Low buck 350 building...tips?

[BigOrange90Jimmy]

Aight, here's what I've got.

A crate TBI 350 for my 87 K5. I want to do some performance work to it before I put it back in the truck.

Here's what I was thinking:
Balanced
RV cam (something fairly bumpy)
roller rockers
maybe port and polish job
headers

I want to get the maximum MPG out of this motor. I'll be running a 465/205 in it with 3.73's and 33's.

Does that sound like a winning combo?

 

[pauly383]

All sound good , except cam. You want a good dual pattern grind from Crane or Comp Cams. That would work the best power and mileage for you. The balancing and roller rockers will do great for longevity while running smooth and adding some ponies . /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif

 

[fortcollinsram]

Balancing is a MUST, IMO! I will NEVER build a motor with out balancing.

Also, I think you should save some cash and steer away from the roller rockers. You really will not realze much in terms of power. I say save a few bucks and get roller TIP rockers. These have more accurate ratios than the factory stamped units they have a roller tip to reduce side-loading on the valve guides. I think saving a few extra bucks on the rockers that can be invested in better rings and pistons is a wise idea.

I may not be the best guy to talk to about "budget" rebuild as I have a tedency to go overboard.

My BBC ran great the day I bought it, but rebuilt it and dropped WAY more vcash into it than I had originally planned.

I had my block, cleaned, prepped, bored, decked, line bored, honed and plateau honed. The crank was ground. The head were shaved .035". Everything INTERNALLY balanced to within 1 gram (for my BBC this meant drilling about 6 LARGE holes in the crank counter weight to adjust for the MUCH lighter Eagle ESP H-beam rods and Speed-Pro pistons...

Chris

 

[1-ton]

Re: Low buck 350 building...tips? *DELETED*

Post deleted by 1-ton

 

[tree_entz]

do yourself a favor and get some kind of hotter ignition. I know I know, budget. But you could even get a stock replacement for under $200. wires would be good too, especially if your running headers (elcheepo wires dont like hanging out on that hot surface). If you already got this than more power to you, but i cannot stress spark enough!

 

[Triaged]

I never understood the idea of buying a new crate motor and taking all the new parts off of in and replacing them with other new parts. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

What is wrong with the crate motor?
Could you just upgrade to the next higher option for the crate motor?
Will messing with it void the warranty?

What about other things like headers, exhaust, larger TBI (one from a 454), chip, etc...

 

[BigOrange90Jimmy]

I didn't buy the motor, it just happened to come with the truck, which they just happened to put in before it caught on fire.

When I say budget, I'm willing to spend money on what I feel is necessary, but I'm not going to buy heads and other high end parts. Stock is good...making stock better is, well, better. /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

That's the purpose behind the balancing and cam really. If that's all I do, then that's all I'll do. All the other stuff is fairly expendable, and can come at a later date.

Like I said before, this is all in attempts to get some better gas mileage BEFORE I put the motor back in.

Balancing a motor around here is fairly cheap cuz there's a bunch of race shops that will do it next to nothing and actually do a good job of it. That's why I was looking into that.

I also want to check out the motor internally because all I know about it is that it LOOKS to be a crate motor, and cracking into it would give me a chance to find out for sure.

 

[duece21]

[ QUOTE ]
Aluminum Intake Manifold:... . Edelbrock has one for TBI cost about $180

[/ QUOTE ]

Where? When I looked it was around $230 at summit.