building a 350

[79malibu]

350

i was told that when you put in new arp rod bolts that the rod must me re sized or messed with i guess by some machining. i had the shop balance the short block but can i really do the bolts myself?

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Yeah, mine has so damn much torque that it will spin the tires at anything more than 1/4 throttle at a standing start too. It will even spin them if you hit it from a 15-20mph roll, and barks 2nd gear-on an automatic upshift!!! It sounds cool, but it takes alot of restraint to drive it without spinning the tires. I rarely use more than 1/2 in of throttle unless I am using the car in anger-usually when some brain dead idiot in a large pickup truck or SUV tries to cut me off.

 

[82355supreme]

79malibu, you're correct. When using ARP rod bolts the bolt holes need to be resized. They aren't just a "drop-in". ARP rod bolts are knurled & slightly larger than stockers.

To use ARP rod bolts you'd have to totally disassemble the bottem end & take the pistons & rods to a machine shop. Not worth it anymore in my opinion.

 

[79malibu]

350

82355supreme, what did you do for your shortblock.

 

[megaladon6]

whoops. sorry! 😳

 

[82355supreme]

79malibu, my donor engine is out of a 1976 GMC 3/4 ton truck, so it has 4 bolt main caps 😀 & only had 80K original miles. The crank was ground .010 & the bores .030 I reused the stock rods, but had them resized & used ARP bolts. Actually my entire engine, carb to oilpan, inside & out is ARP fasteners. I used Speed-Pro forged flat-tops. The cam is a Doug Herbert grind (that's very similar to a Comp XE268) hooked to the crank with a double roller timing chain.

 

[79malibu]

350

thankjs for the exhaust clip 8gple7, anyone have a sound clip or vid or a comp xe 268 or 274 cam with idle and reving or wot down the road to hear the full sound?

 

[79malibu]

350

nobody? guess i'll have to google something

 

[79malibu]

350

yea yea yea back from the dead. so i have decided to take apart the engine since it sits on the stand and i can't stop thinking about losing the stock cast pistons. i will go with speed pro pistons that are flat top with 1.563 compresion distance height. i dunno if i will go nitrous in the future or not but do you think a stock bottom end would take a 500hp total beating under weekend cruiser duty?(once a month) lets say the engine makes 350 hp then add a 100hp or 150hp pill. think she would hold together? also still deciding if i should go with hyperutectics or forged. the hyper set is about $215 while forged is $300 both complete with moly rings. even if i dont build it for nitrous are the forged still better to use and justify the extra spent?

 

[82355supreme]

Juice sniffer........ FORGED!! All throttle, no bottle..... Hypers are fine.