So I'm about to dig into my first 350SBC and I could use some help

I've about gone cross-eyed looking at stuff on the internet and everyone disagreeing. Here are my plans - take a '79 Camaro, turn it into a rat rod for as little money as I can get away with, and go have some fun. I bought a '79, then a month later, bought another. The first one runs, but the body is rough. I'll most likely end up putting it up here when I get the second one finished. The second one is a basket case, but it's got great bones. It came with a disassembled 4 bolt main 350 and a set of long tube headers. The block looks good, planning on taking it and getting it vatted, honed, and balance the internals. The PO theorized that the block may have come from a dirt track car as all of the pistons except for #2 are 2 valve relief, with #2 being a 4 valve relief. Apparently this was to pass tech, they generally tested the #2 piston to make sure all was correct. 2.02/1.60 heads. I'd like to have sufficient torque/hp that a V6 Accord isn't going to out run me, so I'd like some help in planning this out on a budget. 1) What can I realistically look at getting out of a balanced/blueprinted 350?
2) Is it worth the extra money spent to get a 400 crank and turn it into a 383 stroker? Can I do that with my stock rods & pistons? I know that a stroker crank requires clearancing on the block, anything else?
3) Is there any easy way to tell what size the combustion chamber is on the heads?
4) By the time I get the heads rebuilt and then work on doing some porting and polishing, would I be better off just buying the budget aluminum heads that Summit has available? Cheap Aluminum Heads

5) At some point in time, I may take it out on track for the heck of it, or may do an autocross. Should I look at a windage tray or crank scraper? Who has experience with tracking a 350, and what do you recommend?
6) I'm slightly confused by 153/168 teeth on starter/flywheel, as well as internal/external balance and 26 oz./50 oz. balance. I'm planning on swapping out the TH350 and putting in a 6 speed. 6 speed kit What do I need to know about all of these prior things and what can I ignore as I'm already running out of brain cells.

Thanks!

1) Even without too radical a setup or massive amounts of money, 400hp is easily attainable.

2) If it requires a new crank and rods there is no reason not to get a stroker crank setup. A 3.750" crank and 5.7" rods don't cost much different then a 3.480" crank and 6.00" rods and you get extra displacement. Don't go hunting a stock 400 crank though, most of those are either used up or the owner wants an arm and a leg, and they are still cast and require machine work to fit. Either buy a decent forging or a quality aftermarket cast crank (like Scat) that are made with the right bearing sizes and are stronger

3) If you have the casting number, you should be able to look it up. It's a SBC, so all of this stuff is fairly well documented on the internet.

4) Likely not. And if they are the stock' 79 heads they are probably garbage, in terms of flow. And 30+ year old heads, cracks are likely as well. Plus the aluminum heads will be significantly lighter, flow more and let you run more compression.

Thanks Nick! I don't think it needs the new crank and rods, so unless there is significant return for the investment, I'll likely skip that step. Just wanting to make sure I don't overlook inexpensive available power and also make sure that I don't waste money for no return.

I put a set of aftermarket heads on the Vette. After I saw how much better they were made over OEM, I pretty much vowed never to use anything else.

Other than that all of my thoughts align with what NickD said, and the hives knowledge greatly surpasses the two cents of wooden nickels that come from my brain.

I will how ever leave this as inspiration:

Carry on good Sir... I am intrested to see where this goes

Vortec heads are also a great cheap performance option, and there are different retainer kits that allow you to run a bigger cam.

gearheadE30 wrote: Vortec heads are also a great cheap performance option, and there are different retainer kits that allow you to run a bigger cam.

I think I recall hearing that Vortec heads are starting to get harder to find in uncracked condition.

NickD wrote:

gearheadE30 wrote: Vortec heads are also a great cheap performance option, and there are different retainer kits that allow you to run a bigger cam.

I think I recall hearing that Vortec heads are starting to get harder to find in uncracked condition.

I know you can get them new, but then you're buying new heads, and as such I don't think the price is much different than a decent set of aluminum aftermarket heads.

I think Hot Rod magazine (or Car Craft) did a comparison on SBC aluminum heads not long ago, and determined what brand was the best bang for the buck. Check their website.

Bedtime reading

Engine rebuild kit is like $350 with pistons, gaskets, bearing and new oil pump.

Stroker rotating assemblies to include crank, rods, pistons and bearings is between 600 and 800.

I don't know about your location, but here in the frozen wastelands, the cheap Chinese heads are less money than getting the stock heads rebuilt. About $700 USd on fleabay for assembled procomp versus about $900 (canadian) to rebuild your cores.

just start with a complete Vortec engine, and you'll have better heads, a roller cam, and a one-piece rear main seal.

HoserRacing wrote: 4) By the time I get the heads rebuilt and then work on doing some porting and polishing, would I be better off just buying the budget aluminum heads that Summit has available? Cheap Aluminum Heads

this is a win... besides everything else... aluminum is so much easier to keep cool... allows more cylinder pressures.

