Thread: 1979 350 Chevy Build ?

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Here's a 1979 350 4 bolt main ID TBC Cast #14016379 Truck engine . It had the thin casting #624 heads 76cc . Gave the 624s to the Metal man . So how would you build this short block up to a street / strip long block . Like to know any way you think is best . Can be a Stroker kit or 350 . What heads /cam /intake-carb /ign ? And what kind of HP do you think it will make. It will go into a 3500lbs car with a TH350-3200 stall with a 411 gear .

Question is, how much money you got?

350 rebuild is cheap.

383 Stroker = NOT CHEAP.

Any good 383 Machinist is going to hit you for close to a grand.
Cleaning, grinding out the block to let the whirly things go round and round, line bore, head work (you better do this), balancing the whirly parts. And other things.

A cheap base 383 should kick out close to 300 HP, being very subjective and conservative.

Carb? =Money
Intake? = Money
Headers? = Money
Heads = Money

Take a grand, buy good parts, good machinist, and ask a lot of questions and you could get a 400 HP + motor out of it.

Add Nitrous and add 1/3rd HP, but understand the whole thing could go BOOM and you would have....... a pile of sh..!

Pay attention ,I ususually do not go this in depth ,but I am on the "mark" tonight....
Budgett time bomb......
Bore .030
deck 9.000
forged ros flat tops or eqivelant{off the shelf}
10 to 1 compression
factory forged or eqivelant crank
crower 5.7 rods or equivelant {6.0 rod if piston allows}
stock reworked pump{casting flaws smoothed ,oil port enlarged and polished}
moroso or eqivelant sump pan
crane 113801 duall pattern cam or eqivelant
good lifters{possibly?rhodes on the intake and regular on the exaust?}
1.6 intake rockers 1.5 exaust{roller tipped stamped}
good pushrods
good timing set{cloyes double roller}
041 or equivelant heads ,home ported for n2o
bronze guides ,screw in studs ,flat milled to reduce combustion chamber to the 10 to 1 spec
vic junior intake ,plate n20 kit
850 cfm carb {properly tuned for application}
factory hei ,with a good module
20 degrees total advance for the n20
32 with out n20 ,all in by 3000 rpm
1 3/4 headers with 18 inch extensions

This will net you about 400 425 hp at 6000 rpm to 6500 n/a
A big n2o hit ,approxamatly enuff n2o to equall about 300 hp gain ,hiting it at about 3000 to 3500 rpm ,then you use a second stage at about 5800 rpm in the 150 to 250 shot of n2o,this should yield about 850 ponies on the second stage hit and about 700 on a single stage n2o system......

I am thinkin a frugal shopper can put this together for about 3500 bucks.



Now after this price comes tranny/rear end /roll cage /slicks .....

Come to think of ,theres nothing budgett at all about going fast

I mean really ,are you ever going to be satisfied with 350 hp........Why go at it one upgrade at a time ,buying and selling heads and cranks untill you finally build the mega horse engine ,might as well go all out and when it blowes ,you can rest assured you were getting your moneys worth untill it did ...........let the slapstick flaming begin................,but it will work.
Buil;t properly and kept in tune ,this motor was torn down after 80 ,....yes thats right 80 1/4 mile passes on the single stage and was good to go ,other than some bearing wear ,which is a given at this hp level ,in other words nothing out of the norm for high horse n2o motor.
Do not go crazy on the head gaskett either ,it is like a blow off valve ,it blows off ,you put another on,o ring it or use a metal gasket and the piston or head becomes the relief valve.......

BINGO

Very well put!

Shawnlee28 that's a cool build . But this engine will be built on more of a budget . I am trying to build this one at no more then $1000 Bucks . I did think I could do this because I had a set of #186 fuelly heads that were re-done Well I marked and removed all the Valves to do some pocket porting . And what did I find ? When the machine shop in-stalled steel valveguides . They cracked just about every guide boss They ruined a good set of fuelly heads with the front bolt holes . And they put them together that way I don't know what shop did this . They came off a 355 rebuilt never run engine . The good thing I only payed $350.00 for the long block . The same guys that did the heads put a BB Chevy oil pump on that 355 . That engine would not even turn over all the way . The crankshaft was hitting the BB pump ! Well Now I am looking to buy a set of 1969 #441 heads from one of the guy on this site . They have 194/150 valves with 73cc Chambers . I will also buy a set of standard cast flat top pistons and ARP rod bolts . I will have the rods re-built and the pistons pressed to the rod . And run a .016 head gasket Trying for 9.1 C/R . Still not sure what cam I will use . But it will be less then 460 lift .

why do yo need aftermarket rods? man i must be the only guy to give credit to stock parts?

No after market stuff all GM . Going to use the 1979 350 rods . But have ARP bolts installed . And the large ends re-sized . USA all the way on this one . COOL

thats the same as my dads motor but his was all orange not blue. we had the block bored .030 over reused the 882 heads trued .010 all new valveguides and 1 new seat and all new seals umbrella and o-ring. .100 domed pistons, crane enegizer cam 272 duration 454 lift, crane enegizer roller rockers 1.5 ratio 3/8 stud, true roller timing chain, Edelbrock performer intake non EGR, stock Q-jet carb, new OEM oilpump, fel-pro gaskets,B&M 2500rpm Stall converter th350 w/shiftkit, all clevite bearings, 1 5/8 headders. = one snappy street performer i tell you what has about $2500 into it all together he has about $10,000 into the car with the purchase of the car and what he's put into it (mag wheels, duel exh, firestone firehawk tires,ect.)

