Who can i talk to for advice.

[Waynio]

For a few weeks now I have tried myself to work out a good spec of parts to get for my C3 350 to get the umph i want. Minimum 300hp which seems reasonable for a street car . And I am about to loose the will to live and stick the standard engine back together and pit it in. Jist cant get my head around it, and it doesn't help when find a spec that omebody suggests then the next person says its no good or picks at it for this or that.
Not a problem as i know there are so many parts/specs to choose from. It would be good if they pointed me.what to use to match the kit up so it all runs together..

So now I have thought
Is there somebody that can help out with a list of engine parts I can get that will marry up together.

I am not a rich man...yes I know I own. A gas guzzler haha. Thats why lol

If at the end it's over budget I will.jsut put the original stock engine back in for now..as was the plan. But the engine is now out.

If anybody can help with pinning me in the right direction i would really appreciate it.
Cheers
Waynio.

 

[Oneball]

I would speak to someone like Real Steel, Performance Unlimited, Customville or Topspeed. They suplly the parts and know what works.

If you don’t really know where you’re going look at some of the top end kits from Edelbrock, you get heads, cam, intake that are designed to work together.

Don’t get hung up on bhp, you can make a terrible engine that has a great bhp figure.

 

[Chuffer]

For a few weeks now I have tried myself to work out a good spec of parts to get for my C3 350 to get the umph i want. Minimum 300hp which seems reasonable for a street car . And I am about to loose the will to live and stick the standard engine back together and pit it in. Jist cant get my head around it, and it doesn't help when find a spec that omebody suggests then the next person says its no good or picks at it for this or that.
Not a problem as i know there are so many parts/specs to choose from. It would be good if they pointed me.what to use to match the kit up so it all runs together..

So now I have thought
Is there somebody that can help out with a list of engine parts I can get that will marry up together.

I am not a rich man...yes I know I own. A gas guzzler haha. Thats why lol

If at the end it's over budget I will.jsut put the original stock engine back in for now..as was the plan. But the engine is now out.

If anybody can help with pinning me in the right direction i would really appreciate it.
Cheers
Waynio.

Speak to to Nick or Dan Williams at Williams Brothers Racing in Bugbrooke , Northants . The are Street and Strip specialists and know Chevy V8`s and Americana inside out . They have their own engine build shop so could advise and source parts for you .

 

[Invetterate]

I have just pointed out your post to Andy Maskery [who posts under "Forrest Gump"] because he has done a lot of work to his '75 and it is one of the very best engines I have ever driven. He went for a 383 stroker set-up but did a lot of research on heads, cams , carbs etc so may well be able to help hopefully. Agree with the comment that you want a good road engine and not something that looks good on paper but is terrible to drive [unless you are going to race it of course!] Good luck!!

 

[Nassau65]

The above posts seem like very good advice to me. I’m like you, no idea as to what would go to what to increase power etc. most of my cars have been kept standard engine wise apart from one that I had a 383 stroker motor put in.

 

[MilkyNoSugar]

William Brothers have a very impressive facility and engine build workshop, have a very good reputation and were recommended by Chuffer. They did some work on my car not long after I got it and the customer service was excellent, which backs up their reputation and I would use them again when appropriate. They are busy though in my experience, so if you need them to do any work, be prepared to wait for a slot to get booked in.

Performance Unlimited has also been extremely helpful in helping me source the right cam kit for my car and again, the customer service has been very good. They do seem to know what they are doing. They were recommended via this forum.

 

[CaptainK]

Looks like some good advice has been posted already. You might also want to search around your local area for any engine tuners or rolling road people or maybe American car specialists.
I took my car to a rolling road a few years back to have my car setup properly. These on the face of their website etc were mainly Subaru and "turbo" car tuning specialists. However, a couple of the older guys there were into their American cars and they had some of their own, so were giving me advice on what to do next for more power etc. Sadly at the time I was a bit skint, so didn't.

Nowadays I have a bit more money, so I'm always thinking about more HP for my car. But its reality vs dreams for me - in reality my C3 is certainly quick enough for my simple needs and driving skill. But the dream is for it to have just a little bit more HP as a V8 should just be that little bit quicker. Thankfully I've found an American car specialist garage nearish me, and also know of a chap nearish who builds race engines for American cars. So if I do decide to deploy the money, I might pester them both so see what they recommend.

