I've always wanted to completely build a motor from the ground up and never had a reason to do it. Just for the hell of it, and maybe throw it into a project car one day, I want to build a budget 350. What kind of money would I be looking at to make a complete long block? Carb obviously.

 

Well, there's budget and there's budget.

I'll assume you want low cost but good vlaue and the ability to make good power.

If you can just recondition your stock rods & pistons, there are a variety of rebuild kits from summit and jegs that run from around $350 - $500, and that's WITH forged pistons. These are pretty comprehensive kits too.

You have a Chevy, so you can go with a Comp Cams choice. Well, anyone can, but they are particularly well suited to chevies. I suggest an XE274, which has an 1800 - 6000 rpm range and costs about $175. It'll also be OK with a stock Torque Converter, although a mildly looser one will give you a nice kick in the "60-foot pants".

It'll go well with an Edelbrock Performer RPM, which runs from around $175 - $225, depending on the particular flavor. I suggest an Air-Gap version.

Top it with a Summit 170cc Iron Vortech for about $325.

If you DID need to replace your rods or crank, a set of GM performance PM rods are about $250 and a really good value in a crank is a Scat9000 for about $225.


For a carburator, it's hard to beat the classic Holley 750 vacuum secondary. Some folks think 750 is a bit large, but it'll let you breath bigger on the high end and the vaccum secondaries will take the low end. Summit has a remanufactured Holley 750 with Dual Inlet for just over $200.

 

also for heads, i found that local machine shops can be awesome, i bought a set of 487X (70ish corvette LT-1s) headsfrom my machinist, that he completely rebuilt, for $400 (that's heads + rebuild), with what i wanted exactly, best $400 I've ever spent, so call around too and see, sometimes you can get hooked up by the locals

 

Ebay has great deals also....

make sure the compression ratio, camshaft and head flow are matched properly !

 

In order to put a cam in and run Vortec heads they need to be upgraded in ex.,spring seats ground larger for bigger z28 style springs and screw in studs/guideplates as well (guideplates arent really necessary,but lets you run the less expensive non self aligning rocker arms).

I bought a set from a head company off ebay for $500-ish with everything ready to bolt on up to .550 lift.

Big cam + press-in studs = another new engine