Which 6 speed were you looking at? Might make sense to plan final drive... gear ratios... and overall powerband (big fat powerband... or a more "peaky" powerband)

MONEY MONEY MONEY, for A Few Dollars More You can get a create engine, A Lot to be Said for getting an Assembeled Engine, Starting at Zero you can Build a nice SBC Making 375 to 400 sorta reliable HP. for 3 to 3500,real good machine work extra. you can also get an assembeled engine with warrenty for starting there and up.

GTXVette wrote: MONEY MONEY MONEY, for A Few Dollars More You can get a create engine, A Lot to be Said for getting an Assembeled Engine, Starting at Zero you can Build a nice SBC Making 375 to 400 sorta reliable HP. for 3 to 3500,real good machine work extra. you can also get an assembeled engine with warrenty for starting there and up.

On principle I would agree with you. However as I was looking into this for the Molvo's 302, I heard nothing good about the quality of the Ford Racing crate engine.

NOHOME wrote:

GTXVette wrote: MONEY MONEY MONEY, for A Few Dollars More You can get a create engine, A Lot to be Said for getting an Assembeled Engine, Starting at Zero you can Build a nice SBC Making 375 to 400 sorta reliable HP. for 3 to 3500,real good machine work extra. you can also get an assembeled engine with warrenty for starting there and up.

On principle I would agree with you. However as I was looking into this for the Molvo's 302, I heard nothing good about the quality of the Ford Racing crate engine.

And sometimes it's more satisfying to build your own engines than just go on the internet and type in the credit card number.

LT1 iron heads supposedly have the same port shapes/flow characteristics as Vortec heads and are junkyard plentiful in Caprices, Roadmasters, etc. Only problem is the coolant passages are all screwy on LT1's and won't directly bolt up to a traditional SBC.

Also, berkeley LT1's. I'm still salty after my rebuild got case of the rod knocks.

edit: I realize I added basically nothing to this thread. I would say unless it's a Challenge car, just go buy a new set of aluminum heads from whatever is on sale at Summit. No sense in piecing together the valves, springs, junkyard unicorn heads, etc. They are cheap enough new nowadays. Pay for the block/crank machine work and cleaning, you assemble the rest with a rebuild kit. Any good machine shop should tell you what size bearings to buy after they work on it.

If low budget is the goal, I'd use the vortec heads. You can find them all day long in late 90's pickups. Put your money into your rotating assembly. I've built a few "claimer type" motors with the cheap forged stroker kits, and KB Hypereutectic claimer pistons. Bowtie high rise marine intakes used to be plentiful and dirt cheap (basically a copy of the Edelbrock performer RPM in cast iron), but it's been 15 years or so since I've tried to source one so than may not be true anymore, and RPM intakes are pretty cheap anyway. With a suitable cam/carb 400whp can be had on pump gas.

And yes, you will need a baffled road race pan to avoid oil starvation.

Don't get me wrong, I build my own stuff, you can get re-ring kit bearings and pistons for 600 bucks,few years ago car craft did one for 653.00 outlay. those heads are fine check them out then re-use them.changing to vortec heads require like intake also.look for early 70's corvette trap door oilpan cheap at swap meets. full legnth baffle from moroso also.

Name your budget, you can put together a warmed over 350 (say, 400hp) for anywhere from a few hundred bucks to several thousand.

How dissembled is this disassembled motor? A lot of it may or may not be fine to put back together without much/any machine work given the modest goal of outrunning any given Accord, some people have some weird thing about disassembling perfectly good engines.

The difference between 153 and 168 is what clutch and starter you run, the 168 flyhweel is bigger. I don't know much about external balance but I think that only applied to the 400.

I have nothing specific to add on building the SBC, but I'm definitely all in for the idea of a build using a late 2nd gen F body. Let us know when you get to the chassis, I know a little about things like Blazer disc brakes and hydraulic clutch conversion.

GTXVette wrote: changing to vortec heads require like intake also.look for early 70's corvette trap door oilpan cheap at swap meets. full legnth baffle from moroso also.

Most of the newer aftermarket 350 intakes are designed to use both bolt patterns. Even if not, they can just be modified and bolt on with a shim. I've mixed and matched both ways before.

These are the aforementioned shims...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381236580128

In reply to Crackers:

You sure you aren't thinking of the 87-95 heads? The Vortec ports are tall enough that not many intakes will take that much port work, or so I've read.

It's possible I've just been lucky with my intake selection, but that was never an issue for me.

HorseRacing said: take a '79 Camaro, turn it into a rat rod for as little money as I can get away with, and go have some fun.

Part of the reason why nobody agrees with each-other when it comes to engine builds, is that everybody is building engines for different applications. The other complicating factor is that a lot of people build an engine for "The Most Power" as if the only place it will ever run is on the dyno.

You should take a step back and look at your car and what you want it for. Then build the engine to suit that need and that car.

Have you tried doing any engine rpm calculations using one of the on-line calculators? These take in to consideration your transmission, rear gear and tire size to tell you what rpm your engine will be turning for a given vehicle speed.

Assuming you are not going to change the gearbox, rear end or tires, you can then build the engine to suit the rpm range for how you see yourself driving the car. I would start with the cam that fits the job. You might find that for a street toy you want an RV cam for the most torque so that it can pull a low gear, or work within your shift points. No need for fancy heads if this is the case.