 

[Roscobbc]

Looks like some good advice has been posted already. You might also want to search around your local area for any engine tuners or rolling road people or maybe American car specialists.
I took my car to a rolling road a few years back to have my car setup properly. These on the face of their website etc were mainly Subaru and "turbo" car tuning specialists. However, a couple of the older guys there were into their American cars and they had some of their own, so were giving me advice on what to do next for more power etc. Sadly at the time I was a bit skint, so didn't.

Nowadays I have a bit more money, so I'm always thinking about more HP for my car. But its reality vs dreams for me - in reality my C3 is certainly quick enough for my simple needs and driving skill. But the dream is for it to have just a little bit more HP as a V8 should just be that little bit quicker. Thankfully I've found an American car specialist garage nearish me, and also know of a chap nearish who builds race engines for American cars. So if I do decide to deploy the money, I might pester them both so see what they recommend.

And you Capt. have hit the proverbial nail 'on the head'.........all of the improvements needed can be looked-at, discussed and applied to the engine individually.
Many (and hopefully not just by luck) will work together in a satisfactory manner.......if chosen properly........the real trick is actually identiying the best combination of parts that don't just work together OK.........but compliment each other and achieve a greater improvement resulting from that careful selection.

 

[Sea5]

Going back to your original post, the 'elephant in the room' has to be your budget. The £4.5k you 'saved' when you bought into this project can soon be spent upgrading the motor to (say) 300bhp. Will the pot also stretch to upgrading the clutch, rear end, brakes, tyres etc? The body of the car looks in good condition but once you get started on the mechanicals, electrics and vacuum parts, things can soon go way over budget. You are clearly very able to fettle, fix and enjoy this project but consider how far you want to commit before you get in too deep.
I have a 1981 C3 that was re-engineered in 2001 to do what you aspire to. The previous owner (a clever self taught engineer) spent over £14.5k on parts alone - I have all the bills! For all that investment the car remains very powerful and more importantly, reliable too.
My suggestion would be to replace worn parts, get the engine back in and run the car. Then you can get a much better idea of what needs doing first.

 

[Forrest Gump]

For a few weeks now I have tried myself to work out a good spec of parts to get for my C3 350 to get the umph i want. Minimum 300hp which seems reasonable for a street car . And I am about to loose the will to live and stick the standard engine back together and pit it in. Jist cant get my head around it, and it doesn't help when find a spec that omebody suggests then the next person says its no good or picks at it for this or that.
Not a problem as i know there are so many parts/specs to choose from. It would be good if they pointed me.what to use to match the kit up so it all runs together..

So now I have thought
Is there somebody that can help out with a list of engine parts I can get that will marry up together.

I am not a rich man...yes I know I own. A gas guzzler haha. Thats why lol

If at the end it's over budget I will.jsut put the original stock engine back in for now..as was the plan. But the engine is now out.

If anybody can help with pinning me in the right direction i would really appreciate it.
Cheers
Waynio.

To get your engine running again you’re only really after a cam and some gaskets right? You said you’ve got new followers. If me I would definitely go that route for now. It could be the engine meets your expectations and you don’t need to go for more major mods. With your small valve heads you’ll only ever make a certain amount of horsepower but can still get very nice torque. It’s a manual and might have a 3.55 diff so it’ll most likely be a pretty lively drive. As I said on your other thread, if you want a bit more zip then get a better intake and a Holley double pumper. Get the ignition tuned too.

I would look at new heads as a seperate project down the line, if you even need to. I totally agree with Sea5 - find out about the rest of the car and what things present themselves - all of this is unknown at the moment as the cars not been driven yet.

Going back to the heads, this can get you on a slippery slope for sure because you need to also consider the rest of the engine parts and condition.
On my engine I only kept the block and main caps. Everything else got changed and that gets expensive even if you try and keep to sensible priced parts. Plus there’s the machining. For example you probably won’t want to put your old sump or starter motor back on your newly built engine, those two items alone will be $300-400 for a cast alloy sump and mini starter, not forgetting an epdm gasket. It’s hard to do the engine in half measures when it comes to it.

