[Jeeper426]

Hea y'all, i haven't been online in a while, i'm lookin' to put a 350 SBC in my new(er) 82' silverauto, recently we put a late 70's early 80's step-side wood bed off of a GMC on there, and we got a new unmarked tailgate from Summit, about the only things I've done to it as of thus, was put the carb off of my jeep on the pickup, and let my dad have the edelbrock off of the pickup (i had a holley, and we put the carb off of the jeep on the pickup and visa-versa), well now i'm looking to put an MPI setup on the truck, and i'm hoping that with a crate motor i can get a fresh start (so to speak) i was thinking of when i get the motor, putting it on the engine stand first off, and give it a good going through, this is a base-unit 350, 4bolt truck motor, according to GM it has about 275HP i'm hoping to get it to about 350 HP, with plenty of low-end torque, does anybody have any ideas as to how i can accomplish this?

[F-BIRD'88]

You're going to have to change some hardparts to get it up to a honest 350hp. Cylinder heads, camshaft, intake manifolds, compression ratio.

Something like 062 vortec heads with shim head gaskets, a Comp hi energy 268H-10 camshaft and a Summit stage 1 vortec manifold would do the job.

Why not just buy a quality remanufactured 350 flat top piston short block assembly and add these bolt on parts to get the engine you actually want.

[Jeeper426]

i've considered it, that or just bolt a set of vortec heads on, with a 350 horse 327 cam, a coupple of guys in my club suggested that cam O.o, but those arent bad ideas either, for 1500 i can get a 350 crate motor, how much do you think a set of vortec heads would cost?

[Jeeper426]

i looked at that hi-energy cam in my Year One Catalog, pretty impressive, theres also the COMP Cams Offroad XTreme energy cam CC09

[F-BIRD'88]

There are better choices for a good torky truck cam than the old 327-350hp cam. Ranging from a thrifty Summit 1103 to a comp "dual energy" 265DEH to a comp hi energy 260H or 268H. You can look these all up as well as the vortec heads on the Summit site
You want the vortec heads NAL-VORTECZZ5 that are already upgraded and modified for hi lift with performance springs etc if your cam has more than .450' lift. The OEM "060" assembles, while cheaper, require work for anything more than .450" valve lift.

Its hard to beat a mild cammed vortec 350 with headers and dual exhaust for a hi torque truck motor.

The old 327 350hp cam is too big. You want a cam with a smaller .050" duration that that one. A modern short duration hi lift cam will make more torque and power overall.

If you were to keep the camshaft mild and a valve lift of .450" lift or less you can use the cheaper OEM vortec assemblies. Summit pn NAL-12558060

Something like and Isky "264 mega cam" number 201264
or Isky 262/270HL pn 201262-27012 would work well.
Likes headers and dual exhaust.

[Jeeper426]

sounds pretty good, my dad suggested that i wate till' the warantee runs out, to do anything to the engine, it has a 1 year warantee, after that wears out i'm gonna think about that, i also have a 2000 stall B&M converter that i was gonna' use in my jeep, but instead i may just get a cam that'll use it, and run it that way. or i may just go with something similar to the suggestion you made earlyer, that sounds like a pretty solid idea, the p'up already has headers, and i'm converting over to fuel-injection, and a cam is pretty easy to install.. i like that idea

[Jeeper426]

okay i just found out that the 350 horse cam is a solid lifter cam, so i may just go with a GM Direct 300 horse 327 cam, i'm kinda interested to see what that'll sound like O.o

[johnnya]

The 350HP 327 is a HYDRAULIC cam.

[F-BIRD'88]

Originally Posted by Jeeper426

okay i just found out that the 350 horse cam is a solid lifter cam, so i may just go with a GM Direct 300 horse 327 cam, i'm kinda interested to see what that'll sound like O.o

You'd better check your info. The 327-350 hp cam is a hyd cam. So is the 350-350hp cam. The 327-300 hp cam is a stock cam. Stock in just about every 350ci motor from the 60 to the 80's. It will sound like a "stock cam".

[Jeeper426]

the Comp Cams replacement is listed as a Solid Lifter in the Year One book, i was gonna' go GM direct for the parts, and the engine i have now is only 260 HP, i'm just going for a little more, not quite a whole lot seeing as i'm going to put a crate motor in this truck sooner or later, and if i can get away with only paying 200 dollars for a cam and lifter combo, for the time being, or i could just keep this engine, and go with a cam with a little over .500 lift such as the "hot cam" from VOODO that they sell at Autozone here in town for a little over 400 bucks, the most that i know about is V6 engines, messin' with V8's is entire new ground with me on this one, the fundimentals are basicly the same, the crank turns at one speed, the cam turns at a slightly slower pace, and controls the intake and exhaust, but the cam's durration and lobe seperation also controls the compression of the cylinders by dictating when and how long the valves are kept open for, longer durration lower compression, shorter durration, higher compression (so i'm told) a friend of mine finally listened to me about putting a V8 in a truck he's building, but somebody talked him out of the 350, and instead talked him INTO a 302 Roller Ford Motor which will be 2 to 3X more expencive to build, oh well, i suppose he'll have to learn the hard way and we'll have to get specialized tools from Ford to tune and even assemble the darned thing, and also, it depends on which versian of the 350 you have that determines what size cam came in it, if its an entery level early to mid 60's motor, it could be as little as 190 horsepower, even most of the new ones are short on power, the crate motor i'm ordering has a modist 300 horses, i'll wate for the warantee to go out, and i'll throw something bigger in there, and work my way up, as i get the cash to do it, i dont claim to know Everything there is to know about an engine, but i do know enough to put one together, and make a little power, i've also been told mixed reports, (Big Valves for power) and (Big Valves Kill Torque) where are these people getting there information???????????? we've used Desktop Dyno 2000 and tested large and small valves in a bone stock 350 SBC and shown verry little difference up high, but down low we've seen as much as a 1500RPM difference in where the torque comes in with big valves as apposed to small. >.< there i go again, off on a rant. sorry guys, i need sleep