Stock Chevy 350 power upgrades

[Ricko1966]

Not much you can do to a stock 350 to make more power without digging into the engine.

A set of headers, better intake, maybe larger carb up to 750, getting the tune as good as possible.

Heads and cam are going to be the biggest performance gains without digging into the rotating assembly.

Lower rear gears will make it feel more responsive from a standstill and pulling hills. Especially since you are heavier than a c10 some 3.90s or even 4.10s may feel a lot more responsive.

He doesn't want to do heads. I'd say gears,exhaust and save money for better engine in the future. Nice used built 350s built with decent parts,would be a bargain from someone doing an LS swap

 

[CalSgt]

Tune up, Cam and intake get my vote...

Do lots of homework before picking a cam, get something that will make power/torque without putting that suburban out of the desirable power range. I put too large of a cam in my truck as a kid, it sounded great and made good power but preferred to stay higher in the RPM range. My truck has 3.40:1 gears, overdrive, and 33" tires so it wanted to constantly shift in and out of high gear to do 55 MPH. It loved cruising at 65-70+ MPH in overdrive though

Id gamble you can get a used edelbrock manifold for cheap on craiglist or facebook if you keep an eye out.

Heads can always be done later, while I'm a Vortec head fan they are not what they used to be. When the Vortec head craze was popular it was because they made good power and could be purchased from a GM dealership assembled for an affordable price compared to aftermarket offerings. Today there are a few aftermarket aluminum offerings for less money than vortec heads that have similar combustion chambers and flow better.

 

[xm20k]

He doesn't want to do heads. I'd say gears,exhaust and save money for better engine in the future. Nice used built 350s built with decent parts,would be a bargain from someone doing an LS swap

Were Id start as well gears and a set of headers and dual exhaust. A set of headers and 2.25 dual kit could be done for 5-600 with mufflers.

Then later heads and cam and lifter set which would make use of the better flowing exhaust.
Summits best deal is the Flotek heads. 64 cc chambers, big valves, can handle 550 lift a set is right around 900-1000. I've put them on a few cheaper builds because they were close enough in price to a set of reworked cast heads.

 

[WFO]

Were Id start as well gears and a set of headers and dual exhaust. A set of headers and 2.25 dual kit could be done for 5-600 with mufflers.

Then later heads and cam and lifter set which would make use of the better flowing exhaust.
Summits best deal is the Flotek heads. 64 cc chambers, big valves, can handle 550 lift a set is right around 900-1000. I've put them on a few cheaper builds because they were close enough in price to a set of reworked cast heads.

I would add an intake to the "Where I'd start", especially since he said he's removing emissions. All that emissions stuff won't have any place to go but the trash can.

Plus, an intake will help it breath, especially if he does heads and cam later.

 

[Ricko1966]

Stock gears and everything. I did a factory tuneup (plugs, wires, dizzy). Intake is stock

So how did you put the 1406 on this truck?

 

[Burbinator86]

So how did you put the 1406 on this truck?

Carb adapter

 

[Ricko1966]

Read Hotrod intake manifold shootout. At your performance level,( stock cam,stock gears,stock heads,stock exhaust)

You must be registered for see images attach

I think a manifold isn't worth the time,money and effort. Swap it out if and when you have it off do a cam,or heads or after you do gears and other things to up the operating range. GM thought their stuff through pretty good for their intended purposes. You won't even see the 12hp difference with the stock cam. The gains are after 3500 rpms. Their test mule had a small cam.

 

[xm20k]

Read Hotrod intake manifold shootout. At your performance level,( stock cam,stock gears,stock heads,stock exhaust)

You must be registered for see images attach

I think a manifold isn't worth the time,money and effort. Swap it out if and when you have it off do a cam,or heads or after you do gears and other things to up the operating range. GM thought their stuff through pretty good for their intended purposes. You won't even see the 12hp difference with the stock cam. The gains are after 3500 rpms. Their test mule had a small cam.

Agreed the intake would only add to the heads and cam swap later down the road.

 

[Burbinator86]

Would swapping to electric fans from a front shaft fan make hp? I know not necessarily add but free up some that’s already there?

 

[Ricko1966]

Would swapping to electric fans from a front shaft fan make hp? I know not necessarily add but free up some that’s already there?

Depends, you need to do it right or it will overheat,lots of guys,say no problem. But lots of guys cure their overheating problems by going back to original fan and shroud. Also there isn't a big horsepower difference. A stock fan with a properly working fan clutch gave up 7hp on a 400+hp big block to electric fans,this didn't take into account the extra pull from the alternator because engine dynos don't use the alternator.

 

[Burbinator86]

And do you know also if let’s say I upgrade the stock cam with stock heads, would I have to change the cam again if I did Vortec heads? Or would the cam be the same?

 

[Ricko1966]

You can use the same cam,depending on lift you may have interference issues on stock heads or vortec heads to deal with. IMHO as far as the engine goes,save your money,buy a 5.7 Vortec engine,do a cam,intake and valve springs at the same time. You will have better heads and a roller cam

 

[WFO]

Read Hotrod intake manifold shootout. At your performance level,( stock cam,stock gears,stock heads,stock exhaust)

You must be registered for see images attach

I think a manifold isn't worth the time,money and effort. Swap it out if and when you have it off do a cam,or heads or after you do gears and other things to up the operating range. GM thought their stuff through pretty good for their intended purposes. You won't even see the 12hp difference with the stock cam. The gains are after 3500 rpms. Their test mule had a small cam.

I think with headers and duals it would be a bit more than 12hp, plus a 25-30 pound weight reduction.

I haven't bought a new intake lately, but when I was a teenager in the mid 70s, that was about $100 well spent.

 

[Grit dog]

Plumb in a 100 shot of NOS and let er eat!!
Seriously, none of us know how well it runs now and how long it will last.
Probably the old in me coming out but I believe in do it once and do it right. You’ll learn a lot from experimenting (I did. And I learned that if you have a lot of spare time to do it that’s great but I can make more spare $ with spare time than poking along taking 5x longer to reach the goal on the cheap) but if you are trying to stay under $1000 you’re not gonna do much without some knowledge and some flea market/FB deals.
My buddy keeps trying to give me some hot rod heads he’s had stored away for the 350 in the ‘77. But by the time I did that and other supporting mods, I could sell that fresh with a receipt reman engine plus a little cash and put something bigger and better in it. JMO

 

[Ricko1966]

I wish the links to the manifolds still worked. It's still my opinion that until he makes other changes,such as,gears,heads,or cam. He's not gaining anything in the everyday driver rpm range,the tiny gain with the headers is still a gain and can be used later for more gains.The manifold has to come off to change cam or heads,that would be the time to change it. gears maybe beneficial now and later depending on what he has now. And we have to remember the total budget is 1000.00. I still think best bet is save money do the heads cam and intake at the same time. Remember the manifold you buy now may not work with the heads you choose later.