new car, need suggestions

The 2025 Calendars are HERE. Two different editions, two different sizes, and a digital package!! Starting at $12.97US
Status
Not open for further replies.

83cut350chev

Greasemonkey
Jan 2, 2007
223
3
0
Churchville, PA
got an 84 cutlass couole weeks ago, yes, another sbc..lol its a 350 headers,igniton. aright well i wanna do heads,intake,cam,and carb. what do you guys reccomend? good combos,good packages. ive seen edelbrock packages but there kind of pricy. i would like numbers around 400 hp. 700r4 trans.
thanks guys
 
400hp shouldnt require real pricey heads. Summitracing has iron .202 assembled heads for $325 each, Try ebay for the parts to save money.
Greg
 
yeah they look like a possibility

what about intake cam carb?
 
Sorta depends on your preferences (What rpm you want to make power) but the nice part is sbc is the cheapest parts and you can buy any manifold you could want on ebay cheap. Im doing a 454 that should pull like a diesel, by sacrificing top end HP, it should be very driveable. Torque is where it is at for me. My brother has a 500 HP s-10 sbc, I doubt that I could parallel park it cause the convertor hooks up about 3grand! It is a ball when you are pointed straight and full throttle! Figure out where you want to be in that spectrum and someone here will help you with your parts list.
 
id like to make power either from idle or around 1500 rpm
 
400hp shouldn't require anything too fancy. For an intake, a Performer RPM Air Gap should do fine. Run 9.5-10.5:1 compression, Vortec heads modified for higher lift springs and screw in studs, Comp XE268 cam, HEI style distributor ( Get one from MSD, it really isn't that much more than a modified stock junkyard distributor when all is said and done), a properly set up Quadrajet will be much better on the street than most aftermarket carbs and can support 400hp, and a set of 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 primary headers with a good 2 1/2 in dual exhaust system or a 3.5 in single.

I run a similar combo in my 355 and the computer sim says it makes 350hp with a milder cam and a standard Performer intake. I have also found similar engines and their dyno sheets on the internet to corroborate the sim. However, that is irrelevant to the 400 ft lbs of torque it makes from just over 2,000 to around 5,000 rpm! If you have the choice between two cams, always opt for the smaller one in a street car. Big cams are not a lot of fun in rush hour traffic or on crowded city streets. ( I love my XE262 BTW). HP may look sexier on paper, but in a heavy G body, torque will win the day. Remember that horsepower is a mathematically derived figure based on rpm and torque and not an actual measured output. Given enough RPM, an engine making 2 ft lb of torque can mathematically make 400hp. (IIRC, HP=(torque*RPM)/5252) Go for the biggest area under the torque curve and disregard your peak numbers as they are irrelevant. 400hp at 7500RPM means nothing in a car that is driven mostly below 3,000 rpm. A Honda S2000 has a power peak around 7500RPM, (and a redline of around 9,000 RPM in the original 2 liter version!!!) but is a complete dog to drive. Sure it makes more hp than a stock 5.0 Mustang, but the power curve is so damn peaky that it is actually slower than the Mustang in a drag race. All that RPM may be fun to wind out, but it doesn't necessarily make it faster.

While I am on my high horse, I'll say something about Edelbrock too. Edelbrock products are some of the nicest on the market and very well engineered. Sure they are not the cheapest, but they are packaged with pretty good instructions, and usually include all necessary hardware that is not re-used from the old parts. Compared to a lot of other companies they usually have their sh*t together. I got the upper arms for the B body spindles for my Cutlass form Global West, for example. The instructions were a photocopied sheet of paper with poor grammar, punctuation and loads of misspellings. It was like it was written hastily by a 4th grader. When I got a set of Edelbrock headers however, the instructions were pretty well written, they included even the most minor of items like good gaskets, bolt spacers for the accessories to make up for the flange thickness of the cast manifolds, a O2 sensor wire extender, etc. Just remember that the cheaper part is not all that cheap if it means you have to go out and buy things that should have been included. Nor is it cheap if it breaks due to poor quality.
 
i probably shouldve told u this but i have the msd hei kit,flowtech longtubes,2.5 dual exhaust,and a pos quadrajet 4bbl that never stays in tune. the cam sounds good,same with the intake. i was looking ata edelbrocks thunder series 650cfm carb..anyone ever deal with these or have one on their g body? also would the vortec heads fit ona Gen I small block? i thought they were used on the newer fuel injected 350s

anyways thanks for the help..
 
Well, I can probably guess the problem with the Quadrajet. I am betting that the throttle shaft holes are wallowed out in the baseplate and need to be bushed. I had one with this problem and I could never get a steady idle speed due to the shaft hitting the idle speed screw in a different spot every time. The one I have now does not have this problem, but it took 4 months of searching the junkyards to find it. I'm cheap and would rather search for a $25 one than pay the $50 to have it fixed by a local carb shop.

The Vortecs fit a gen I SBC with a different intake manifold and different rocker arms. The Valve covers are the centerbolt style.

The Edelbrock carbs I have dealt with are not bad. In fact, I just removed one to install the Quadrajet. It was a Performer 600 cfm.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
The 2025 Calendars are HERE. Two different editions, two different sizes, and a digital package!! Starting at $12.97US

GBodyForum is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Amazon, the Amazon logo, AmazonSupply, and the AmazonSupply logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Please support GBodyForum Sponsors

Classic Truck Consoles Dixie Restoration Depot UMI Performance

Contact [email protected] for info on becoming a sponsor