this week im going to look at 350c.i. thats all done up it has est.375 h.p. what are things i should be looking for?

Depends on where you want to go to get it, who you buy it from, and how much you want to spend. I would consider a local place with a good reputation for building good engines first. Unless you want to build it yourself, either way you can only go as far as your pocket book can tak you.

Example, I got several bids for building a 300+ hp motor and they were all about 1200-1500 dollars, depending. I ended up spending $3000, and built it myself. The DD says about 325HP and 350TQ for my specific parts. (aluminum dual plane intake, flat top pistons, modified Q-Jet, 883 stock rebuilt heads, headers, exhaust, machine work)My $3000 got me to a installed finish motor. Not just the rebuild, total parts for a long block was $350. The rest was the machine work, new parts to finish it and get it running. To get to 375 I would imagine some better heads, an extreme cam from comp or equiv., and good exhaust system. You may have to get some specifics from the guys that know more so you can transfer that info to the people that would build your engine. Just as a start though, I would think you would spend $400 just for machine work to a block to prepare it for a kit.

Good luck
Steve

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"Gotta Stand by all you cool guys; May be it'll rub off?!"

'76 Lt
355 sb, 350 auto
3.08 posi
allways in work. :)
Relivin' my teenage years waiting for kids to get old enough to drive.

Keep this in mind: the buyer has the upper hand big time when it comes to selling engines. This is especially true if the engine is used (even barely). Put another way, engines are hard to sell.

Sellers moan about how much money they have "in" the engine. Ignore the moaning, it is irrelevant. Supply and demand are all you need to know. Lots more guys want to sell used engines than want to buy them.

If the guy dont have all the papers, sales slips for parts used, etc then don't bite the baited hook.

Anybody that knows about and how to build good engines keeps every single paper.

I have a work boot box full of papers for my engine and car. I would say engine along should have atleast a small shoe box full of papers.

Look at the sales slips, look for part brand names and numbers, look at the machine shop bill and see what was done.

MikeM79 is right, used engines don't move fast, and dont brang alot of money.

Also talk to the seller and listen to what he's saying. See if he's feeding you a bunch of BS about 3/4 race cams, used to have X car that would pull the front wheels on the street, and the classis this engine is a vette engine or vette this and vette that.

Those above are signs to run like hell or offer maybe $200-300 and think of it as a core engine

If he sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and seems to know the engine and can rattle out the specs like they was his birth date then it may be a good engine.

Anyone that has built an engine and done it right can call out specs for that engine with out even thinking.. Like compression ratio, cam size, bore size, bearings used, oil pump used, piston type, etc

Also real builders (hobby and pro) will take pics. The hobby guys will take even more pics cause they are so proud of it. Heck I got close to 200 digital pics of my engine build. Everything and anything done, from the greasy long block core, fresh machine work, new parts, painted block, crank install, piston install, pics of me torqing down the mains and rods, timing chain, bare heads, port work on heads, putting heads together, putting heads on block.. You get the idea

well i bought the motor . tell me what you think. it is 350 bored out to 355,4bolt mains , blue printed, full race cam, edellbrock performer intake, flat top hyper pistons,molly rings, high presure high volume oil pumpw/steel coller, pete jackson gear drive, port and pollished,camel back 202 vette heads, harden valve seats,roller rockers, arp rod bolts, high volume fuel pump, 10:1 compresion, aprox.375hp,how much do you think this is worth? after you reply ill tell you what i payed for it.

You got a good base to work with, but I hope you got it cheap. I guess the main thing is that it runs and your happy with it. Nothing eles really matters.

But I would like to point a few things out...

1) there is no such thing as a "full race" cam. It's just like the whole 3/4 cam deal people that didnt know what they was talking about said, back in the 60's

There's over 100,000 diff cam grinds that can be had for a SBC. You need the specs to know anything about it and what it can do. Like duration, lift, LSA, opening and closeing points for intake and exhaust, etc.

2) the gear drives aint the best thing to use. Alot of people has, but any performance person will tell you, you'll cause more wear and less power with one. They are more for sounding cool and bad, than they are for making power.

3) What "camel back" heads is on it? They are all diff and theres a few diff sets. Casting number will tell

4) If they are ported.. Whats the flow numbers now for them, or was it a backyard job? If backyard did the guy doing flow them before, during and after, or did he atleast know what he was doing. If you don't understand airflow then you can make heads ALOT worse flowing by home porting them

5) You said it was blueprinted? 99.999% of the people don't really even know what the real meaning of it is.

It's about 20 or so hours of extra work, dry building the engine time after time, checking and setting each ring to each bore size, cheaking and clearancing each bearing. Checking and fitting each piston to each bore.

Some pistons/bores may be .0001" or so off from the others, so you measure with the right tools all the bores and pistons. Number each piston, then write down size and #. Do the same with each bore. Then look back at your paper and pick the right piston for each bore that gives you the right piston to bore clearances.

