81 Z engine rebuild

I'm about to rip out the 350 in my Z28 and was wondering if there were any tips regarding the CCC...computer command control...will I screwup any kind of chip or something with the battery unhooked for a while. I don't know a lot about these so any advice would be very appreciated.....thanks inadvance for your replies.
Mark

From what I understand, most people remove teh computer and go with a purely mechanical setup.

You will not screw anything up, just unhook the battery. Not sure what you want to do. If you are going to rebuild and mod the motor than it is better to get rid of the stock carb and CCC System. Get a 650-750cfm carb that you like. I had the '80 Z I bought new and was glad to see it did not have the CCC like all the other chevys got in '80.(except the vette and Z) Later>>>>>

Originally posted by Z-Attitude
I had the '80 Z I bought new and was glad to see it did not have the CCC like all the other chevys got in '80.(except the vette and Z) Later>>>>>

Most Chevys got the CCC in '81. My dad's '80 El Camino doesn't have the CCC.

There are some simple things you can do- computer controlled engine or not- that I found help out the performance of these motors quite a bit for ZERO dollars over a dead-stock rebuild.

1. Pistons. Stock they are 12cc dished. Combined with your 76cc heads they yield an actual compression ratio of about 8.3:1 (although stock spec is 8.5:1). When you do the rebuild simply installing flattop pistons will get you up closer to 9:1, improve the overall combustion characteristics of the engine and add quite a bit of "snap" to the motor in the low-midrange. If you mill the heads and/or block a bit you can gain even more compression- and you're gonna have to have them brought back to dead-flat anyway during the rebuild.

2. Cam. The stock cam is a super-wimp. You don't have to go crazy with a lumpy cam. Something with about 210* duration @ .050 will really wake up the motor in the mid-upper RPMs. An Xtreme Energy 262 grind should really breathe some life into it! And you're gonna have to buy a cam anyway, so it's basically a no-cost upgrade.

That's about it for stuff that is effectively FREE. Beyond that, a common Edlebrock Performer intake (not the RPM) is worth an easy 10 HP over the stock cast iron intake (and lighter). Some cheap tubular headers and a good flowing dual exhaust are worth another 20 over the corked up manifolds and stock exh. system.

It's really not difficult to pul an extra 50-70HP out of these motors since they made so little power to begin with.

Damon, there's more of us Q-jet fans than you think!