Hey guys, new to the forum and wow seems to be a sweet place. i have a 78 X-body and i just bought a 350 for a 100 bucks from a friend to replace my tired chevy 350. i am lucky and a lot of people have been helping me out with getting my car on the road. now to the point: i am pulling the motor from the skylark tomorrow hopefully and it does look a little worse for the wear, but it runs and smokes em and for a hundred bucks its a damn steal. Now unfortunately its a 2bbl but i was given a stock 4bbl intake for it, anndd i have a quadrajet from my chevy motor. i am on an extreme budget for the time being since i have no job, and until my chevy stuff sells i have about $150 to work with. My car needs alot, but i dont want to get into that right now, what i am concerned with is getting this motor in so i can smoke some tire and have something accomplished in the 5 months i have had this car. in both cars the front ends are apart so swapping should be very easy, the buick motor has headers, will there be clearance issues? taking fluids into the budget i will probably have about 100 bucks left, what should i do first? i already have 10 feet of 2.5 inch pipe (not doing anything fancy, just purple hornies off the headers into straight pipe and if its still too loud i have flowmasters laying around) can i swap over to a 4bbl without issues or is the 750cfm quadrajet too much for the motor built for a 2bbl? is there anything i can do to the intake or is it pretty much good as is considering my setup? i would also like to do a cam as soon as funds allow, any ideas where all this will put me power wise? i was thinking around 250? hopefully this will make for a fun car to mess about in for my final months of high school. as is alot from the car has been removed due to damage or wear, so it has almost no interior and i also got rid of the A/C. The car was 3300 lbs when i got it so it should be a few lighter since the buick motor is lighter and all the interior stuff is gone. Sorry for the rant, just laying out my situation to get some feedback on this motor and hear some suggestions. i apologize if this is in the wrong section *P.S. Looking at some of the threads here makes me feel a little better about being on track performance wise
First off welcome! Second be carefull about the engine mounts and frame pads, you may need frame pads from an x body that has a Buick 350 or Buick v6 as the chevy frame pads are different in all cases I have seen. If you have the time and energy then try the skylark mounts with the chevy pads (if they even fit and drop them down together with the engine and trans... If it looks like it will work then mark the frame for where the pads need to be, remove the engine and trans then attach the frame pads where you marked it and re-instal the enigne. What trans is in the car now? Depending on that you may or may not have to make driveshaft and cross-member modifications. I suggest doing the intake and cam swap at the same time and it is much easier out of the car.... beg borrow whatever... might as well do the cam and intake swap and be done with it for a while. The stock cams are very poor. If I could not afford the cam I would wait and drive it stock with the 2bb. Properly set up the 2bb will roast the tires but just lack the higher rpm power. Even if you do add a 4bb carb and intake, the best power will be between idle and 4600 rpms with the stock cam. Most street 350s make the best power with a mild cam at 2400-5600 so no need to add a huge cam unless you spend $ in head porting. Under 350 hp the stock intake is fine stock, over that I port match them. What year is the Buick 350 by the way?
