I'm looking at buying a truck from one of the other guys on CK5 here, and as such, it comes with no motor. Started poking around the shop today to see what was 'available'. Can't use a 454, not ready to spend the bucks on a TH400 yet, so I'm going with a 350 block.
At first I was planning on using a bare L98 block to start with, but then realized with where I was going, I'd spend well over 3 grand on the motor. A little looking around, and then I found it sitting in the corner. A 300 HP 356. The engine had been built last year before I got to the shop, and had been pulled because of a bad oil problem and some broken valve springs.
It's got some 1492 casting heads on it (camel hump, old school style), an agressive cam (hence the broken valve springs), and a nice dual-plane intake on it. It was bored out 0.040" IIRC. Anyways, the oil problem we figured was either a problem with the bore, or the piston rings.
Here's my plan for this motor; tear it apart and check to see if the pistons were ringed correctly (might have just been some misaligned rings), and check all the bores/pistons/rings with a caliper to verify size. If it's a bore problem, it's getting bored again to 0.060 over (360 CID). Now the big question is... stroker, or no? If it gets stroked, it'll be a grand total of 389 cubes. The heads have roller tip rockers on them, and I might go for a cam grind designed for lower operating RPMs. I think this cam is in the 2000-6000 range.
This motor has a grand total of about 300 miles since it was built, the heads had a lot of valve work done... just the dual springs couldn't hold up to the cam.
Anyone have thoughts or suggestions for a cam grind and intake that will work well with the camel humps?
Basically, I'm trying to avoid spending the $$$ for a built set of heads. These are free (nothing beats free parts ya know) and already had a lot of work put in them.
At first I was planning on using a bare L98 block to start with, but then realized with where I was going, I'd spend well over 3 grand on the motor. A little looking around, and then I found it sitting in the corner. A 300 HP 356. The engine had been built last year before I got to the shop, and had been pulled because of a bad oil problem and some broken valve springs.
It's got some 1492 casting heads on it (camel hump, old school style), an agressive cam (hence the broken valve springs), and a nice dual-plane intake on it. It was bored out 0.040" IIRC. Anyways, the oil problem we figured was either a problem with the bore, or the piston rings.
Here's my plan for this motor; tear it apart and check to see if the pistons were ringed correctly (might have just been some misaligned rings), and check all the bores/pistons/rings with a caliper to verify size. If it's a bore problem, it's getting bored again to 0.060 over (360 CID). Now the big question is... stroker, or no? If it gets stroked, it'll be a grand total of 389 cubes. The heads have roller tip rockers on them, and I might go for a cam grind designed for lower operating RPMs. I think this cam is in the 2000-6000 range.
This motor has a grand total of about 300 miles since it was built, the heads had a lot of valve work done... just the dual springs couldn't hold up to the cam.
Anyone have thoughts or suggestions for a cam grind and intake that will work well with the camel humps?
Basically, I'm trying to avoid spending the $$$ for a built set of heads. These are free (nothing beats free parts ya know) and already had a lot of work put in them.
btw, I may have a th400-to-205 adapter for sale soon if you need to piece together a 400/205 drivetrain someday. 
