kaotik

iTrader: (1)

I know there are about a million different versions of this engine, but i am curious how much HP the engine i have was designed for. What HP variations were there? lowest and highest? Were are the tags on the engine to identify which one it is?

Basically i bought the car with this engine, someone put it in there, so i just wanted to know what platform i am working with. It has a Q-Jet carb, and thats about all i know that varied on these engines. Any and all input is appreciated!

thanks

88Camaro350

There is 1 million different versions...probably a million different HP ratings to...Your gonna have to get the specs.

RB83L69

That would depend on which version you have.

For what it's worth, from 73 up, they were all about the same; 180 HP or thereabouts. They pretty much all had dished pistons, 76cc crap heads, and the 929 cam. Didn't matter whether it was 2- or 4-barrle, whethere they were in a truck or an Impala or a Vette, they were basically all the same.

Before that, it gets real hard to compare them, because they changed the HP "rating" system starting in 72. To give you some idea, the motor that was "300 HP" in 71 was "200 HP" in 72. Earlier ones might have had double-hump heads of one sort or another, and some would even have had the solid cam. It's probably a safe bet that you don't have one of those but I can't see it real clearly from here so I can't say for sure.

If someone "put it there", it might or might not be any one of those versions; it might be better, it might even be worse. It would all depend on what they did to it in the process of "putting it there".

Look at the pistons and see if they're flat-tops or dished. Get the head casting numbers, those are the single most important thing. If you're rebuilding it, you'll throw away the pistons and the cam, so they don't matter. If the heads are the typical 882 or 624 or 993 castings, you might as well throw those away too, unless you want to duplicate one of those mighty 180 HP wonders.

kaotik

iTrader: (1)

Thanks alot for this info... thats what i was thinking also... the most common ones were in the 70's... What is the common TQ rating on these? I will try to dig up the head casting # and see what i find. I have a pic of the engine if that helps i can post it... probably not though... its hard to even tell the difference between it and a 305 carb motor... But yeah thanks for the info.

Also, from people with expirience here, i want to start planning the rebuild for it, should i stick with the 4 bbl, or do a fuel injection conversion? for the money is it worth it? The end result for me is to run a 12 sec 1/4 with or without nos... i plan on running nos anyways, but thats the goal...

RB83L69

You're not running a 12 second 1320' with anything dimly resembling a factory 70s 350. Don't even worry about what the "factory ratings" might have been; they have no connection with where you're going.

Get casting numbers and post them. Lots of us have lots of experience with which heads work for what, and which ones are useless. I'm guessing though, with that goal, you won't be using the castings you have, no matter what they are.

You'll go faster cheaper with a 4-barrel than with FI, but not the one that came on some 70s 350. You'll probably want a Holley or a Demon 750 or so. On the other hand, there are some FI systems that can compete, performance-wise; but not dollar-wise. If you have nothing related to either one, I'd recommend going toward a carb. Above all, it will be nigh on to impossible to crack into the 12s with TPI, although a few have made it, with considerable tuning experience and much $$$$ in heads and various other parts. But it's not a reasonable goal for a beginner to attempt that with that platform.

kaotik

iTrader: (1)

Yeah i knew i would be throwing away most of the factory parts... i was thinking about doing either a 355 (30 over) or a 383 stroker... not sure yet though...but thanks for all the advise... it will deffentily be used... i will check the castings just to see anyway. The whole reason i want to know is i am one of those people that have to know everything about there car from start to finish stock or not. I came from the 4cylinder world, turbo's and all that good stuff, i am really good with all that, so i am in a whole new world now, so i am trying to soak up as much info as possible about my car and third gens in general. My first car was a 1988 Sport Coupe, then i had a 1984 berlinetta, then went to a eclipse, and other cars... so thats what i know best, just trying to get back in the game i guess with these cars... Back when i had them, i was too young to know what i was talking about. So now that i have one again, i want to learn more about the 8 cyl world.
I fully understand how a motor works and all the fundementals, i pulled mine apart plenty of times and even made my own turbo setup on my last car... just a little different now. Seems more simple, but i need to learn a few things to get back on track i guess...