I am looking to replace the dying 350 in my 77 Z-28, and may have the opportunity to buy a 68k mile 350 out of a wrecked 97 Chevy pickup. A few questions:

With a better cam, would this make a good motor for my car?

What's this motor worth? It was drive by a little old lady to church on Sunday, literally.

What would a conversion require? Besides a new wiring harness and fuel system?

Is this ever worthwile? Or would I be better off buying a rebuilt 350 with +/- 300 hp for $2000?

Thanks for all the help.

Well beside having the best ever chevy factory production cylinder heads and it being a roller cam engine I would say go for it if it runs good.

About the only thing you will have to worry about is the lift spec of any cam you decide to go with. Most people agree that around .450" lift is about max unless you have the guides machined.

A carbed intake is available from sevral sources if you want to ditch the efi, both edlebrock and GM have suitable manifolds. Everything else should be swapable from your camaro.

I was told by a 'locally-renowned' expert that vortec heads don't work well with carbs. They don't warm the intake enough, and run rough until they get good and warm. That doesn't sound right to me, as I read in the magazines that lots of people are doing it.

I would much rather keep the EFI anyway.

BSchroeder... Man, who ever told you that, is full of ------- (add your own word) and IMO shouldnt even be working on engines/cars

1) warm intake lmao. Thats a joke right? You want the intake, and intake air as cold as you can get it. Heck you can pick up .1-.4 sec in the 1/4 mile just by making an air filter air pan, that seals against a hood scoop, so under hood warm air donr get in the carb.. You can gain even more if you can box in the whole carb, so it stays cool. Also the reason why lifter vally oil baffles will help you to go faster, and same reason you can knock .1-.15 sec off by blocking off the heat cross over on intakes

2) The heads dont care and dont know if they are feed by a carb, efi, or you pouring fuel from a jug and blowing compressed air in them.

Heads are based on intake runner CC, chamber CC, intake runner port design, chamber design, exhaust port size, and design, valve size, valve angle, intake and exhaust flow rates, etc

Vortec heads are 1 of the best head designs on the market for anything under about 400 cid and under 6800 rpm use.

The chamber shape/design is better than just about all the aftermarket heads, even the "race" heads.

The flow rates beats ALL heads in it's runner CC class, and most heads with 20+ CC's runners

There is some truth to what the man said about poor cold operation manners and Vortec heads, and that applies to all who drive in climates where the temp is near freezing and below. With no provision for exhaust heat, you are stuck with plumbing the external crossover in the intake with exhaust or coolant. (not all intakes have this feature) Something to think about, not valid for a warm weather engine.

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I built a vortec headed 355 that went into my friends 70 el camino with a holley 600 cfm carb, he drives the car everyday (its his only transportation) and he hasnt complained once about poor performance when cold. He pumps the pedal when cold, it idles high for few minutes and then off he goes like anyother carbed equiped car.

I made the comment about ditching the efi because the stock efi on 96-99 chevy vortec engines is not the best efi, they have very costly design flaws, like fuel injectors that like to stick and fuel pressure regulators that leak. Just buying one injector is around $100 and they can and do fail multiple times in very short periods of time. I would highly recommend ditching the efi esp. if you plan to swap in a pefromance cam.

Thansk for all the help. After investigating TBI tuning and Vortec intake prices, I've decided to convert it over to a carburator. I've also learned that the Vortec casting 10239906 should be avoided, as their exhaust flow is bad. Is there any way to know if that's what this motor has, short of pulling a valve cover? I haven't been able to find that info out on the internet.

Ya you should be fine with the carb topend. Lots of guys running those heads, LOTS.

Check the casting #, some are better, but none of the Vortecs are BAD per-se. later in life some exhaust side porting could net you some gains if you like.

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'03 Yellow S-10 4.3L - "The Bus"
'75 LT in progress again...