an older 4 bolt main out of a pickup with an 8.5:1 comp ratio, as was commonly done with dished pistons, the 305 heads will move you up to around 9.82:1, which is good for a car, although they're not going to flow as well as a set of heads designed for a 350. if your 4 bolt already has a high compression ratio (<9.1:1) then the 305 heads will kick your ratio up way high for pump gas. If you're looking at major horsepower, then you'll need a set of good heads, but if you want just plug and play with a decent gain, look at the ZZ4 cam for higher RPM powerband or the RV cam for complimentary torque gain, since TPI makes most of it's power below 5000 RPM. just my two cents...

 

hey guys.

i found a set of 1.94's 1.60's for 390.00$. they come with new valves and high speed springs. i believe they also come with stamped roller rockers. but they will probably get replaced with some 1.6 ratio rockers. i was going to go with a zz4 or lt4 cam along with the afore mentioned tpi unit, and 350 MAF computer. witch i have found.

so what do you guys think? i am not sure yet what compression ratio i will be getting, seeing that i do not have the heads yet, but i would guess between 9 and 10/1. do you guys think that this will get me close to 300 hp's??? (just wondering) thanks guys, brian