Georgia Flash Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 I am thinking about taking my engine to the shop and have it rebuilt before I stick it in the Z. I have a couple of questions. I want the engine to be a little stronger than stock so it will really get up and go but I need it to behave much like a daily driver. The car will not be raced but it needs to have that mean sound to it if you know what I mean. What should I tell the engine shop to do? Do you guys have any reccomendatios on what parts to use or what set up I should run? Thanks in advance for any input Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigWhyteDude Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 You could always up the compression ratio, get a bigger cam, stroke it ported heads, i know there are other ways to up your HP but i cant think of any of them right now. Any who good luck with the build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest heinera Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 It really depends on how much $ you want to spend. I went the cheap route for my first z engine, which is still in the car now. It was/is a chevy low performance 350 2 bolt, 2 barrel engine which originally was in a 4 door nova. I put in new bearings, edelbrock performer camshaft, moly rings (should have used the cheapo cast rings to seat better on my home honing job), performer intake, water pump, oil pump, distributor (upgraded to HEI), block hugger headers, and edelbrock 4 barrel carb. For exhaust I used side pipes. I honed the cylinders myself, I even kept the low compression stock pistons. I did however spend a little on the heads. I spent about 30 hours port matching, smoothing the chambers, slimming the valve guide boss, and smoothing the bowls. I installed new stainless valves, z28 springs, and new pushrods (summit specials). I had the seats machined, but did nothing to the valve guides. It cost me about 1000 to do all listed above. And I am fairly pleased with the results. It has a few things I wish were different. The compression is too low. And I know I am giving up some power because of it. I wish I had bored .030 over and used hyperutectics (spelling?) flat tops. But I can use the lowest grade of gas, and be very agressive on the spark timing and have had no noticable detonation. It idles at 500 rpm with a slight lope, If I raise the idle to 600 or 700 it idles smooth, and sounds mean with the sidepipes. It pulls hard from right off idle and starts running out of steam at about 5000 rpm. Sorry no dyno info yet. I am hoping to try a chassis dyno in a couple weeks. I hope this helps you decide Thanks, Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cbrunberg Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 I am thinking about taking my engine to the shop and have it rebuilt before I stick it in the Z. I have a couple of questions. I want the engine to be a little stronger than stock so it will really get up and go but I need it to behave much like a daily driver. The car will not be raced but it needs to have that mean sound to it if you know what I mean. What should I tell the engine shop to do? Do you guys have any reccomendatios on what parts to use or what set up I should run? Thanks in advance for any input Some of this depends on what you start with. I suggest you go with a set up similar to an IROC Z build. Use the '94 and up vortec heads they are the cheapest hp available on sbc rebuilds. You can buy them new ready to bolt on for the price of a really good valve job. Car Craft magazine bolted them onto a junkyard motor and got around 40 hp increase at the rear wheels (better than with aluminum IROC heads). If you don't want to work on it all the time I'd go with TBI and HEI ignition. Summit has most of this stuff available. If you want to save money go with an Edelbrock intake and carb (this carb is very low maintanance) and works well right out of the box. For a little more hp go with a Holley carb (takes more hands on getting the jetting right...). Good luck, Carl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thepenguin99 Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 I disagree with vortec heads as a budget option unless you can find them used for cheap. The heads new are around $450 complete + shipping and the special intake manifold is almost $300 if I remember correctly. Yes you can redrill to accept an older manifold but the ports will not line up correctly from what I understand. Considering you can source an edelbrock performer or similar intake for close to free that leaves you with probably $750 to shop heads and that gives you a lot of options for cast iron. For just a bit more cash or shopping used you could pick up aftermarket aluminum heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cbrunberg Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 I disagree with vortec heads as a budget option unless you can find them used for cheap. The heads new are around $450 complete + shipping and the special intake manifold is almost $300 if I remember correctly. Yes you can redrill to accept an older manifold but the ports will not line up correctly from what I understand. Considering you can source an edelbrock performer or similar intake for close to free that leaves you with probably $750 to shop heads and that gives you a lot of options for cast iron. For just a bit more cash or shopping used you could pick up aftermarket aluminum heads. I don't disagree with you. In general there's always a million options when building engines. Every decision made has pluses and minuses. The late vortec heads could be perchased at a wrecking yard cheap and rebuilt. I've spent $500 easily on heads, when you add up machine work, valves, guides, springs, retainers, seats, it's sometimes just easier and not much more cost to buy them in the crate GM Perf. Vortec head---Summit part #NAL-12558060 $256.95 ea. Edelbrock intake -------Summit part #EDL-2116 $159.95 Sub Total$673.85 Shipping could be expensive to Georgia. I live an hour and a half from Summit and I have a shop (wholesale discount) so my incentives are different. It's just information. If the machine shops there are cheaper by all means rebuild what you got. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thepenguin99 Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 not sure how I missed that intake but it makes the option a little more cost effective than I first thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted July 3, 2003 Share Posted July 3, 2003 I am thinking about taking my engine to the shop and have it rebuilt before I stick it in the Z. I have a couple of questions. I want the engine to be a little stronger than stock so it will really get up and go but I need it to behave much like a daily driver. The car will not be raced but it needs to have that mean sound to it if you know what I mean. What should I tell the engine shop to do? Do you guys have any reccomendatios on what parts to use or what set up I should run? Thanks in advance for any input Golly, I just love open ended questions like this one! There have been a number of articles about budget build-ups for the stock 350 Chevy motor. Power is made in the heads IMO, and IF you can swing better heads then the stock units, by all means buy some. If you can't, change out the stock cast pistons for some higher compression hypers or forged pistons. If you are stuck with the stock heads, keeping the compression reasonable at 9:5 or less helps--at least make it better then the soggy 8:1 you most likely have now. Go with a good, mild performance cam that won't overshoot your stock heads. I went with a Summit K-1103 cam for my motor, but may change it out since I have aquired some Edelbrock RPM heads in the meantime. A mild cam that has about 214/224 (degrees of lift) @ .050" and .488 lift will work quite well with the stock heads, and even better with performance heads (I hope I said all that correctly--I'm nursing a brew). A performance aluminum intake is a must IMO and so is a decent carb. Both are fairly reasonable and are available as a combo from places like Summit Racing. With the above parts and stock heads, you can easily make 300 genuine horsepower. That will move a Z and get reasonable gas mileage unless your foot goes down on a Holley DP (I'm not building my Z for mileage if you know what I mean). If you can swing a performance distributor and ignition, you'll pay yourself dividends in the mileage and performance arena. Some block huggers won't hurt either, but how much $$$ you want to spend makes a difference. I buy a lot from ebay and have been very pleased with the results. Also, Nothern Autoparts is a great place to buy from as well. Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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