Hello Im new here. Thought this would be a good place to spend my spare time seing as I am addicted to all Camaros. I have a 78' 350 engine with a cast iron crank. I want to rebuild it and get about 400hp out of it. Does anyone know if it is worth it to rebuild this engine for that kind of horsepower? Should I just look for a 350 forged crank engine to rebuild? Im just trying to figure if I could get 400hp out of this cast iron crank engine.
Thanks, the new guy.

 

Ray charles could rebuild a 350 and get 400 hp.

And you really don't need a forged crank if that's all the horse power you want to make.

Just my $.02

 

If you keep your maximun rpm to a sane limit, say 6500 then you shouldn't have any trouble with a turned cast crank, resized rods with good bolts and a line honed 2 bolt block. Spend a bit of your budget on a pair of heads, such as GMPP fast burn heads and select a cam, or have one selected that respects your rpm limit, vehicle weight, gear and compression ratio.

I would build it with federal-mogul L2490F forged pistons, they're only about 500 grams.

Cheap horsepower can come from a windage tray or an inexpensive pan such as a hamburger/trans-dapt 1088H.


Welcome to our board.

 

thanks for the tips! my small block rebuild is on its way! Yeah Ill look for those pistons I need to put in some new ones anyway.

 

Yea thats an easy mark to achieve these days. A set of Vortec (or fast burn if you like aluminum) and a decent 230-ish cam near .500 lift and a good Air-gap dual plane intake and a 750 Holley if fuel mileage isnt a concern. You could even get away with a 650 Holley if you like b/c of only runnin 350 cubes.

Hope that helps

 

Those are the exact parts I had in mind! I think im going to get fast burn aluminum heads with a dual plane air gap and i WILL use a 750 holley. Im more concerned in power since the car isnt going to be a daily driver. If Im worried about fuel mileage Ill just drive my Saturn!

 

Now this may just be me but I think a 750 is too much carb for that little motor. I think you would like the 650 better when all is said and done.

Just my $.02 though,

Jeremy

 

Ill see. I got some time to think about it. Ill probably go with a 650 if its too big, now that I think about it 750 is too big for the street. A 750 is unnecessary for my application.

 

Just keep in mind that your average QJet is between 750-800 cfm on everything from a 305 to a 454. Now they have air valve secondaries but a 750 vac sec holley or BG would work just fine.

 

yeah. well i dont know, im not worrying about a carb yet, i got a 750 on my vette and i have no idea how much hp it has. lol its a 350ci/350hp corvette LT1 but my dad rebuilt the whole engine for street years ago.

 

a 750 CFM DP will be fine on a 350, 9-10 :1 comp., fast burn heads and ~.500 lift cam, MIGHT run a shade on the rich side out of the box, but it can be jeted down slightly to compensate if needed/desired

 

yeah because im not aiming for high compression because the vette is very high and doesnt run right on pump gas, even with almost a bottle and a half of octane booster mixed in with a full tank. it "pings" mostly when you WOT it. sounds like static coming from the engine, not good. so i need to put new heads on that this spring and lower the comp ratio.

 

if you really want to keep it simple got to your local advance or autozone and look through a holley book for the systemax II kit. it comes with fully assembled heads, double roller chain, harden push rods, 490/490 lift 245/250 cam, street dominator intake and arp bolt kit. they claim it makes 425hp and if you sweet talk the counter person you can get it for $1300 that is what i bought and it screams.

 

I would use the Vortec iron head. It is quite easy to get 400+ HP out of a 350 with Vortec heads and a streetable hyd cam. In my own case, I ran a 12.15@ 110.52 on worn drag radials weighing over 3700# race-ready, using home-ported Vortecs, 234/244 Crane hyd FT cam, stock rockers, RPM intake, 1 3/4" Hedman headers and a 3310 Holley on my previous 413. This was launching off-idle with a 2800 stall and 4.10 gear (the car would have been faster with a 3.73). The Fast Burn has a 210cc intake runner and throttle response down low and through the mid-range will not be as crisp or torquey as the Vortec which has a 170cc intake runner.

 

I knew a guy that built a 'mild' 350 in a '79 Firebird, & he started with the 650 dp holley, tried re-jetting then went to a 750, & tried re-jetting, & finally settled on the 700 (don't remember if dp) which he again re-jetted, until he got it tuned to his build.
I liked his approach, he started where he thought he should be, then broke-in the motor, then he took it to the strip & made his passes, noted the times/probs, & went to work...
In the end, he had a 'mild' 350 that ran consistent 12's, & wasn't going to come apart any time soon!
Don't overlook the simple things, like fuel-pump/lines, distributor-advance, etc. GO CHEVYS!
John