Ok,I am rebuilding the 350 in my '80 camaro.It is a '74 350 out of a truck.the motor is in the machine shop now getting cleaned and the man said it will get by fine with just some honing of the cylinders since it really didn't have any wear on them.As I have only built pontiac motors I am wondering what parts would be good for a street sb.Going to get the factory heads redone with new valves and springs.Also using the stock crank and rods since it won't be on the strip.So any suggestions for the rest of the motor?

get a cam with about 218 @ .050, dual plane intake and a Vacume xecondary carb of 600 cfm and you'll have a nice daily driver

thanks for the suggestion;just hope the 2.73 in the rear won't slow it down to much lol.

Ditto, since this is a street type rebuild no need to get fancy with bottom end parts or a real big cam -- GM made them pretty good to begin with.

Thanks for the help guys.My machinist is ordering the parts today for me,so the 80' will be up and running next week.Then i can start working on my late X-mas present from my wife,she got me a 79'z for next to nothing.

The only thing I can say is first check out what kinda money you will have in your heads. You might be surprised how much it all adds up, and you could be nearing the price of your entry level aftermarket heads like a properly equipped vortec head or a world product head. You might spend more on yours if you can find these heads in good, but used condition! Reguardless if you end up with a new entry level head, or freshen your heads up, here is what I would build for. Id shoot for roughly 9.25:1 compression give or take a tad along with a crane cams 272 energizer hydraulic camshaft. Next would be an edelbrock performer rpm intake with an edelbrock 600cfm carb on top(or something comparable in the 600-650cfm range). A good quadrajet will work great too. Id get some 1 3/4 headers as well with good 2.5 inch piping all the way back.

Ive run this motor in a 2.73 geared heavy 70 chevelle with a stock converter and it actually worked out ok. It took a little persuation to the tune of a breakstand, but it could actually roll some 10 inch wide, 27.5 inch tall tires even with the stock converter and airplane gears. I will say though, It would have been best with about a minimum of a 3.23 gear and probably a 3.55 would have been the way to go, so keep that in mind.

Oh yeah, about that cam. The energizer cam has the same valve lift and duration on the intake and exhaust side. It seems to me that crane also makes a 272 powermax camshaft, which has the same intake lobe, but a larger exhaust lobe. If Im right, Id choose the powermax 272 cam cause factory heads need all the help they can get in the exhaust department so the additional lift and duration on the exhaust side will wake it up a tad. Either way, neither one is a bad choice.

Update, crane definitely does sell a powermax version of that cam. Its got .454/.480 lift and 272/I think 284 duration. That would be better suited for a factory head or an entry level aftermarket head. Oh by the way, I said 1 3/4 headers, I shoulda said 1 5/8, cause that would be a better match. Oops.

The cam you mentioned was the one that my machinist ordered.As to how much it will cost me i am getting off lucky as he wanted the front clip off the cavalier parts car i have in the backyard;so he is doing the work for the clip.Only thing comming out of pocket is the price of the parts.
Already have the 1 5/8 headers; purchased them before the motor came out.This one will be the driver while i fix up the 79' my wife got me.Then it will be time to upgrade to a bigger motor and a new rear end.

Wouldn't the regular Performer manifold be a better choice for his street engine or is the cam to big for that manifold?

It seems that there is very little low end torque loss, if any when going from the performer to the rpm. I would bet that there is a bit of a loss below 2000-2400rpm or so just based on the design differences, but the rpm manifold feels just as strong or stronger at any rpm above that, and definitely stronger over like 3500rpm. Also, whatever loss their is below 2000rpm or so, you aint gonna know about anyways with your converter you have In short, neither would be a bad choice, but I like the performer rpm myself.

What do you think about the performer air-gap and 600 cfm edelbrock performer carb.As I already have those.

Go with it. Like I said, this sorta app is basically a "right in the middle" type of application, so either one will work well. With a little more cam, Id say get the rpm for sure, and with a little less, Id say the performer is proably a closer match, but you can go either way without worrying about too much of a crutch on either end of the performance spectrum. The one that will work best is the one you dont have to spend any money on( read: that one you already got and can re-use). The carb is right on for this buildup as well.

I'm going to suggest no bigger then a CC 246/268 Dual Energy cam, (PN 12-305-2), a Stock Q-Jet or a Performer and a 600cfm, 1850 Holley carb. and 1.625" four tube long headers if you can't find any 1.5" headers that will fit!!!

I say this b/c if that motor is stock, it is only around 8.25 to 8.5 to 1 CR. so bigger cams like I usually go with, (the CC 268HE and Crane 272/272), are too big, imho!! Especially with 2.73 gears!!

