Thread: 350 rebuild kit

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If you are just looking for a mild performance engine, you really can't beat the deal Chevy offers through the Goodwrench program. You can buy a brand new 350 longblock for around $ 1300.00, and it comes with a warranty. For the novice engine builder it is a great option. By the time you pay for the machine shop and the kit, you will be at or over that figure.

Slide a mild cam from PAW or others into it, and you will have an honest 280-300 HP engine, with the proper carb/intake. There are so many things that can and do go wrong even when pro's rebuild engines, that, if you can avoid it, you can save a lot of grief.

I wish I were into Chevy's, because it is a steal.

yea that was my first plan like 3 months ago, but i was told id have to rebalane the whole engine because the cam was and the rest of the parts were balanced togther and if i threw a different cam in id have to rebalace the parts and make sure the heads and and engine would be able to support the cam, figuring you biuld the engine around the cam. but i figure id have to do all that anyway if i put performance parts in. and also i heard if i up grade the engine, or put different parts in, the warranty is void. but yeah it is real hard to beat.

Nope. You are getting bad info. Cam has absoutely no bearing on balance. You can go to Chevy and get the early style 2 bolt block, slide a $ 50 cam in it from PAW, use a $ 120. aluminum intake from anybody, top it with a $ 200.00 Edelbrock 500 cfm, fire it with a $ 200.00 Unilite setup, and you will be good to go for about $ 2000. I can't hardly rebuild an engine for $ 2K.

Like I said, I wish I was into Chevys because these Goodwrench crates are the steal of a lifetime, and you get a warranty. I wish Ford had a comparable program. With the limitations you outlined not having experience doing this work and all, you really would be way ahead. Even pros screw up rebuilds.

I did a swap for a customer putting one of the Goodwrench engines into his Vette, and it was the simplest install I've ever done.

Give it some thought.

donsrods is right, im into both ford, GM, and chrysler products, and you just cant beet there long blocks and complete crate engines for the asking price.

if you added up the price of a cheep block, with questionable machinability then through in parts to build the engine and the labor of a pro to assemble it and give you a warrenty of 3/36. im pretty sure what you will comeup with cost much more. anywhere from $200, and up in what you could save, and putt that to a cool set of wheels or headers.

ok so, i can buy a long block, through in a bigger cam as long as i upgrade everything else? like rocker arms studs springs, and all that stuff? i was looking at the gm 350 long block, its got 260 hp and 350 ft lbs , i want to put a nice cam in , low end torque, not to big though, would would you guys recomend? i was looking at comp cams 242 i think, it seemed ok for the engine. those are my plans, you guys have any other suggestions? thanks again.

Yep, you are on the right track. As long as you are not getting crazy with the lift of the cam, the stock springs/ lifters/etc. will be fine. The reason I suggest the PAW route (performance Auto Warehouse) is that their house brand cams are actually Crane Cams in a different box. (I lived in Daytona Beach where Crane is based, and saw pallets of cams coming right down the assembly line, going into plain white boxes slated for PAW, and I have bought a few from them, and a Crane timing card comes in the box,)
Call someone like Crane, outline your car and what you want it to do, and they will give you the specs you should use for a cam. Then take that info and shop. The key to good solid HP is a balance of all the add on parts, cam, intake, carb, exhaust, etc.

Don't get nuts with the cam and carb setup, and you will have a better running car with good performance, economy, and reliablility.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

yea , i wanted to get a a new intake, like a edelbrock performer or a nice dual plane intake. i have a holley 4 bbl and now i have to select a cam. so i guess ill get the engine, slam on the bolt ons, and upgrade the rockers,lifters, and pushrods and i think ill be fine. i had trouble going through PAW , i went to the web site and all they had was cataloge pages, ill try again. im trying to get the engine to 320 hp, well i really want the most torque, so i guess hp doesnt matter.

You will be a lot happier going the route you are outlining, rather than rebuilding a tired/used engine. I am in the marine business, and we stopped installing rebuilt or remanufactured engines years ago because of the high failure rate. And our engines came from people like Jasper and other well known names. We were losing like 10 to 20% of the engines right out of the box, and this is from people who have very controlled environments, and do this day in day out.

Every time I fire up an engine I personally build, I hold my breath, because you just never know. For someone who hasn't done it a few times before, even if you get friends and relatives to help, it is a real crap-shoot. I even check engines I get back from the machine shop, because they sometimes screw up......humans.

As for the upgrade to different rockers, pushrods, etc. I feel you should rethink that. You are putting this engine into a Chevy Van, essentially a box on wheels, that will never see the North side of 4500 RPMs. Stock drivetrains are fine with that, and more. The same engine is used in every Mercruiser/Volvo/etc. marine 5.7 boat engine, and they are built to run at 4600-5000 all day long.
But it is your engine, and only you can make that call.

As for PAW.........yep, their website stinks. But order a catalog, and then compare it to Summit, Jegs, etc, and then shop for the best deal. I use all 3 and more.

You are making some good choices and being smart enough to ask others for suggestions. And that's all we can give is suggestions, and you know what they say about opinions.

yea i got a jegs and a summit catalog, i guess i got some more to order.