Very helpful post, thankyou i have been reading here recently that the 72 skylark 350 frame pads (the motor is a 72 btw =P) will not work on the x-body frame. i am not too sure where i can go to get the v6 or v8 frame pads from a 75-79 skylark, but from seeing pictures i am almost certain the chevy pads will not work. it seems i will have to do motor and trans separate because doing it in one shot would complicate trying to find the proper pad placement. my previous trans was a chevy th350, so hopefully there will be no issues there since it is my understanding that the bop th350 is the same =] i will try to save up for a cam before the swap, but since my fenders and front end are apart it shouldn't be painful to do the cam while the motor is in, right now i just wanna get the motor home so i can start some work and be able to move the car As for performance, what do you reccomend i do to the Q-jet to get it right for the 350 or is it pretty much test and tune? Also as you were saying about the powerband for a cammed 350, that brings up a question i have, what is the reccomended rpm limit for these motors i know it isnt too high. ahh i am so excited, after all this is done i just have to giver 'er a good tune up, get the car road worthy and start savin for gears and a posi, the real challenge is doing all that before august
You are correct the th350 swap should be a bolt in unless one is a long shaft and the other a medium shaft... measure the tail end of each trans to be sure they are the same. So if they are the same then it is a bolt in swap and I would leave the trans attached to the engine, and drop them in. Just a long shot you might be able to get the 72 Buick frame pads to work if you drill new holes for them although they may not put the engine at the right height. It is worth a shot if you are broke and can not find the frame pads from an x body. Either way you go be sure to get new motor mounts and use the mounts to match the frame pads you are using... You can order them new. Ok, that works The jetting and idle circuits are different on the chvy carbs vs buicks so either find a non modified buick 350 carb from 68-80 to drop on or get the cliff ruggles book about q jet modifications and customize it for your combo. The only q jet that will ever run right on your buick 350 without modifications is a buick 350 carb. In general if kept under 5600 rpms the engines will last very well even with nitrous or boost added. There is no point in revving over 5000 with stock cam. If you add a good cam then you may get good power till 5400... If you add head porting on top of that then maybe 5600. The only way to make power above that is with either forced induction and or a singleplane intake. There are people with singleplane 350s ported out that turn 7500 rpms but they tear down to inspect often. ahh i am so excited, after all this is done i just have to giver 'er a good tune up, get the car road worthy and start savin for gears and a posi, the real challenge is doing all that before august[/QUOTE] Get to work....And keep us posted!
Customization, and in my opinion it is not worth doing unless you have the camshaft, headers ect that you plan to run for a long time... Otherwise you will end up modifying the carb again later on.... The simple way to go is find a 4bb Buick 350 carb and rebuild it yourself.
There will most likely be clearance issues however you have a few options there.... If you have a friend with a welder then they may be able to modify them to fit. Another option is to sell those headers and buy buick 350 header flanges then weld on a set of SBC shorty headers onto those flanges.
Now, not to sound immature but my friend and ex boss has a mustang 5.0 he just rebuilt, has 3.55's and a 5 speed, he says it puts out about 240hp. since he always calls my car a piece of crap i wanna show him up at englishtown this summer, what kind of power would i be seeing with a properly tuned 4bbl and true dual exhaust? What kind of headwork and porting would you guys reccomend? i would like to try avoiding rebuilding this motor for now.
The mustang may not have the upper hand power and torque wise once you've done a cam swap and such to your motor, and your not gonna like this but the way your cars setup it's very unlikely that you'd beat the 5 liter, which is mostly a gear thing. The 5 speed mustangs have a big gear advantage even with the stock 3.08 gears because of the 5 speed trans, and that becomes even more deadly if they have lower gears than stock in the back, they dont need lots of power to move. If you have a very healthy trans, and you added a good converter, say 2800 or 3000 and 4.11 gears you might have a chance. I dont mean to be a downer but my story is I bought my 69 GS and I worked on it for a year so I could beat 5Lers and cruise it downtown it had a 72 two barrel 350, I added the TA four barrel intake, msd pro billet electronic distributor with ignition box and rev limiter, holley 750, hooker super comp headers, and full flowmaster mandrel bent 2.5" exhaust with cutouts, restored my ram air air cleaner, it's got a 12 bolt posi with 3.30 gears. I thought I'd atleast be pretty quick and able to take some stock 5 liters, so my buddy from highschool went out and bought a mid 80's lx 5.0 5 speed, bone stock everything, non posi, with headers and flows. We went out cruising one saturday night and got a red light, I had practiced beforehand and knew exactly how to stage it to get the best launch, the light goes green, and he pulls away from me hard, right off the line, and just keeps pulling until we shut it down at 50 mph. What my buddy payed for the 5 liter which was in very good shape, was about the same as all the parts I bought for my car during that year and hours I payed for to get a mechanic help me rewire the mess in my engine compartment and dash FML:spank: So now the cars ripped apart and im on about the same budget as you with a little work, and I'm trying to do a 455 swap. Whatever you do, if you don't like the way the car performs, for your own sake dont rip the whole car apart and try to re do everything, drive it as long as you can, thats where the fun is, even if it's not fast. I miss my slowmobile. Ryan
Thanks for the advice, yeah i already ripped everything from my car, but only because it was all faded and ugly. my car has no value so i don't really feel guilt about it looking bad, i just want to experiment with some cheap power:Brow: i would be happy if i came close to the stang, i already have a good converter i do believe (someone gave me a fairbanks converter, not sure of the stall though since i didn't have a tach last time my car was running, but it sounded in the 2ks) i draw the line at 3.55 mayyybe 3.73's in the rear, but then i will definitely need a 700r4. i want to do a auto/manual shift kit and possibly some port work, all depends on my budget, i gotta get to work selling this chevy crap hehe. i am hoping i am not crazy in thinking my car will be light, it should be close to 3000. Ah i'm getting ahead of myself, lets get it running first:3gears:
If your engine is in good shape then it is very likely you can make about 270 hp at the crank with just a good tune, power timing, and duals. They key to why these 350s are great on the street is because they make great torque from low rpms which makes them get going off the line well compared to higher hp cars. The weight of your car is fairly low, this will help you big time. If you can get your trans shifting consistently then you will have the advantage with no chance of slow or missed shifts like the 5 speed has. Find out what rear gears you have and get some sort of possi for sure even if you leave the stock gearing. Regarding the head work, i would remove your heads or find some spare ones to have a shop port and flow test for you along with a 3 angle valve job. Combine the head porting with a good cam, headers, and you can make over 330 hp easily.
