Thread: 350 rebuild questions

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I recently bought a '72 chevelle with a 350 engine in it. The block casting # is 14016379 and it has 305 HO 58cc heads casting #14014416. I'm thinking about rebuilding it because it's a little weak and burns oil. It has an Edelbrock Performer intake and an Edelbrock Q-Jet carb. I'm not sure what cam it has in it, probably stock. I am a little new to engine building so I am having a buddy help me out with the rebuild. I want to add some power to it so that I feel like I am driving a muscle car (maybe 350 horses). With a budget of $1500, what would be the best thing to upgrade to give me the performance that I want. Are the heads okay or should I upgrade them? Thanks for any advice.

350 4bolt .03 over edelbrock performer manifold
edelbrock performer carb mild crane cam
hypernuteck pistons malory ignition with 8mm
plug wires then i spent 190 bucks to have the
engine balanced that in my opinion was 190 bucks
well spent,this engine runs smoother than the 327
i blew up. the builder said it would put out 240 honest
hp on 91 octane pump gas. this is in my 57 which is
a fairly heavy car,last weekend i stepped on it for
the first time since break in the rear wheel brock loose
off the line and also brock loose in second i did'nt slam
it in 3rd but i don't think it would break loose in 3rd
total cost was 2600 for the long block,i already had
the carb manifold ignition and ram horn exhuast man.
plus the 71 350 4bolt was in a shed since 81 with less
than 100.000 miles on it. and my brother gave me that.
it was out of a truck.

hey there if it was me i would get a summit mag
and order sealed powers engine rebuild kit
for a chevy 350 1967-93 hypereutectic 10.72:1
comp 64cc heads that kits is 309.95$
thin i would get you crank turned 10/10
the stock 350 rods are good for 400hp
but order arp rod bod bolts part num arp-134-6003
in summit and they are 49.88$ and GET!! and good harmonic damper not the best in the world but a good one pioneer
makes a good street one it runs 84.88$ and get a good flexplate
30 to 40 $ and get your crank rods pinsons damper flexplate
balance its abot 150 to 190 get a roller timing chin 31.95$
your intake is ok to use your carb is ok to. now for the heads
iwould get a pair of world s/r cylinder heads 67cc or 58 up to you
the 58 will make you have more comp like 11.0:1 the heads are 759.00$ for the cam i would go with comp cams part num cca-12-211-2 it a 470/470 224/224 its 96.00$ get a stall 1500to 2000 that will help out get a set of roller tip rockers 99.95 that abot it good luck bud! o all of this was in summit racing equipment mag

first of all bro,i hope you have ALL the tools ness for do it yourselfs,they aint cheap....i honestly believe in your case it would be better to buy a used 350/350 hp motor..you can find good deals on em,,with that mess you have its def gonna cost more than 1500....i ve always had my best luck durring winter months when people low on$$$ and need money for christmas........people always willing to sell cheaper around that time,cuz mama aint happy=you aint got money then nobody happy and you aint getting any pu#$%^.i d wait if you can and shop around for one...imo......go in a shoe store with 1500 dollars you come out with 2 pair of shoes..take care bro.....

hell you could get a brand new GM Performance engine from Summit
http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...2D48465+309070

i ve never seen anything remotely that price 1500$$$$ in summit =close to 350hp and i buy ALL my stuff there..btw

sorry that was a 260 hp 350 with 4 bolt mains for $1495. but the point is that you could just about buy a new engine for 1500. Yegs has one even cheaper that pushes 280. Of course they are minus intake/carb. but what he's missing could relatively easily be removed from the core.

Ok man. First if you are going to use your 305 motor then start at the bottom and work your way up. Start with a Rod and Main bearings, and then get the Hypereutecic pistons they are better than cast and not as high as the forged ones. Then call comp cams do some research they will help you get the right cam. Then your heads well you could port and polish them and have the valves cut back and they still wouldn''t be as good as a set of stock vortec heads you can pick them up for a couple hundred bucks, they come stock on chevy 350 motors from 96-99 and they are 64cc. your intake will work ditch the carb. and get a holley,lot easier to work on and cheaper. if you can a MSD ready to run distributor would be nice. oh yeah dont over do the carb bigger is not always better. I hope i have helped.