Blueprinting has alot more than that too it, too. I call weight macthing parts in with blueprinting too. So that means useing a gram scale and weighing each rod, piston, wrist pin, ring

Then moveing rings and parts around to get a weight match. Grinding rods, pistons, etc to get a weight match

I agree with everything night rider said.

i payed $1800.00 canadian for it

How much is that U.S.? I would have gave $1000 for it without any documentation.

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by sevent1rscamaro:
well i bought the motor . tell me what you think. it is 350 bored out to 355,4bolt mains , blue printed, full race cam, edellbrock performer intake, flat top hyper pistons,molly rings, high presure high volume oil pumpw/steel coller, pete jackson gear drive, port and pollished,camel back 202 vette heads, harden valve seats,roller rockers, arp rod bolts, high volume fuel pump, 10:1 compresion, aprox.375hp,how much do you think this is worth? after you reply ill tell you what i payed for it.</font>

Sounds about right. Yesterday I sold a backup motor. 4bolt 3970010 010/020 high tin and nickle casting, cast crank, ARP bolts in resized stock rods, TRW L2304F forged pistons, Comp 305H hydraulic cam, Crane hi-rev lifters, Crane hardened pushtods, Cloyes double roller timing set, Edelbrock #6071 RPM aluminum heads, Crane roller rockers (3/8" stud), Victor Jr intake, Holley 4150 (650cfm)
Stock GM balancer, ATI flexplate (outdted SFI certification), old GM truck pan and a pait of new GM "Chevrolet" chrome rocker covers. I told the guy to put in in his car and if it didn't run between 11.8 to 12.3 in the 1/4 to bring it back,,, if it does I want $1500 US for it.

UGGG, sure marv. hehehe.. not to hyjack the post but if i woulda know i woulda gave you that much for it.. lol. its kewl.. Nate

well i'm getting the engine tomorrow , hey what is the size of bolt i need so i can bolt it to my engine stand?

would my holley 600 4160 vac. secondaries,universal style, manual choke work on this engine?

Nightrider rocks and calls it like it is ..."full race cams and blueprinted" . Tell tale signs. I build my and cite every part number and engine math spec!

sevent1rscamaro... i do believe the bolt size is 3/8", the lenght will depend on your stand. Some have thicker legs than other. I think around a 2" long bolt will do it in most cases though.

Your holley should work fine on it. You MAY have to buy a $15 spread bore to square bore adapter though, to mate the carb to the intake

camertom... Thanks man. That's what i'm talking about. You built yours and I bet you can call out the specs on it as fast and easy as you could call out your birthday and phone number, and remember it as good as you do your SS #

Heck come to think about it, I think I can call out my engine specs faster than my SS # lol

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by camertom:
Nightrider rocks and calls it like it is ..."full race cams and blueprinted" . Tell tale signs. I build my and cite every part number and engine math spec! </font>

True! Night Rider is a HUGE help and knows his stuff http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/wink.gif

sevent1rscamaro-get the cam specs! This full or 3/4 race cam stuff is old school. It could mean anything. The heads sound decent, but I hope they had a good porting job to hit 375 hp http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/wink.gif Usually that much power calls for the RPM version of the Performer. I'd use a 750 for that power level.

THANKS NIGHT RIDER

MARV-Got any more leads on RPM heads? Or even Performers?

No prob sevent1rs..

Do you know where this guy lives? did he offer any kind of guarentee? Make sure and get those cam specs("full race" is not a spec), they will determine how you set up the rest of your car, if you keep the cam. Is it used or freshly rebuilt? Did he have receipts, pictures etc? If it was used did you get to see or hear it run? what are the casting numbers on the heads? You may need as long as 2.5-3 inch 3/8 bolts for your engine stand. I'm not trying to grill you just get some info so smart guys like night rider can give you more accurate advice. Good luck.

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72 RS,
Vortec 350, LS1 Fans, HEI
GMPP HOT Roller cam, Air-Gap
TCI 700R-4 w/2500 Stall
3.42's w/auburn LS
3" Cowl hood
Viper blue w/white stripes.

Objects in the mirror.... are losing

God Bless America

Have fun and good luck with it. It may have the value. 1000 US is 1250 Cdn or so lately so 1500 US would be cool. If it pulls the way you hoped and has a usable power band for what you want to do thats a good break. What most are saying is you can't predict a power range at all with "jargon" for a cam spec ;-)Its also hard to pick a gear ratio for that too!

bigblue72 yes i know where he lives and hes my brothers boss.he is looking for the specs.it is freshly rebuilt and with proper run in time .yes i heard it run and did ever sound sweet.the heads are off a 67 corvette , double hump 461 heads. the bolts are 31/2"x3/8" thanks again.

The worse thing that may happen is that you might should just pull the valve covers and intake, drop the pan and pull the timing cover off AND see just what cam you have!!

That way there won't be any of this, "I think" crap!!

I would do it in a heartbeat since it's on a motor stand anyway......

pdq67

pdq67 thanks ill keep that in mind