hi all, heres the situation,I have a 1972 chevy 350 out of a monte carlo,as part of my schooling I have to rebuild(disassemble,clean,inspect,re-assemble) an engine,because of it being a 350,the parts will be more affordable than practically anything out there,so,it appears to have minimal cylinder wear(out of round and taper)and rods appear OK,bearings and cam show low oil,probably frequently,and since it's cheaper to buy a re-man crank than turning one down,it will get a honing and std size re-man crank,should i also retain the heads if i want to put a TPI set up on it,or are heads a mandatory swap for TPI?? what cam selection should be made for a fuel injection change over,I'm on an extremely cheap budget,any recommendations on rebuild kits with cam and lifters
so for long read,just looking for an experienced direction

 

As for the heads you should be able to run anything you want, if you do some tuning to the EFI.

For the cam, unless your going to get into PROM tuning your going to want to find a "computer controlled" or "EFI" cam. they usually have a wider lobe seperation around 114* IIRC.

 

What were you quoted to grind a crank?

 

Reground crank kit with Clevite 77P bearings ($90), Elgin cam kit w/lifters ($55), Cloyes roller timing set ($48), FelPro KS2600 gasket set ($38), Melling 55 oil pump ($18) and IS55E all steel pump shaft ($6), Hastings or Sealed Power ring set ($32), Dorman brass plug kit ($18), and your reworked heads. If you want to go really over the top, you can add screwed rocker studs to your heads for $18. That's the cheapest top-to-bottom rebuild you can do - Less than $350 in parts.

What head castings do you currently have? They may be acceptable, or they may be nearly useless for TPI (or anything else). I'm guessing they might be '487 castings - Big chambers, not much for valves, make great wheel chocks. But you never know.

 

but been out of work since Oct '05,doing the student thing(funny one of the instructors was born same year i graduated high scool)i'm same age as my main instructor,anyway,i was quoted $44 to polish it,and was told if it has any scratches,indetations etc... it was cheaper to buy a crank for a 350 @100 with bearings,I still have my totaled IROC and was gonna put the 305 TPI w/pcm and accessores and transplant into my X77 body 1969 Z body,but now just gonna get the body work done on her and make it my daily driver,build the 350 for the 69,long term goal 69 is fuel injected small block restified cruiser

lower control arm and torque arm replacement and she drives again,even tracks straight

 

Wow, where do you get a new crank with bearings for $100?