What can be done to take a '67 350 and give it 25 + HP (more would be better) while keeping it looking totally stock? I'll change the carb, but I want the stock exaust manifolds, valve covers, intake manifold, & the look of a stock distributor etc. I'm open to cam & valve train, carb., & maybe heads (as long as I can can paint them to look stock). Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

a head change would be a big benefit if you are currently running stock heads. Some aftermarket Iron heads would wake that engine up a bit. The Dart Iron Eagles are supposed to be good, and the Pro Topline iron heads have great flow numbers as well. The Vortecs are a good buy as well, but use center bolt valve covers... you can adapt them for perimeter bolt covers, but it may be noticable. A new cam is also a great idea.

25 HP should be easy IMO. Work on your existing heads could get you 25 HP all by itself. A mild cam could be worth even more.

I think I've seen your car before (Camaro Superfest 2002 maybe?), very nice stock looking show car. If I were you I'd avoid changing heads or intakes or even the carb since it is factory restored (at least that is how I remember it). There are plenty of what I call "stealth mods" that will let you achieve your 25 HP goal anyway.

You can have the heads ported and increase valve size to 2.02 and 1.60" if they are the 1.94 and 1.50 type heads. this is completely free HP IMO - in other words there is no down side or driveability trade off. And best of all, noone will ever be able to see the mod from the outside.

As for a cam, if you want it to sound fairly close to stock - something like the Comp XE262 (or even XE268 if you want a little more rumble) should work nicely. I'd look for a dual pattern cam with a 110 lobe separation angle, intake duration in the low 220's @ .050 and exhaust duration in the high 220's. Lift should probably stay at or below .450" unless you want to install screw in rocker arm studs.

You could also do a distributor recurve, to make the advance curve a little more agressive. You can also convert from points using your existing distributor body for a hotter spark.

A good dual exhaust system with freeflowing mufflers is often overlooked too IMO.

Your stock Q-jet is a good carb should be fine for your setup IMO. Q-jets run good on mild performance combos when tuned right.

Just my opinion.

Mill the heads (Compression is what you need)
and maybe a cam change like to a rv type cam in the 265 to 270 range. Your hp will come up to get you the 25 easily and the tq will be a totally new ball game you will love it. Just don't get fooled into to big of a cam. Talk to a good machinest. - Barry

I agree a nice RV cam and pocket port of the heads. Go for a torque type cam.
If you have the small chamber high compression heads, think twice about milling them very much, you don't want too much compression or it will ping.
David

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67 RS 327 original owner. 69 Camaro Vintage Racer, 65 Lola T-70 Chev SB Can-Am Vintage Racer

Heck, you can do an easy 25 hp just by swapping cams. I assume this is an L-48 motor? Upgrading from the stock -929 cam to something like a crane 266 powermax (the one with 210/216@.050, 440/454 lift, 114 lsa) or a crower hdp267 (210/216@.050, 445/445, 112 lsa) will easily give you 25+ hp increase, and with the wider lsa's the idle quality will still be very near stock...especially with stock exhaust manifolds. Recurving the distributor is a must...even a cheap $10 advance curve kit makes a very noticeable difference compared to stock advance curve. Fine tune the carb, maybe some head work if you have the bucks, and you could easily see a 50+ hp increase, while still looking bone stock and retaining great street manners.

Great Ideas guys, keep 'em coming!

Eric, yeah that was my car, and yeah, that's the word I should have used... Stealth. I want it to run harder, but still look bone stock (at least to the casual observer at a car show).

I don't have a stock cam in it now, sorry, I don't have the specs here at work either.
I was dyno'd at 298 peak HP, but I'll tell you, it's really a dog. I have the a/c belt on and I'm lucky to get a chirp out of 2nd gear.

I'm too old to be doing burn outs, but when I'm getting on it through the gears, I'd like to be pushed back in the seat a bit more. I don't mind altering the heads either, but I want to run pump gas and not do something that might hurt the value of my stock motor.

I've decided that I want to make my car more fun to drive, I'm planning on doing the Hotchkis sway bar and 3 leafs along with an overdrive tranny (right now I'm thinking Tremec)

Thank you for your great ideas.

John

if you want to go all out and do some bottom end work, a set of pop up pistons can do a nice job of getting some morew horsepower. If you want to keep it looking stock, but run like a dragster, i reccomend doing the work to it. Another thing is to go to a roller cam, lifters, and rockers.