Woohoo i am excited =] i have 2.56's in the rear right now, im pretty sure i have an 8.5 rear. How much does head work usually run and are there some things i can possibly do myself? i am friends with a couple guys who own a shop so i am sure they can help me out a little, i am sure the valve job probably requires a machine shop though.
The 2.56 gear may hurt you a bit off the line but if you like driving 100+ mph then that is a great gear. How tall are your tires? If you use a short tire you can effectively change the gear ratio and get off the line quicker.. Maybe a set of used drag radials that are wide but short. For the possi issue maybe a unit that you can add without tearing your rear end apart would be good: http://www.richmondgear.com/powertrax/lrinstallation.html Here is some info on head porting... I suggest finding a spare set of heads in your area and practice on those, the biggest issue with home porting heads is that without flow testing it is hard to make each port flow the same as the others. if you look closely at the pics you can see that there even just a clean up and blending will help huge. Full on porting costs about $1500 although even just a $500 port job will give you major gains. Head porting is the biggest potential for improved power on the 350. I have made 398 hp with home ported heads although it took trial and error and lots of time. http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=120529&highlight=heads head porting thread:http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=120529&highlight=heads < Click thumbnails :Comp:[/QUOTE]
Also regarding your rear end... Are you sure you have a 8.5 rear? The info I find says you could not get a 8.5 with the 2.56 gear so something is off here. Look at the info at the bottom of this link and ID the rear end, then we can try to help further: http://www.classicoldsmobile.com/tech/73.shtml
That is some interesting stuff:gp: it seems i have alot of research to do when i am ready to attempt this thanks for gathering it in one place As for gears, i really have no reason to speed other than at a dragstrip (i dont need the risk at my age i like my license:Brow and even then i highly doubt i will be fast enough to run out of gear, tires i have 205/70/14's but i may put on some 245/50/16's in the future, i would imagine the difference is negligible between them, so maybe ill pick a set of rims i dont like too much to throw some short radials on like you suggest. As for posi what would be involved in using something like what is seen on ebay? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/REBU...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories hopefully i can find something a litter cheaper but heck the price is worth it. So to round up a rough estimate if i do all the work between myself and friends how much do you think it all will be to get this car respectable? $1000?
Maybe it is 2.73, we only just turned the wheels and driveshaft to see what the ratio was around, i am pretty sure it is an 8.5 rear i read somewhere that that is what the novas had, i will double check when i go outside to work on the car though * there is the very small possibility that i have posi, it is just burnt out, the previous owner said it was posi but i know that isnt reliable, guess ill go out now a check, brrr its like 20 degrees out in an uninsulated garage with a windbreaker hehe, but such is life, this isnt my first winter project
There are SO many factors to this but what I can say is be VERY particular before you spend any cash....Bargain for used parts... Offer to remove them from the vehicles in the junk yard ect. I have been where you are now and I can say that it is possible to collect parts you need for little or no money.... I bet there is a car in your area that is abonadoned and has a better gear and possi and a full rear end swap is easier than rebuilding a rear end an adding a possi. This is why I suggested the type that bolts onto the rear end without having to rebuild...