ECR with this cam is only 7.4 so even it is too big, imho...

pdq67

well he ordered some flat tops with around 9.0 to 1 comp so that will help out a good bit.

I ran the 272 camshaft once before in an 8.8:1 350 with 2.73 gears in a heavy car. I wouldnt say it worked great, but it did work much better than expected. Beleive it or not I could roll the tires very nicely during a breakstand, and once I let off, it would burn both tires for miles. I figure with 9:1 or more compression, it will do well in the camaro(which was lighter than my application) but Id still say go with a gear change.

the rear end is going to have to wait at this point as i don't have the money to change the gears in it

Pay close attention to the heads. It is VERY common for 70's truck engines to use the more common head castings like 882's but they usually have a smaller 1.72" intake valve. These things are absolutely worthless for performance...the intake valves and and bowls are just too small to breath over 4500 rpms. They are made for off idle grunt for a truck application, and for decent fuel economy.
With that said, if you have 1.94/1.50 valves in your heads (which will be 76cc heavy castings), then they will be ok. You have to watch also with most cast rebuilder type flat top pistons because they use a reduced compression height which puts the piston about .040-.055 below deck, which kills compression. Use a hypereutectic flat top replacement piston with the standard 1.560 comp height, and get the block and heads surfaced just enough to ensure they are flat. This should put the piston about .020 in the hole (measure it to be sure), then use a .020-.026" thick head gasket. This will get you up to a hair over 9-1 compression, and in conjuction with a crane 272 energizer cam (272/272, 216/216@.050, .454/.454, 110 lsa/105 ica), a 2000 stall B&M holeshot convertor (not necessary, but it makes a nice improvement in the launch, and is just as streetable as a stock convertor, and works well with the tall gears, and is fairly cheap), and reuse your existing q-jet (assuming your car has a q-jet, otherwise a 600 edelbrock/carter is perfectly fine), and with a decent exhaust system, you could have a very strong, tire frying, 18+ mpg getting daily driver. I build a lot of heavy, under geared truck engines this way, and it flat works. Also, in my experience, the performer intake is a better choice than the rpm for a high geared, relatively heavy street car.
I built an engine just like this many years ago for a buddys '71 1/2 ton chevy truck, with a 3 speed stick and 3.08 gears. With the stock '71 truck q-jet, a set of cheap headers, and dual 2 1/4" exhaust, that thing could burn the tires off thru the 1st 2 gears, and when driven normally got 16+ mpg even with the aerodynamics of a small house.

Travis,

Did all 882's come with 1.72 intake valves? My 350 has a small mild cam in it with a performer manifold and a 600 cfm edlebrock carb. Runs great and has decent torque, but my engine seems to hit a wall at 4500rpm. If it has 1.72's that would explain why my 350 falls flat on its face at 4500rpm. Is there a way to tell what size valves are in my head without pulling the heads off? If it helps my head numbers are 3998998 and 333882

the heads were from a '70 350 that was in a camaro.they have 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves.will have to hunt down the casting numbers for them.the block came out of the truck and used the heads and intake from a previous project on them when i put it in my camaro.

DenRS, not all 882's come with the small valves. I have never seen any car engine (including 2bbl engines) with these heads have the small valves. Only on trucks...and not even all trucks. Chances are yours are the 1.94/1.50 valved heads. The 1st engine I built for my 78 chevy truck had the same 333882 heads w/1.94 valves, a small 266 crane energizer cam, headers, aluminum intake, and a 600 cfm carb, and it was all done by about 5K rpms. With a stock or very small cam, 4500 rpms is about all they are good for.

oops...double post

Thanks Travis. I'm just trying to get a little more performance out of the car and I always felt my heads were a big bottle neck. I think a new set of Trick Flow heads would definitely wake up my 350.

Ok, got the motor out of the shop today,and thought you might like to know what has been done to it.It is using the stock crank and rods,speed pro flat tops with 9-1 comp,stock heads that were worked over with 2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves,crane energizer 272 cam kit,1 5/8 in headers,edelbrock performer air-gap intake, and performer 600 cfm carb.Going to put it in this weekend and see how good it runs after break in.

If you can swing the $$$'s, adding a 2000 B&M holeshot convertor (or something similar) will make a good thing even better.

thought about getting a 2500 B&M but was going to check out the differant stall speeds that would be good for the car

Got the motor in last yesterday and started it up.Before i could get the chance to drive it though;my little bro came home from the salvage yard with a rear end out of another '80 camaro so we swapped it out this morning.The "new" rear has 3.42 gears so I think it is a good upgrade from the 2.73's that was in it.

i have out those same heads on my race car motor i was wondering if they are good heads, as in perfomance wise?
thanks