Thread: 327 HP Help

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Hello all,
New Member/First Post. I'm looking to increase the HP out of my stock 327/250 Hp. I understand a crate would be easy, but I would like to keep the same driveline. I enjoy the powerglide, so my thoughts are to pull the motor and replace the heads and cam. Are there correct(desireable) combos that would give me the low end torque with out having to get into the bottom end rebuilding. I don't want a high reving 302 or a stroker. The motor has less than 2000 miles. Are there any dos' and don'ts I should remember when replacing heads and a cam. I'm excited to get started and would appreciate any advice.
Thankx
Lyle
engine casting #3782870

Here's no replacement for displacement. How much power do you want? And for the heads and cam the options are endless, in my galaxie I have a comp 280 cam and that is just a little to much for my stock tranny, I have to set the idle up to about 2700rpm in nutral so I can keep it alive in drive, (I'm going to get a new tranny)
For your heads if you just want a little more power get them ported and polished. Or of you want more power than that get a nice set of aluminium heads from Summit
and most of there tech pages will give you RPM ranges for the part your looking at.

Lyle, the stock heads you have on that motor are pretty decent ones, especially if your goal is street performance and torque. They should have the 1.94/1.50 valves I suggest you go for the old fashioned hot rodder tricks such as headers, ignition, cam, manifold and carb, along with performance pipes and mufflers. If you really want to mess with heads, I would suggest just a mild port job to blue print them and match them out to the gaskets. Have hardened seats put in for the unleaded gas. Those changes would definitely change the seat of the pants feel of your car. Some of the performance companies like Edelbrock and Holley have a whole series of matched combinations. Call them up and tell them exactly what you want to achieve, be sure to tell them the vehicle weight, transmission, gear ratio and how you plan to use it so they can make the best recommendations for you. Those matched combos that are engineered to work together are really a great way to go. If you want to get exotic, maybe one of the aftermarket fuel injection systems would be something to think about.

What car is that motor in? Good luck with it

Pat

The motor is in my 63 Vett. If I just change the cam and exterior items, won't the lifters and rockers need replacement. And if so, should I do a valve job? Is shaving the head an option for more compression. So many things to think about. Maybe, I should put a nice stereo inside....

If you just want to a head/cam swap I would figure the best, maybe not cheapest way to do it would be buy a set of edelbrock performer rpm heads and intake.


What carb is on it now?
Might think of swaping it too.
In the way of carbs I am more of a holly fan a holly street 600 would work great on the combo.

Lyle, you should always change the lifters when you put a new cam in, most cams are sold as kits with matching lifters and in many cases new valve springs. Changing the rockers is probably not a bad idea, especially if they are original. 40 year old rockers would be suspect. Standard replacement rockers should be just fine for a street application. If you are going to pull the heads, then a valve job makes sense, make sure you have them install hardened seats as I mentioned earlier. That will make them last a long time with the unleaded fuel. That engine was designed to run on leaded fuel and the lead served as a lubricant for machined surfaces such as valve seats. When the switch was made to unleaded fuel the older heads sometimes had problems. That may be a good reason to switch to later model heads. I would not suggest raising your compression significantly given our currently available fuel.

Pat