Thread: Cheap build whatcha think?

Tweet

Hello everyone,
First post on this site and I was wondering what you thought of my recent ultra cheap build. It is a 2 bolt 350 with cheap summit rebuilder flat top pistons, summit 2.02 heads with a shade tree port job and milled to 70cc. Cam is a comp cam deh275 and intake will be a performer or bowtie dual plane off of a zz3 crate motor. Carb will be either a edelbrock 600 or Holley 650 with vac secondary. Engine is going in a 1987 Monte Carlo SS with stock 200r4 and 3.73 rear. Any wild guess of hp numbers or 1/4 mile times with this combo?
Also i used stock bore pistons to avoid machine shop cost. I am a little worried about bore taper and cylinder wall clearance. What’s the max you would run? I’m only in this setup for 700 bucks using friends scrap heaps so if it smokes a little I won’t cry, but it would be nice to not have any serious issues.

Maybe 300hp and low 15, high 14s

Ehh, the car went 15.02 with the 305 with headers and performer intake. Maybe i’m better of rebuilding the 305 idk.

Originally Posted by Jj231

Ehh, Maybe i’m better of rebuilding the 305 idk.

If you're going to do a rebuild. Do a rebuild. Ignoring cylinder taper and then expecting performance just doesn't work.

Another old saying is "Speed costs money, how fast you wanna go?"

I've done a lot of budget backyard rebuilds over the years. Just quick ring/bearing/gaskets/valve lap/cheap performance cam. Most ran decent although I got bit a few times on not doing all the machine work and had problems. It's fine for a motor that sounds cool and does some burnouts but if you're really looking for consistent track performance; I'd do all the proper machine work and make sure the clearances are right.

Originally Posted by Jj231

Ehh, the car went 15.02 with the 305 with headers and performer intake. Maybe i’m better of rebuilding the 305 idk.

We talking 1/8 mile? many moons ago I had a 68 Charger 383 auto rated at 330hp that ran low 15's high 14's all day long on street tires. I would have eaten your 305 for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Nope no bs, car ran 16.20s thru stock exhaust. True duals really opened it up. 15.70s. Added the headers and performer q jet carb and 15.0s until the thing started knocking. Idk why that’s a surprise tho, 305s are junk but the L-69 Z-28 and firebirds were in the 15s all day. 60 foot was pretty good if I remember.
The build was basically for a 79 Camaro I had and I bailed a friend out and built the motor to sell the car. Long story but that car has different plans now thanks to my friends drag car being rear ended by a duramax. So I had this el cheapo 350 motor laying around and I figured I’d throw it in the monte and see what it does.

No embarrassment doing a budget build. And the 350 will almost always make more power dollar for dollar.
Most everyone in here has done the same thing your doing. Trying to do the most with the least.

Have fun and enjoy the ride. Try not to cut corners when you can do it right and you will usually be rewarded.

Thanks 34-40
I have 4 hot rods and 6 engines laying around. I could drop a afr headed 388
In the monte but the goal is to keep it ultra cheap to see what happens. It’s literally just a fun build and I won’t cry if it explodes. I was just posting to see if anyone has done anything similar.

With a 350, you want to pay attention to the compression height (measurement from the centerline of the wrist pin to the top of the piston crown) of the piston. Stock is 1.560". Rebuilder piston are often shorter and will increase the squish/quench clearance between the squish pads on the piston crown and on the underside of the cylinder head.

When the piston comes to top dead center, it comes very close to the underside of the head and us builders shoot for a squish/quench (a clearance) of 0.035" to 0.045" between the piston and the head to prevent detonation on pump gas. You can jockey the piston compression height, piston deck height (measurement from the piston crown to the deck of the block with the piston at top dead center) and the head gasket thickness to arrive at a proper squish/quench. With squish/quench being the correct measurement of 0.035" to 0.045", when the piston approaches top dead center, the fuel/air mixture is squeezed out from the area above the piston (below the head) and is jetted across the combustion chamber at a very high rate of speed, which breaks up rich pockets of mixture and makes the entire slug of mixture burn more completely, making more horsepower and eliminating detonation. You can see the same effect of squish/quench by dropping a book flatly onto a table top.
.

Yep, good point techispector, those cheap summit pistons are rebuilders and I think the compression height is shorter then stock. I think I will use the fel-pro 1094 gasket to squeeze the quench a little closer. My math says the compression will be just shy of 9.0-1 as well

Use a straightedge stood up on its side and feeler gauges to find the piston compression height, then add that number to the thickness of the gasket. If this procedure is unclear, see the 9th photo from the top on this site.....
Checking and Setting Deck Height - Big Boyz Head Porting
Be sure to measure across the piston at the wrist pin to prevent the piston cocking in the bore and giving you an erroneous reading.
.

Yep, I understand that. Issue is I was too cheap to bore the block. I’m thinking the 1094 gasket is thin enough to make stuff ok.