Thanks for all the advice. It's a 350 block and a set of 305 heads that I have. The guy that I was planning on going to for the machine work said it may cost $1000 just to get the block machined and reassembled right, depending on what it needs. After I heard that I started thinking crate engines. There is no way that I could get a pair of new heads, a camshaft, a stall converter, and possibly an intake and a carb for $500. Is this guy overestimating on the machineing and assembly?

my brother in 1979 had his 327/350 rebuilt with new pistons,bored etc...with all good stuff ..now these speed pro pistons were 11 to 1 s which i believe were standard hardware on 327/350 and 350/350.....anyways it cost him 1300.00 back then,bro i think u been away from the game for 2 long......perf parts just are not cheap.tech has came three fold but so have the prices......a decent set of heads run you 2 grand easily......good flowing heads..350/350 heads are NOT cheap to a laymans build up....i don't want to depress you bro,but i'd save up and do it right.....just my 2 cents,you WILL be much happier in the long run....btw..good luck friend! .

Call the nearest Engine Rebuilder shop to where you are & tell them that you want a 350/350 short block, with trade ( your old ) it should cost 600 bucks.
Call the machine shops around you and see what they have that has not been picked up for heads....they all got some in the back room, find a set that you like & that you can afford from your budget.
New cam with lifters run 125.00
Good Luck.....

I was looking at a Vortec heads and intake setup from SDPC. Here is their website: www.sdpc2000.com I can get the heads pre-assembled, an edelbrock performer intake, all the gaskets and rocker arms for $730 plus shipping. If I did get the bottem half of my 350 block machined and assembled for me, what cam and torque converter would be good to use with this setup?

I like the crane 272e, or the Eldie 2102 for cruisin the streets.
The 292's sre too high without extensive head work, as well as being top end cams. 272 comes on strong from a rolling stop really well, (or start ) unless you go with a 2500 stall converter- but then you wil get spongy real time pulls from the stops. Can't light them up all the time unless you like paying the fines so if your gonna drive it on the street you may want to keep the cam reasonable....
Oh yeah- I use an Allison stock converter for the motorhome application....works real good. 200 bucks new.

I know this has to be a stupid question to you guys, but why is a 350 CI engine reffered to a as a 350/350?

Probably you are referring to a 350 H.P. 350 that was offered in Corvettes in the mid-70s and crate engines that simulate that engine. There was a lower H.P. Corvette 350 offered at the same time rated at only 300 H.P. People here have reminded me that sometime around 1970 the way in which GM rated the H.P. changed so as to lower the values by about 50 H.P. Today you can buy a Goodwrench 350 "Universal 350" for about $1500 but it turns out that it is only rated at about 220 H.P. Dyno tests have shown that with (long) 1 5/8" headers, Edelbrock Performer intake and Comp Cam 268 cam this engine yields about 325 H.P., but once you change the cam you have lost the warranty from GM. With only the bolt on Performer and headers you can expect about 260 H.P. Check out:

http://www.73-87.com/chp/gm350.htm

There are a lot of things I am learning while building a '29 roadster from scratch using store bought parts, but I think I really researched the available 350 offerings and I ended up having a local guy assemble a cheap $280 rebuild kit with cast pistons and another $100 for new rods and rebuilt 882 heads with all parts and labor adding up to about $1300 but then I wanted some porting of the heads and was charged $200 to just port the exhaust ports, not the intakes, so I stopped there and added another $98 for roller-tipped 1.6 rockers from Speedway; the rebuild included a mild Crane cam very close to the original 300 H.P. Corvette cam. That was the limit to my budget, but I am stuck with the cast pistons which rule out future supercharging. Note that if you are going to spend $300 to rebuild old heads, you could get better aftermarket heads for about $500-600 or Vortec Heads for about $400 but you would need a different manifold for the Vortec heads. Since the heads were resurfaced, the new chambers were reduced to 75 cc from 76 cc and with the flat top pistons I figure I ended up with something close to 9:1 C.R. so I will still be able to use 87 octane gas. If I did it again, I would have saved longer and bought a 383 kit from PAW but I am on a budget and the shipping of the PAW kit to the East Coast was almost as much as the 350 I had built and anyway putting a 260 H.P. engine in a Model-A chassis originally motivated by a 42 H.P. engine is enough performance for me at my age.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder