Hi, I own a 1984 Chevrolet camaro which I plan on making a nice little weekend cruiser....
The car is light as "Streetly" possible...
Side windows are lexan.
I'm Running weld draglites.
No A/C.
No Heater.
Plastic Racing Seats.
FiberGlass Lift off Hood.
FiberGlass Front Fenders.
Front nose is gutted of any hood latches, springs, etc.
Alum. Radiator.
Racing harnesses.
Battery has been moved to rear.
Dash has been gutted of any A/C (Heater) vents or ducts.
Etc. Etc.

New Motor Specs:

SHORT BLOCK:
350 4-bolt SBC (3970010 casting number).
Hot-tanked.
Checked for cracks.
Bored .030" over.
Align Honed.
Fully Balanced/Blueprinted by Gary Johns Performance.
Eagle Forged Crank.
Eagle Forged 5.7" rods.
Speed Pro Forged Pistons. (10.2:1 compression).
All Clevite bearings.
All ARP fasteners.
Comp Cams Magnum 270H Cam (.470" lift).
Pete Jackson "Noisy" timing gear.
Etc. Etc.

HEADS:
(I know these suck, this is why I am buying a set of Victor JR's as soon as I get the money.)
882 Castings.
3-angle Valve job.
Fully Port-polished.
2.02/1.60 Manley Stainless steel valves.
z28 Valve springs.
Comp Cams Magnum Pushrods.
Comp Cams Magnum 1.6 Ratio Roller tip rockers.


INTAKE:
Edelbrock Performer RPM air-gap.
Fully Port matched to intake on heads.
1" carb spacer.
Holley 750 CFM Street avenger 4-bbl carb.
K&N Velocity Stack.

EXHAUST:
Hooker Super-comp Shorty Headers.
True dual 2.5" pipes.
2-Flowmaster 40-series 2-chamber mufflers which dump down right before the rear axle.
Pipes MIGHT be 4.5'feet long.

DRIVETRAIN:
355 SBC.
B&M Racing 700r4 pro-built tranny.(Soon to be 2-speed powerglide)(2500 stall).
10-bolt rear from a 4'th gen z28.
4.10 gears. Eaton Posi. Moser axles.

Will this be a good little weekend cruiser???
Will I be able to take it to the local 1/8'th mile and run around 8's???
Will I be able to take it to gainesville and run 12's???

My goal with this car is to run decent 12's... I don't care if I have to spray it or not...

I plan on running a 100hp spray in the 1/4 anyways...
and I ran the motor set-up on my desktop dyno, with timing retarted 4 degrees and it made 365hp...

ALSO!!! I have a Weiand 7546 Single Plane manifold which is also port-matched to those heads... would it be better to use that manifold, or the RPM air-gap???
are these realistic goals with this motor/car combo???


THANKS FOR ANY ADVICE!!!
I really appreaciate it!!!

That motor will be rediculously undercammed for the Victor JR. Heads. with 215cc runners youll have a bit softer bottom end and then with that cam your max RPM is likely to be 6,000 or so and you wont get the benifit of the Vic.Jr's top end. So in reality it would be a serious dog. Your better off with a set of 200cc heads like pro 1's. Or better yet the AFR 195 or the Brodix RR200 i have the RR200's on my 350 motor, but if you get the RR200's GET THE CNC CHAMBERS or dont waste your time. Just my opinion

IMO the part that makes life painful as a cruiser is all the creature comforts that are already gone . . . so IMO if you are going to drive around a radical, lightened-up chassis you might as well build a motor to go with it.

So if you can't afford aftermarket heads then fine --- live with your 882's until you can, but I would look at more cam and converter. You already have the 4.10 gears, so why not look at a healthy solid FT cam? Something with a tight LSA (like 106*) and agressive lobes right about 280* advertised duration. And add a 3500 converter to go with it.

If you choose to keep the engine mild then the dual plane is the way to go, if you build the motor for more RPM than your single plane might be better. BUT if you are serious about 1/8th mile racing then you should probably look at what manifold will get you out of the hole better - the 1st 60' is everything when racing the 1/8th. (its important when racing the 1/4 too, but not like the 1/8th).

JMO.

Thanks for the advice... I forgot to say that once I get the Victor JR's I will be swapping the cam out as well... I have found that the Magnum 292H is an excellent street/strip cam... so I will probabaly go with that once I get some better heads... this combo is just basically a Temporary top end for this motor... and I am just using the 700r4 (2500 Stall) untill I get my powerglide built... the powerglide will most likely have around 3500 stall... and I don't really care about the "Creature Comforts" I drove the car as an everyday driver for 2 years with plastic seats, harnesses, no a/c, no heater,and EXTREMELY light... It just had the origional (modified) 305 in it... which is really Junk.... with the rear that's in it now, and the 305 at Jax Raceways (Local 1/8'th mile) I ran 10.4 sideways on radials... the 305 has too much torque for that track and the tires I'm currently running... I will be switching to hoosier DOT's, but I am currently running Cooper Cobra Radial GT's 255x60xR15's in the rear... and at the track I bag them to around 20lbs... that car has never hooked at that track though... the 10.4 run was pretty bad though because the car was sideways with both back tires up in smoke at 1/2 track...
My Main Problems are traction and power....
Since the motor is allready built, do you think it's decent with that cam (270h) and the 882's??? will it make around 350hp??? at the flywheel.... Also I am running all synthetic fluids too...
I'm trying to gain as much power as possible...