I was trying to Google the casting number on your heads but didn’t get much solid info. Somewhere it was suggested they could be from a GM goodwrench 290bhp. The cam spec is listed below - it’s more or less an L82 engine cam. Note the valve sizes are as you have 1.5in 1.9ex and 8.0 compression.
You should still ask a supplier for a recommendation but those sort of cam numbers would be ballpark, although you might actually still do better to go smaller to keep torque.

 

[Vetman]

For a few weeks now I have tried myself to work out a good spec of parts to get for my C3 350 to get the umph i want. Minimum 300hp which seems reasonable for a street car . And I am about to loose the will to live and stick the standard engine back together and pit it in. Jist cant get my head around it, and it doesn't help when find a spec that omebody suggests then the next person says its no good or picks at it for this or that.
Not a problem as i know there are so many parts/specs to choose from. It would be good if they pointed me.what to use to match the kit up so it all runs together..

So now I have thought
Is there somebody that can help out with a list of engine parts I can get that will marry up together.

I am not a rich man...yes I know I own. A gas guzzler haha. Thats why lol

If at the end it's over budget I will.jsut put the original stock engine back in for now..as was the plan. But the engine is now out.

If anybody can help with pinning me in the right direction i would really appreciate it.
Cheers
Waynio.

I have increased the engine performance on my 1975 L48 engine. I did this in stages over all the years I’ve had the car. Started with twin exhaust, headers, Edelbrock 2-plane manifold, performance carburettor. Next stage was an Edelbrock performer plus camshaft. This is a decision point. This camshaft is for 500 to 5500rpm, mid performance with good torque and manifold vacuum. The Edelbrock alternate would have been a performer-rpm camshaft for 1500 to 6500rpm for high performance with some loss of manifold vacuum.
Final upgrades included Edelbrock E-Steet aluminium 64cc, big valve heads, roller rockers, air-gap performer manifold, and a new electronic distributor.
This arrangement is equivalent to an Edelbrock top end Performer kit. They claim 315bhp for this package. Not clear if their test engine had dished or flat top pistons. On this basis I would expect my engine to have say 300bhp.
This is a good amount of power for this car and makes it pull very hard. It remains very driveable and reliable.
It is unlikely that I would go any further, but if I had to do any bottom end work, then I would consider flat top pistons, and or stroking the engine to 383ci.

 

[Waynio]

To get your engine running again you’re only really after a cam and some gaskets right? You said you’ve got new followers. If me I would definitely go that route for now. It could be the engine meets your expectations and you don’t need to go for more major mods. With your small valve heads you’ll only ever make a certain amount of horsepower but can still get very nice torque. It’s a manual and might have a 3.55 diff so it’ll most likely be a pretty lively drive. As I said on your other thread, if you want a bit more zip then get a better intake and a Holley double pumper. Get the ignition tuned too.

I would look at new heads as a seperate project down the line, if you even need to. I totally agree with Sea5 - find out about the rest of the car and what things present themselves - all of this is unknown at the moment as the cars not been driven yet.

Going back to the heads, this can get you on a slippery slope for sure because you need to also consider the rest of the engine parts and condition.
On my engine I only kept the block and main caps. Everything else got changed and that gets expensive even if you try and keep to sensible priced parts. Plus there’s the machining. For example you probably won’t want to put your old sump or starter motor back on your newly built engine, those two items alone will be $300-400 for a cast alloy sump and mini starter, not forgetting an epdm gasket. It’s hard to do the engine in half measures when it comes to it.

I was trying to Google the casting number on your heads but didn’t get much solid info. Somewhere it was suggested they could be from a GM goodwrench 290bhp. The cam spec is listed below - it’s more or less an L82 engine cam. Note the valve sizes are as you have 1.5in 1.9ex and 8.0 compression.
You should still ask a supplier for a recommendation but those sort of cam numbers would be ballpark, although you might actually still do better to go smaller to keep torque.

View attachment 27847View attachment 27848View attachment 27849

All i wanted to do was fit a better cam, well new cam as this one i am unsure of what it is but for the lift now as i worked out the specs.