NOTE that my old mans car is a fully loaded 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix SE that came stock from factory with a 305 and a th metric200 tranny and when i put in the 350 and th350 i reused stuff from the 305 to keep the cars origonal look so when you pop the hood it looks like the origonal 305 when its actually a 355 and the car is in great shape and everything works A/C power everything black with tan leather interior.

Originally Posted by tango

I did think I could do this because I had a set of #186 fuelly heads that were re-done Well I marked and removed all the Valves to do some pocket porting . And what did I find ? When the machine shop in-stalled steel valveguides . They cracked just about every guide boss They ruined a good set of fuelly heads with the front bolt holes . And they put them together that way I don't know what shop did this . They came off a 355 rebuilt never run engine.

when they put in new guides they drill out the old and press in new. you should call and talk to someone at a machine shop to find out if those heads are really ruined.

unless they knurled the guides to cheat it which can make them crack if its to tight

Originally Posted by speedy55779

when they put in new guides they drill out the old and press in new. you should call and talk to someone at a machine shop to find out if those heads are really ruined.

Dont know who or what shop did this . Bought that 355 long block from an old guy that had it in a bag since 1994 . I do think some of the machine shops use the air hammer way of pushing the guides in . And there is no way to save the heads now I like the BB pump they in-stalled ? At first when I had that engine on the stand I could not figger out why it would not turn all the way around . The crank was just hitting that BB pump ?? This is that engine with the heads off . 30 over dished pistons ?

Originally Posted by shawnlee28

Pay attention ,I ususually do not go this in depth ,but I am on the "mark" tonight....
Budgett time bomb......
Bore .030
deck 9.000
forged ros flat tops or eqivelant{off the shelf}
10 to 1 compression
factory forged or eqivelant crank
crower 5.7 rods or equivelant {6.0 rod if piston allows}
stock reworked pump{casting flaws smoothed ,oil port enlarged and polished}
moroso or eqivelant sump pan
crane 113801 duall pattern cam or eqivelant
good lifters{possibly?rhodes on the intake and regular on the exaust?}
1.6 intake rockers 1.5 exaust{roller tipped stamped}
good pushrods
good timing set{cloyes double roller}
041 or equivelant heads ,home ported for n2o
bronze guides ,screw in studs ,flat milled to reduce combustion chamber to the 10 to 1 spec
vic junior intake ,plate n20 kit
850 cfm carb {properly tuned for application}
factory hei ,with a good module
20 degrees total advance for the n20
32 with out n20 ,all in by 3000 rpm
1 3/4 headers with 18 inch extensions

This will net you about 400 425 hp at 6000 rpm to 6500 n/a
A big n2o hit ,approxamatly enuff n2o to equall about 300 hp gain ,hiting it at about 3000 to 3500 rpm ,then you use a second stage at about 5800 rpm in the 150 to 250 shot of n2o,this should yield about 850 ponies on the second stage hit and about 700 on a single stage n2o system......

I am thinkin a frugal shopper can put this together for about 3500 bucks.



Now after this price comes tranny/rear end /roll cage /slicks .....

Come to think of ,theres nothing budgett at all about going fast

I mean really ,are you ever going to be satisfied with 350 hp........Why go at it one upgrade at a time ,buying and selling heads and cranks untill you finally build the mega horse engine ,might as well go all out and when it blowes ,you can rest assured you were getting your moneys worth untill it did ...........let the slapstick flaming begin................,but it will work.
Buil;t properly and kept in tune ,this motor was torn down after 80 ,....yes thats right 80 1/4 mile passes on the single stage and was good to go ,other than some bearing wear ,which is a given at this hp level ,in other words nothing out of the norm for high horse n2o motor.
Do not go crazy on the head gaskett either ,it is like a blow off valve ,it blows off ,you put another on,o ring it or use a metal gasket and the piston or head becomes the relief valve.......

Every thing sounded good until I read the very last sentence.
If you put "cheap" head gaskets in and all the N20 pushes them out you will have a "burn threw" which means you will either wreck the block or wreck the heads in a really short time.

I picked up these heads for my 1979 350 4 Bolt build today that's the blue one . They are #083 Heads . These heads were used on the 1986 to 1992 Z-28s and T/As with the 5.7 TPI engines . They are 64cc and have 1.94in/1.50ex valves . I can tell you this they are not light castings I will mark all the valves . Then re-move them and do some porting . Also I will install a set of GEN I Z-28/LT-1 Springs .

Speedy 55299, Thanks for the reassurance. My engine has been sitting unstarted for about two years but it was built for about $1800 until I wasted another $200 having the exhaust ports smoothed out. You can buy a rebuild kit for about $250 with flat top eybrow pistons, bore the block 0.030" and clean up the crank for about $200 in machining buy a Speedway cam, new lifters, Z28 springs and shave the heads (882) to a 70 cc chamber and pay for a three angle valve job and add a Performer intake with headers and you should be in the 280 HP range with a stock HEI distributor and whatever carb you have. A few years ago there was a similar rebuild on Street Rodder magazine that got 300 HP with a stock rebuild, Performer intake, three angle valve job, 882 heads and a longer duration cam. Prices may have gone up but the easy way to getting HP seems to be with a longer duration cam, but that may reduce the low rpm torque. All you need is one of thise rebuild kits with their longer duration cam and a Performer intake. I opted for a stock 300 HP cam with 1.6 rockers for low rpm torque. I hope to get it running as soon as the weather warms up.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder