Rage

I own the car in the sig, and I'm 17. I have worked my butt off ever since I bought the car, which I also worked my butt off for. I've been talking to my dad about spending alot of money on my car, and with an evil grin he said let's build it, not that it's his money and he has any say, but I just like the support. Alright, here we go. I have a 305 TPI in the car, but have a 350 in the garage, with a billit crank. That's all I have for it. I want to build it up to run mid 12's. What would be the best way, mainly the head, cam, and intake combo. Stealth Ram?Mini Ram?Vortech TPI?

Alright next, I have a 700-R4 I'm going to have it rebuilt. What kind of goodies should I get? shift kit, stall converters, etc.

And thirdly, I have a 10-bolt. Trash. I need a 9" or a 12 bolt. What kind of goodies do I need for that one?

Im looking to spend a max of $2,000 in each catagory. And whatever I dont spend goes to miscellaneous things, ET Drags, Pro Stars etc.. I need help. Thanx.

StealthElephant

Talk to poney killer, he runs almost 12 flat on a 350SBC with a rebuilt 700R4 and beefed up stock 10-bolt. Plus he did it for like 4k....With that kind of a budget the possibilities are pretty wide open.

Drkhrse89

Chevy High Performance just had a 355 in their magazine pulling down 425hp with some pretty basic parts. They had some factory rods, forged TRW pistons, pretty mild cam, AFR 180 heads, and a carbed intake. I would think that if you went to a Stealth Ram or Mini Ram intake and a bigger cam you could be pulling down some 12s. That shouldnt really cost you a boat load.

aklim

I would run a Ford 9 in rear end. Next time mine breaks, that is what I am going to.

Tranny I would get modified by www.rosslertrans.com as they are good and recommended by LPE. They rebuilt my trans to take 3.5 years of beating behind my 383.

Intakes, I would go with Accel Superram.

teke184

there are a few companies that make small block top end kits. they include the cam, lifters, heads and intake. they are all matched to give optimum perf gains. and when bolted to a fresh 350 block they produce upwards of 425hp.

i think either summit or jegs sells them. i know Holley makes them and i've seen ones by Brodix.

you could feasibly hog out the stock TPI plenum, get some large tube runners (or siamesed) and a large mouth lower intake. and maintain the tpi intake system. you as long as you build the motor to produce the power down low, say below 6k rpm, you should be able to get great torque and decent hp.

zupmanZ28

get yourself some vortec heads and have them machined for better springs, screw in studs and guideplates, also have the valve guides machined for higher lift.

Get a comp cams Xe274 cam and some good roller rockers (promags are great). Sell your TPI system, it's useless. Get yourself a holley or Demon 750, and an RPM intake. This combo is proven to be good for 440hp. Ponykiller has this setup and is runnin 12.2s

I have a similar setup, using trickflow heads in place of vortecs. I ran 12.9 with zero tuning, and with the car falling flat on it's face on the launch. It'll go 12.5's or better once it's tuned (might be going back this Friday).

Eric

aklim

I had TFS heads and didn't care for them. All the valve guides on the passenger side seemed to give way and allow the valves to wobble and eventually break a spring. That allowed the valve to hit the piston of my #4 cylinder. Also, 2 weeks after I got them installed, the company sent me a set of guideplates because they were shipped with a bad batch. Further to that, after numerous calls to their tech support, they still could not tell me if my cam was too high a lift for their heads.

Vortech heads are ok if you never plan to sell them or use other manifolds. On the TPI setup, they only accept one manifold and no other. That makes resale harder. I would get a set of good aluminum heads and stick with that. I used AFRs and am very happy with them.

Rage

I thought about the Vortech heads and Scoggin-Dickey's base plate. It seems to be a good deal. I was actually thinking of doing my car just like the guys Firebird in the magazine. I dont know. He had the Vortech combo, LT1 flat top pistons, LT4 cam, High Flow runners, TES headers, and a 3000rpm stall converter. And a few other lil things and he got 357 hp and 416 lbs-ft. I could do a number of other things that he didnt do and get better hp. Shift kit, and exhaust(his was on stock exhaust)and a lil bit of juice and i'll be runnin 12's fo sho.

But lets suppose I go with Stealth Rame or SuperRam. What kind of heads should I get? But the thing is about going with either of these, is that I will have put almost $2k in just the head intake combo already. I dont think I want to do that.

Thanx for tha help guys, keep the thoughts coming, im open to anything right now.

Aaron91RS

Heres a totally different approach to all the above advise.
Sell your car for ~$4000 and add that to the $6000.
Now you have $10,000. You will be able to buy a VERY badass 3rd gen already modified with some nice 383 or supercharged 350 or something.
You will NEVER be able to make your car in to the same car you can buy already done for the same money.
So not only are you saving time but you are getting a fast car right now with now work.
Take this car for example
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6161
You could never turn your car in to that for 6K but here you can buy it for under 10K.

camaronewbie

Spend $2000 on the thirdgen mods - for the fun of it, spend $500 on another car to drive while you do the mods, pocket $3500 for another hobby. I love my thirdgen dearly, but spending $6000 on one is crazy! You could buy another thirdgen in perfect shape for $3500 - with mods already done! Hell - for $6000 I could probably get a 4th Gen with all options that already kicks more butt than any 3rd Gen would.

Rage

I did get one in perfect shape for $3500. look at the pic in the sig. But I want more......Say I get an LT1. I buy it spending all of my money and then some, and I have a low 14 sec car high 13 if lucky. Good deal right, Im faster than my 3rd gen already! But then I'll only be attacked by insurance, and I will only be more deppressed to find out that Im stuck with a 14 sec car again, and cant mod it because it's 2wice as expensive. No sir. Not I. and how rare is it that you see a street 3rd gen pullin up 12 sec track times? Very. I never even see V-8 third gens around Houston, and if I do, they're TBI. No. I perfer the 3rd gen look anyhow. I'd love to have an LT1 SS, but I cant afford it, Im 17.

$6k in a third gen crazy????.............I think not.

As as good friend would say and I quote "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Aaron91RS

6K won't get you far. At least not like you think.
I tired that route. You can follow this link and see mods and pics even
pics and mods

It's got about anything you could want on a 3rd gen but cost a fortune. Yet if I tried to sell it I would be lucky to get 6-7K for it.
If I had it to do over again, I would buy something already done.

slimdawson

Buy an Lt1 motor and put it in there. I have a 91 RS and bought a 96LT1/M6 and rear. I paid 2500 for the motor/tranny with 44k miles on them. 450 for headers, about 300 for the rest of the exhaust and 75 for the Moroso CAI. Saved about 500 by doing the wiring myself. That is about 3300. Add about 1000 for little odds and ends which is an overly generous amount and you still have less than 4500 in it. I ran 13.4@104 with those mods. After the electric water pump and new wires and opti and wheels and tires, I ran a 13.1@107. Definately to the surprise of onlookers. Add a 125 dollar dry nitrous kit I bought from a friend and I got a 12.5@115mph. That was running a 9:1 AFR. I will get that fixed soon and should see a 3-4mph increase.

You get the point. I agree with your reasoning as well. I love the look of my 3rd gen and it is cool to see a nice looking one. I have spent over 6k on mine and will probably spend another 6. I just bought some Crane Gold race rockers today

Have fun!

irocz8957

def. do heads cam and an intake for starters

aklim

Stick with the L98. Why bother with an LT1? You'd have to rewire the harness, etc? What is the gain of the LT1? Just the intake. You could stick with what you have and change the intakes and be done with that for less trouble.