It all built up to new this and that from folks advice. I was told by a few a Com Cam 252H is what to go for then next person says i need better inlet then heads etc etc to make it all work together.

Back to he start. Yes you are correct all i need is a cam or use the one i have. It does not look or measure up bad. Only reason i wanted to fit a new cam was in hope to help make it easier in the future to upgrade the rest. All the rest can be done with engine in the bay over time. Without messing about to much with the timing gear etc.

Can it?

eSimilar toe @Vetman what he has done. If i can do it in stages with the engine in. Dont really want to touch thr bottom end. Unless i need to.

And for all other replies, i appreciate all the advice o6n where to go for advice and i have not been ignoring you all. I have been that busy of late i still havnt got around to it. Need to get a load of work out the way so i can concentrate mor eon the Vette. And glad to say its almost done.


Keeping the engine as is and seeing what the spec is when done, as i was going from the start and get it to a rolling road then go from there would be best. Just trying to make thing easier in the future and not having to take out the engine again.

 

[Vetman]

Not mentioned previously, but the majority of changes I made to the engine and ancillaries also resulted in weight reduction. The aluminium heads saved about 50lbs, the inlet manifold, rocker covers, air cleaner, various smog deletions, and aluminium radiator may have saved another 50lbs. If so, then 100lbs saved at the front end of the car must have helped acceleration, braking and cornering.

 

[Forrest Gump]

Back to he start. Yes you are correct all i need is a cam or use the one i have. It does not look or measure up bad. Only reason i wanted to fit a new cam was in hope to help make it easier in the future to upgrade the rest. All the rest can be done with engine in the bay over time. Without messing about to much with the timing gear etc.

Can it?

That’s not advisable - Installing a cam now to suit performance heads [fitted in the future] is likely to make your current engine run badly. Cams aren’t expensive in the scheme of things so get the right cam for current engine, then ditch it when you go for performance heads which will allow the use of a bigger cam to suit the heads’ and increased compression potential.

 

[Waynio]

That’s not advisable - Installing a cam now to suit performance heads [fitted in the future] is likely to make your current engine run badly. Cams aren’t expensive in the scheme of things so get the right cam for current engine, then ditch it when you go for performance heads which will allow the use of a bigger cam to suit the heads’ and increased compression potential.

In that case the engine will be going back as is. The cam looks good to do so and measures up well.
Just shopping at the minute. Would the new head gasket used to fit the head where when fied the head the block stripped, i have Helicoiled it now, would the gasket be ok to use again ? It was torqued up for a week or so then removed.

 

[Chuffer]

In that case the engine will be going back as is. The cam looks good to do so and measures up well.
Just shopping at the minute. Would the new head gasket used to fit the head where when fied the head the block stripped, i have Helicoiled it now, would the gasket be ok to use again ? It was torqued up for a week or so then removed.

????????????????? Never use same head gasket or any other sort of gasket twice . Just asking for trouble and a totally absurd way to try and save a few quid IMO .

 

[Waynio]

????????????????? Never use same head gasket or any other sort of gasket twice . Just asking for trouble and a totally absurd way to try and save a few quid IMO .

I have done it in the past with other material gaskets and as these are different from the ones i have used so i thought best to ask. Not penny pinching at all.

 

[Chuffer]

I have done it in the past with other material gaskets and as these are different from the ones i have used so i thought best to ask. Not penny pinching at all.

Gaskets by their very nature are designed to compress when tightened to the correct torque . What did you do with the `used ` gaskets , over torque them and hope for a good seal ?

 

[Roscobbc]

The only gaskets that can be re-used sensibly is solid copper (but not as cylinder head gaskets) exhaust/header gaskets and you just need to 'anneal' them - so head up to cherry red and chuck 'em in a bucket of cold water. It breaks down the 'work' hardening effect of clamping them up hard - they return to a soft mallebel state.....but not for head gaskets (except vintage stuff using really thick material........copper is 'kin expensive!

 

[Waynio]

Gaskets by their very nature are designed to compress when tightened to the correct torque . What did you do with the `used ` gaskets , over torque them and hope for a good seal ?

The orignal gaskets i binned. The new set i bought i have used one to fit a new head and removed that head after a week.