Pontiac 350

[Underdog]

Your going to have to check for valve clearance with that cam, as mentioned above. Its better to be safe than sorry. If you bend a valve that would be ugly.

[Mike Holleman]

I just installed a Butler built stroker 350 in a friends 69 Firebird. Approx. 410 ci with Edelbrock heads and intake and a Comp roller cam. It is down right snotty. There was some extra clearancing necessary for the valve to cylinder walls, but the man still has the original engine in his car and it seems very strong. I was encouraging him to build a 400 instead, but now I must say the 350 impressed me.

[ho428]

Wow I never expected this thread to get so much response. For right now i just want a little more oomph out of the stock engine until i can afford to do what i really want.

Now that i know what i know whats the easiest way to make all this work i have money just i dont want to throw to much in this engine.

I guess question #1 would be what do you really want?

There's nothing wrong with the engine, just no compression and poor breathing heads.
I don't think you'll get any oomph adding that cam, maybe a nice rumpity sound but little performance gains due to the heads and lack of compression.

If you have a few bucks I'd suggest going through the engine, upgrading the heads and you'll have a very good engine. Or for a few duckets more build a nice stroker.
It won't cost $10,000 unless you want it to.

In this months High Performance Pontiac is a budget 350 build, don't have a link to it as it's just out.
But between that and this one http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...ild/index.html
you have a pretty wide choice.

[Smock67]

So i think I am going to Not do the cam install on this block with all the things i'm going to have to do i just don't have the money right now. So i guess it's time to put it back together and get the car on the road again. Thanks for all the help guys I just need to find another motor to build up later on.

Now i need to find a smaller carb for the engine anyone have a 650 or 600 for sale?

[Underdog]

What carb are you running now?

Do you know what cam is in the engine now?

If you're running the stock cam, this is a case where a set of higher ratio rocker arms would give you a power increase. It wouldn't be a huge increase but you might get 10-15 hp. Also if you're not running headers, headers are still about the best bang for the buck for a bolt on.

[ho428]

Good points, factory style 1.65 stamped rockers are fairly cheap, Scorpion Rollers aren't bad either but the press in rocker studs need changing, not that hard a job to DIY though. I think the ARP studs are about $60
Also have to elongate the push rod hole in the head for high ratio rockers.

[Smock67]

What would be some good heads that will allow me to run the cam? There seems to be a lot on ebay and craigslist that are close to my area like #13 heads?

[ho428]

Here's a link for head numbers. 68-70 offers the best heads for a 350 I think. http://www.wallaceracing.com/head.htm
72-78 cc will bump the compression up good on a 350 but can be to much for a street 400. Small valve 1.96-1.66 will be the simplist swap. Large valve 2.11-1.77 can have block clearance issues on a 350. And like Underdog said, if your pistons don't have reliefs in them, valve to piston clearance with a high lift cam could be a problem.
Here's a link for figuring CR. http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/compstaticcalc.html Shoot for low 9's for pump gas.
Head gaskets run around .040 compressed. Valve reliefs about 2 cc each. Standard Pontiac engines run the piston about .025 in the hole but can vary so you'd need to check it if you want real accuracy. The Wallace CC head chart is pretty acurate although some factory heads run to the big side.
The small valve heads should be almost free to real cheap, just have to find them.

[Underdog]

Small chamber, 72cc, small valve heads made in 1967 or later would be my choice. I would stick with the stock 1.52 rockers if you go with the Comp cam. If you end up doing a head swap you can check for valve clearance at the same time. You'll also find out what type of pistons you have then too. The PITA part of it is you'll have to check each cylinder on both the intake and exhaust side. On the intakes you'll have to worry about valve to piston clearance and on the exhaust side vavle to cylinder wall clearance will be the issue. Pontiacs of that era are not known for having a super consistant deck height.

[Smock67]

Thanks for all the help guys even though it's almost positive that this motor is is just going to get new gaskets now its always good to keep options open if i find a deal later down the line.

Main goal with the car is to get it running and on the road so i can sell my truck for a profit and buy more goodies.