Im new to the forum. But im building a 79 malibu. It was wrecked in the front end so i swapped the frame to a 86 ss monte carlo frame and i am building a 30 over 350 eagle crank, 5.7 gm x rods (arp rod bolts) and a good set of 2 eyebrow flattops trying to determine if i should put in a 292 cam or a xe 274 and if i should put aluminum heads 64cc chamber or just a set of double humps any advice would be great and a side note: looking to put 15 inch "dirt track" wheels on it and trying to decide a good offset and what kinda tires any info advice would be greatly appreciated looking to run 8.30s to 8.50s at the strip in a 1/8th and also looking for a decent handling street car
79 malibu
- Thread starter Chad mclemore
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How much of a street car is it going to be? If more street than strip, I would suggest the XE274 cam. I used to run a 355 flattop with an XE274, Trickflow Twisted Wedge heads, 700R4 with 2800 converter, Holley 750 VS, RPM Airgap intake, and 3.73's in my 80 Cutlass years ago. It ran pretty good for the little I had dumped into it. Ran 13 flat@106 in the 1/4 mile here @ 2200 ft on street tires. If more race than daily driver I might recommend the 292 Magnum, but you would need way more compression, gear, etc. A little too aggressive for a street car with a smaller engine and essentially less torque, in my opinion. Also the old double humps were good back in the day but newer designed heads will give a lot better performance.
As Chris said it would be nice to know what the car is going to be used for and what parts you have that you plan on using ( converter, rear, intake, carb ) You really shouldn't have any problem reaching your goal plus some if you want. I run an 8in rim w/ a 3.5 backspace on mine.
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Plan on running a 373 gear either a holley 650 or 750 double pumper someone told me a 750 vacuum secondary but not to sure on how that would work i found a reasonable set of aluminum heads 64cc straight plug. and that was going to be my next question it will be more of a street car actually alot more street in my case so i didnt know whether to run an rpm style intake or more of a higher rise intake itll be backed with a turbo 350 trans and an 1800-2200 stall converter and i believe i found a decent set of used wheels on craigslist im gonna clean up and put on it. Thanks for the input by the way guys
In that case I would go with Chris's choice on the cam - what ever heads you put on keep the runner size down for bottom end - a good dual plane intake will serve you much better - the 650 carb would be the better choice. You can really step it up - my combo is a stock L-82 short block with chevy 2.02 iron heads, Vic jr w/ 750, comps 306 cam, 4000 stall, w/ 4.30 gears - runs 7.14 in the 1/8th 11.20's in the 1/4.
My setup is a 355 with Summit Vortec heads, XE274 roller, RPM Performer intake, 650 Demon, and small 1.5" hedman headers. It runs excellent on the street and as Chris said, this setup has massive amounts of low end torque. With a 700R4 and 3.27 gears on street tires I ran 13.8 at 102 mph. Pretty happy with something I drive to work all summer 
Another question for you guys im going to be buying tubular upper control arms they need replaced and i figured is just go tubular what length would i need? Its gonna have 2 inch drop slindles and looking at getting the 1/2 inch to inch longer ball joints. I know theres a 8 8.5 and 9 i want this thing to corner pretty aggressively i just bought the single adjustable qa1 shocks for front and rear
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