327 touch up

Hey guys,
I have a slightly used 327 i built 8 years ago or so, maybe got 10000km on it. Anyway this is what i know it has:
bored 30 over
flat tops
L79 cam bought from gm made by crane
300 hp double hump heads 64cc 1.94s i believe stock no port match or nothing
Oem points distributor
edelbrock c3bx intake
Carter 625?
Any suggestions in some cheap upgrades? im open to more expensive ones as well, but im on a budget.

Ive read that this L79 cam isnt all that anymore, I have a set of 1.6 roller rockers some guy gave me, could i use those instead of changing the cam for now? And if so what extra would that give me? Im sorry but im not sure how to figure how this changes the duration or lift of the cam, that why i came here. I also at some point want to change the heads, but that expensive and im not sure how much more horsepower id gain with say a dart or edelbrock head.
Ive just spent about $8000 bucks on the body of my 66 malibu ss (Canadian car, just told only 5001 made?)
So i cant spend alot on the powerplant right now.

Thanks for any and all info


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Here's the easy way to figure going from 1.5 to 1.6....
Let's say the cam gives a lift of 0.500" at the valve with 1.5 rockers. Enter .500 into your calculator. Hit divide. Enter 1.5. Hit multiply. Enter 1.6. Hit equals.

Depending on the rest of the combination, going from 1.5 to 1.6 on both intake and exhaust can net you from 5 to 15 hp and ft/lbs on a street motor.

A high-rise, dual-plane intake manifold such as an Edelbrock RPM or Weiand Stealth will make more hp and torque than any other manifold under 6000 rpm's according to dozens of pulls I've made with my DynoSim. I just dyno'd a 355 with L31 Vortec heads that picked up 48 hp and 41 ft/lbs with a change from a standard Performer to an RPM, with no other changes. This was with 10.3:1 static compression ratio, 750 carb and 1 3/4" long tube headers.

The manifold is the best advise. I am kinda partial to the weiand manifolds myself. The dart heads are not really going to give you much over the old camel humps without some other more pricey mods. possibly some carburetor magic along with the manifold. Retuning your carb after the manifold and checking your plug selection should give you a decent low budget kick and put a smile on your face

I disagree that old eddie is a good dual plane intake I doubt you would see much by swapping it.The cam is pretty dated a more modern grind would help a bunch.

a cam swap would be on the top of the to do list.

I thought the Edelbrock c3bx was an early version of the rpm manifold, not the performer, but i may be wrong. I sorta didnt want to replace the cam yet as i didnt want to touch the short block, That why i was asking about the 1.6 rockers.

Thanks everyone

The L79 cam was never "all that" but is less than what it was now. You know its a problem, and can be fixed with some cams taht cost less than $100. Sure its harder than popping off the valve covers and changing the rockers, but since you have them you can do both now.

The 3CB is basically an early version of the rpm. A high rise dual plane it will work fine. I hesitate to recomend cams as what I pick is usually a little to hairy for most.But in your case I would get something along the lines of a comp 280 magnum. I suggest the older version instead of the latest greatest because the are easier on the valve springs and far less likely to wipe on break-in.The older slower acting ramps while not producing the ultimite power are far better suited for reliable cruising and playing in my opinion.

The C3B manifold came out to use the then-new Holley 3-bbl. 950 CFM carb. High rise w/fairly healthy runner volume. Got one of them but haven't ran it yet.

The C3BX intake's runners were sized a bit smaller than the C3B, IIRC.

Either manifold would fit a 3 or 4-bbl carb. The square notch in the plenum divider was there to clear the 3-bbl.'s back butterfly.

They predates the Performer series by quite a few years- about 20, give or take.

I read all the previous posts and not one mention of the fact you are still running the OEM distributor,so heres my take,you have added several performance parts without a decent ignition curve to work with them your best "bang for the buck" since you are on a budget is to forget the rockers and maybe spend the bucks on a good electronic distributor with a performance curve built in,if memory serves me right there may be some clearance issues with the intake you have and an HEI.

Yeah there is issues with this intake and hei, the back of the intake has been ground down a bit and an oem dist will just fit but you cant turn it very far. Anyway i do still have points, I was looking a cheap hei distributors. Everyone here will probably tell me to stay away from procomp and the likes of a cheap distributor, but the base seems smaller, Im not sure what you mean by a performance curve built in, but ill be reading up on it.
thanks guys

Summit has some cheaper dizzys that you may want to check out- if you're still running points then that would be the first tihng I'd change- I wouldn't run points on a stock engine, there's no good reason to.