Thanks!!!

If your current problem is traction why do you want more torque? :eek:

I would personally go bigger with the cam - like the Magnum 280H instead.

I have a used 3000 converter, if you are interested just shoot me an email.

You wont here me saying this ofter, but those heads are too big for a 350,
get something with 190-200cc runners. Stick with the RPM since you're not
gonna run much stall. I dont agree with your cam choise, the 292 is an old
design and doesnt make much low/mid range. Go with something like the 230/236,
or the next one up, dont get too crazy. Also the glide wont be a good choice for
the street, and unless you put a loose converter behind it - it wont be any quicker
then a TH350/700r4. If all you want is to run 12s, then build a mild 350 with good
heads and a mild hyd cam, since your car is light it wont take much to run 12s,
around 350+hp, since its light 400hp would put you around 12.0s

Well dont take this to be cocky but if your going to get the victor Jr's get a REAL big cam to go with it, forget about the 294 cam and look at some 265@.050 cams and run the converter to match. That 294 cam isnt going to make useable power with those heads, look at eric, hes got Trick Flow 195cc heads, running that 294 cam and hes doing great, with more CI. You want 215cc's spin it. I looked into this for a year for my Top end 350 and it came down to AFR210's or Brodix RR200's and the 200's are the better head for the Application hands down they have better low lift flow #'s than alot of 180cc heads and the upper lift numbers of a track 1 brodix head. My cam is VERY radical, bigger than alot of all out racers,i drive mine on the street though smile.gif and these heads can support the RPM necessary to run a rediculous cam so if your not going to go any bigger than 350 id suggest looking into them or a head similar to them, in fact im going to go a hair smaller on my current cam so i dont have to spin it 8,000 {and then i can shift my 5 speed}.. to get my E.T.'s Im very excited to go to the strip next year and put some proof into it cause there are a few on here waiting to see. Just my opinion but unless you plan to cam that bitch like a champ {260 somthing at least @.050} put 200 cc heads on it. It will be faster, im very glad Eric convinced me to go 200 cc and a point higher on the compression {11:1} SO its up to you, but thats my "350 knowledge" My RR200's can support a 350 at 8,000 RPM with a 268/278@.050 cam so im sure they will support your 350 with a much milder cam

do you think that this motor will propel it into the 12's??? will it have around 350ish hp??? I will be spraying too... I want to throw in a 100hp shot just to see what happens... see how many rods I can kick through the block... lol....
so what type of heads would you recommend for this motor... and would a 280H be better than a 292H??? I really want to stick with comp cams, and I have heard that their Magnum cams is the best for street/strip combos... and I might stick with the 700r4 untill it decides to blow... it shouldn't being a B&M but you never know... I'll just use the powerglide as a spare...

i would think that the Brodix RR200 W CNC chambers {wich in itself was worth a dyno proven 30 hp and 20 ft/lbs of torque on a motor similar to yours over the non CNC chambers} or really any 200 cc head would work well, the Pro Topline, Dart pro 1, AFR 195, Trickflow 195's, RR200's etc. its your call to make but the AFR's and the brodix flow alot better overall, also from everything ive gathered AFR and Brodix are 2 companies that DONT inflate their #'s. They are more expensive initially {mine were angle milled to 60cc chambers, CNC chamberes, titanium retainers, as options, and total cost was 1,600 bucks but they come port matched, and bowl blended. It was a hefty price but im glad i spent it. Its your call. Also again i cant stress this enough, there is life outside of comp cams. Look through Erson catalogs, Crane, Howard, Isky, just cause these guys dont come up with some fancy new line of cams every other year dosent mean they dont have excellent products that may/maynot work better than your comp selection. Good luck

hey... thanks for the info... 1600 for a Good set of heads isn't too bad... I will look into those... I have the rearend but it has 3.73's in it right now, and within the next week or so, I was planning on getting 4.10s for it... should I keep the 3.73's??? or go with the 4.10's???

Thanks again!!!

You wont need much gear if all you want is 12s, a 373 is fine, + its more streetable.
We have a 70 chevelle with a mild 406, 224/230 cam, 2000stall and 373s runs 12.0s@111,
all steel 3600lbs cruise car. Look at Big Reds combo, he runs 11s with 323gears, just
get a mild engine that makes over 400hp, and good tq, and stick with the 373s.
Spend that money elsewhere.

i run a very close combo with higher stall, but i only run mid-high 8's in the 1/8 mile, best is 13.3 1/4...