Hi guys,

I'm brand new to this forum. I'm looking to buy a late 70's, early 80's Camaro. Luckily, it seems like there are a lot of them around in good shape. I've always liked the look and I'm glad to see they won't hurt the bank account too much to get one.

My question is, how hard would it be to boost the stock 350 to around 300 hp? I'm talking about bolt-ons that are on the more inexpensive side, no turbos or anything fancy like that. Is this an achievable target? Or maybe should I look at another kind of car? I was thinking also about late 80's Mustangs for cheap horsepower.

Any ideas are appreciated.

A

Welcome aboard.

Good 170cc cylinder heads, mild cam, headers, dual exhaust and a good tune up will get you there.

Be sure the engine is worth building upon (good leakdown / compression check numbers) before bolting on anything.

Figure on $1,500 US (give or take a few hundred depending on exactly which parts you select) if you do all the work yourself and buy new parts.

Poke around the board awhile. This is a common subject for discussion.

Fisrt off, welocome to the club...you will get addicted!
Now tot the car, first thing to look for before anytihng else is underneith. These cars are very bad for rusting in floorboards and big time rear frame rails. Htese are unibosdy cars so the rear frame is part of the body...rusts very easily back there. Also look under the back of front fenders and under doors.
Now to your motor question...300hp is very attainable. I have a 350 bored .040 with a Crane 210 energizer cam, stock lightly ported heads, aluminum intake and Eldebrock carb with headers and true dual exhaust. If I could get it tuned rigth I should be making around 300 hp's. You can easily bolt on intake /carb/headers, exhaust and really make a difference, but you make most your hp in your heads and cam. These can be a bolt on, but a little more involved. I rebuilt my motor myself, polished and ported the stock heads, and assembled the whole motor, luckily it didn't have many miles so I needed no machine work and I have about $600 in the motor. I already had the intake and carb, but my head rebuilt was around 150 and the cam was 100, plus all the other stuff I needed. You can get good deals on this board on used parts and save some money.
My motor is pretty torquey, I can get it sideway pretty quick, especially if it's wet. I am pretty happy with it.


------------------
79 Berlinetta, 350 .040, Crane energizer, headers, duals, alum slots
95 Astro 4.3L, soon to be lifted 5" on 31's
98 Firebird 3.8l, A4, FOR SALE
95 Blazer 4.3l, rod's a knockin'

Thanks guys, this is great to know - sounds like there's some easy horsepower in the motor, then.

Blaze, you mentioned rust in the car as something to watch for - is there a list someplace or a checklist I could use when I'm checking out a Camaro? Looking at rear frame rails frankly never crossed my mind.

-A

Have you been to the "main" site: http://www.nastyz28.com?

You can feast for weeks on all of the stuff that is there. Here is an appetizer:

http://www.nastyz28.com/2gcog/beginres.html