I am new to the forum and to chevies. Got an '88 IROC-Z recently in excellent condition for $500. It had no engine or trans but was a carburetor car.

I picked up a 4 bolt 350 in good shape at the local pick and pay yard for $99 with edel performer and quadrajet. I also got a rebuilt set of 416 heads for $40 that should get me 9.5:1 compression.

My questions are what cam do I need with the 416 heads on a 350 for a mostly street car? Do the smaller 416 heads mean I need a hotter cam due to the smaller ports, or should I stick to something conservative of around 215 intake duration @50 with .450 lift? I figure the engine will put out around 275 hp. Am I close?
Thanks

 

i would stay with something conservative on the cam...215-220 duration, max of .480 of lift... Unless you are getting your valvetrain built for the higher lift. I have corvette L98 Alumium heads and the ports are on the smaller side compared to some of the higher end heads so I'm running .543 lift with 1.6 RR's and 224/230 duration, and that is a pretty lumpy cam...perhaps the roughest you woudl wanna go for a street car IMO...

If your building a very streetable daily driver i'd recommend something smaller...look into the extreme energy cams by comp cams tho i really like those....i have a XE 276HR grind..

oh and by the way, you might have to do some research, but there is a certain model of vortecs heads that flow awesome, they are one of the best flowing stock cast heads you can find...

 

Ed- welcome to the board!

I beleive all engines in 1988 were fuel injected. I beleive the Throttle Body Injected 305 replaced the last of the old carbureted engine choices in 1988. 1987 was the last year you could get a carbureted Camaro/Firebird. That's according to the official specs- doesn't mean that a few "leftover" carbureted engines didn't make it through around the time of the change-over. Or if the car is from Canada or some other country. Just FYI.

Your thoughts on can choice are good ones. Stay conservative. Smaller ports from those 305 heads will help raise compression (around 9.6:1 if your 350 has typoical -12cc dished pistons in it) but it doesn't mean they'll flow well at high RPMs. Keep the cam choice to something that will work in an idle-5000 RPM kind of range. 210-215* cam on a 110-112* LSA would be in the realm of sanity.