Dog

[78Suburban]

I made it alive into town today with my 78 k20 burban.. its the first time I've driven it on the pavement and I hate to say it but that thing is a DOG... I guess a bone stock 89 thousand mile 350 isn't much to push a big ol tank like that..... it has 3.73's and weenie tires.. I plan on eventually running 33" boggers, but I don't really invision my current set up boilin them over ..... So what should I do? should I try to build up my current motor (I could go with some forced induction and blow myself up ), or go hunting for a newer, better motor out of a wrecked truck???
I really need any advise I can get on getting more power, and on shedding weight, which I'm sure would make a difference as well........... any ideas on making the ol dog wake up would be very much appreciated...

 

[royjones]

Hello hay dude does this 350 smoke or drip oil every where. does it have duel ex. maybe you could swap gears. say to 410s or 456s some simple mods to get you more power turn the timing up stuff like this might help a little

 

[original balzer]

3 things you will realy notice
1 true dual exhaust
2 a tune up with aftermarket ignition parts (MSD accel jacobs)
3 a new or rebuilt carb

other things include gears manual trans swap ect
but if your going to rebuild the engine anyway over estimate your power needs. what i mean by this is if you figure you need 300hp shoot for 400hp. but i realy dont like useing the term horse power. tourque is what 4x4's need.
some of the early 70's bigblocks had interesting tourque figures in bone stock trim. im purdy sure some of the caddy 500's had well over 500 ftlbs if you have a th400 trans you might want to look into the caddy engines.

balzer

 

[78Suburban]

a big block caddy engine has crossed my mind..... what is a good donor vehicle and how hard are they to find? what year and model do I look for??? it will probably never happen, but I like to have a daydream imaginary wheeling moment

 

[original balzer]

i belive any 69-72 caddy (but the eldorado) could have 500. they seam pritty comon around here. i wanted one but has a sm465 and didnt want to pay for a custom flywheel

balzer

 

[78Suburban]

anybody got any clever tricks on weight reduction?????

 

[perp]

from what i have heard, the eldo did have 500's, just the tranny was front wheel drive so the oil pan is funny shaped. i could be wrong. i run a mild 454 (over 80,000 miles too) in my blazer and it would cook the treads of of my 35" BFG muds with a rear detroit! parts are easier to find and for a BBC and it is almost a bolt in swap. with a truck that size, you should really have a large cubic inch motor.

 

[diesel4me]

should not be "doggy"....

Unless your motor is tired,burning oil,or has low compression,it should be fairly peppy with 3.73 gears and small tires...has it had a tune up?--timing set correctly?...catalitic converter clogged up?...carb secondaries opening properly?..if you have an aftermarket carb,is the throttle opening wide when you floor it?(many times the cable isn't adjusted right,and you only get 1/2 throttle!)...also,if its an automatic,if the detent cable isn't working or adjusted right (its electrical on a TH400) it will stay in a higher gear instead of downshifting,and make it feel doggy or sluggish...brakes might be dragging too..

As for the Caddy motors--all Caddys from 1970 to 1976 had the 500 CID motor available(ALL eldoradoes after 1970 had the 500!--and have the "rear sump" oil pan needed to install one in a GM truck...68-72 Caddys had 472 V8's almost as strong as the 500,some guys say they are better!(higher compression ratio on the pre-70 Caddy motors)....a later 425 motor is the same block,but not as powerful(77-82?)....still more tourque than a BBC motor in stock form..

 

[78Suburban]

my motor seems to idle really, really low (it almost cuts out)... How can I adjust this? and the tranny doesn't really seem to downshift, how can I remedy this? its bone stock and has no cat.... I have thought about an aftermarket carb....... (I have an edelbrock 600 cfm that I could put on it, but it has a manual choke, which I hate.) what is ideal cfm for a 350....