I race this car 1/3 mile oval 78 riv 350 olds rocket th350 trans 2.53 gear chebbie rear in my class I must stay stock across the G.M family my car came stock w/the 403 olds it didnt hold up so my salvage yard sponsor got me the 350 My Q is have I got a good engine here and would I get more power/speed w/a 400 trans and what H P / Torque am I close too? thanks have more Q`s but 4 now thats it http://chasinracin.com/cgi-bin/showpage.pl?ID=on_my_6
The Olds 350 engine is actually superior to the 403 from a hot-rodding point of view. The 403, for the most part, is a "smogger" motor. The Olds 350, in stock configuration, was available in 350+ hp in the [awesome] "W" machines, all the way down to barely over 100 hp in the "dark ages" of the mid to late 70's, so guesstimating your HP/TQ would be a total crap-shoot without a lot more info. The T-400 tranny would actually slow you down as it's higher gear ratios and heavier internal rotating mass would work against you. I dont know anything about your class, or your local track rules,,, BUT since you asked on the small block buick forum, and you said your limited to "stock GM" parts, I'll take a shot at "advising" you on building up a winning combo... Start by getting your hands on a 1970 SP code buick 350, it came from the factory with 10.25:1 pistons, 315 HP, 400 ft/lbs and the aluminum rocker-arm assembly... While this is commonly refered to as the "GS" motor, it was actually installed in just about every model buick in '70 as the "high compression 350" option, and is not as rare as you might think they are. Naturally, you will want to equip this engine with an HEI distributor, and a Q-jet carb,,, both "worked over" by a good tuner. Hook it up to your T-350 tranny with a Vega torque converter, and find yourself some good rear gears that were "factory installed"... Look in some 6 cylinder cars for a set of 3.23 or 3.55's, and HANG ON!!!
THANKS GUYS I will do some more research and get more ref #`s from the block and see excatly where i`m at w this engine I know it has a whole lot more balls than the 403 did
