right on Jay, Thanks. I do not want to build a 600 hp motor, if I wanted to beat everyone at the track I would be looking a different direction. I just am looking to build a better than stock, fun on the street small block. Smoke some tire, quick off the line but not pulling the front wheels off the ground, maybe beat some of these millennia's in their Honda's light to light..... That's all im looking for. Probably increase compression, nice mild cam, what TA 212? hearers, good torque converter, posi rear with some mid range gears.
212 or Crower level 2 or 3 seems to be the consensus. Get Jim Weise to build you a converter. You'll be happy with it. Just tell him your combo. Unlike an off the shelf converter, he is quite familiar with what will work well with your combo. That little piece right there is a MAJOR part of the overall picture. You should have no trouble sourcing any 350 parts you need right here. Jay
Sounds like you're setting yourself up for disappointment, seriously, seen it here many times with people thinking sbb 350 will run good with a simple rebuild. They usually don't and a lot of the time they don't run as good as they did before the rebuild because the cheapest "stock" replacement pistons available were used(would of been better off with the factory pistons). Those "millennia's", sorry to say are going to laugh at you from light to light. Some of those fart can Hondas are quick, it would be like taking a knife to a gun fight. Forget the sbb 350 and do yourself a favor and just put a 455 in it then, one of those will run the way you want it to @ 5,500 RPM. A pretty straight forward swap and will do what you want to do against your "millennia's" from light to light. You don't need anything special, just a mild factory re-ring rebuild would work. Spend your $ once and be happy instead of disappointed and have to spend again to get what you want. What you're talking about putting together is a high to mid 14 second car(without tire spin and that is still on the optimistic estimation side), you can get that down with some gearing to the mid to low 14s but still won't have a chance against those Hondas that run in the very low 13s from the factory! Just trying to help you not be disappointed with all the time and $$ you spend. With what I previously posted, you don't have to do a 600 HP build, that was an example of what the rotating assembly mentioned would handle. If TA ever came out with the aluminum heads and you wanted to upgrade to those, your engine would be able to handle the extra air flow. Jay must of been thinking sbc when he said single plane intakes will make an engine loose low end(talk about bad advise, also, not all nascar take out rods are Chevy and none of them are sbc. The R07 engine platform is only used in nascar cars). TA claims that they did extensive testing on the SP3 so it would NOT loose any low end AND that it would fit under even a GS hood. A couple of guys that swapped to the SP3 have reported not loosing any low end as well but they reported it wanted to make the engine spin more. So if you were planning on getting an aluminum intake anyway with your build you probably don't want the SP3 with factory rods, not without a rev limiter anyway. GL
thanks for all the advise, if I was to go with the 455 swap as you suggest what would be needed? motor mounts? different front springs? what else, radiator? bell housing the same? throttle cable? will my sbb exhaust bolt up? anything else? not sure what to do. I am getting more confused as I keep reading. I really need to think about all this....
I agree with Derek as far as realizing what the outcome will be. It would make a nice street cruiser with decent power, but still nothing to compete with today's cars. The combo would be a low 14s or high 13s car. Good head porting would be a your best bet for more power. That's it. To make a 350 FAST, you would have to spend a ton of money. That's where Derek can certainly help you. You will have trouble finding someone to do the machine work however unless you can tell them exactly what you want. Then you have to be able to check their work. I was certainly wrong about the SP3 intake not fitting under the hood. Not much real life testing yet, but it will come. 455 swap.. The trans will bolt up, but most of what you mention will need to be changed. There is no shortage of info on the swap. Derek is a smart guy, no doubt. Perhaps he has made you realize that today's cars are fast in comparison. The combo that has been discussed will certainly SHRED the tires all day long, especially with the high stall converter and gears.
The 350 I built for the turbo car I ran NA for a while had the way wrong cam, a blow through carb, stock intake, I did work on the heads, stock exhaust manifolds, and had to be 8:1 at best. It did have 325/50 DRS with a 2800 stall or so. Ran 8.9s in the 1/8th at 78 like that with 2.0 60. It was in no danger of spinning, but never could get a good 60. It was fun on the street. Times at the strip don't mean fun on the street all the time. Obviously a good combo will be high 13s.
I still kick myself in the butt for selling my 350 from 1969 for 250$. Don't count the 350 out. You can turbo it.
NA it was fun. With boost I was about halfway scared of it on the street. I took a buddy of mine for a ride that owns a modded WRX-STI, and he called my wife to tell her he had never been so scared in a car in all of his life. We only went in a straight line mostly. The car went faster than my sig. That's the only documented thing I have. The oddest thing about the car is that it was freakishly quiet and smooth. On the start line you may as well be deaf and have no sense of touch. The tach is the only way you even know the car is still running because everything else around is so loud. I could make a 90+ run alone and roll back up to my buddies and they are like "where did you go"?
I don't know where you guys get the engine can't spin or make power after 5500. With that TA 510 cam I was making 390 hp from 5900-6200 rpm. I remember when I first took the car out I had the rpm limiter set at 6400 rpm, I went to the highway ramp and I was using the in dash tach I bought for it and it only got to 5800 and the limiter on the MSD was tripping the engine at 6400. Tach was slow The thing felt like it was still pulling at that point, after all the tach read 5800, but the engine was at 6400. Now would the SP3 take that farther than the 6400 I bet. would it hold up I don't know I just know it will spin past 6400. I have 73 capscrew rods with ARP on all fasteners, build it right and it will last. You don't need to stroke it unless you want a little extra and go more race. stock or above don't need it. On that NOS block, I would call around at some junkyards and see what you can get a 350 for and make a deal from there but I wouldn't go over 400 on it and that is too much.
