Hey everyone the time has come I decided to rebuild my Buick 350 out of my 68 Buick Skylark my goal is to at least get 350-400 hp I just need the right guidance on which parts i need for the right combo for a street car thank you
If you want good drivability out of the motor in terms of being able to take it on long drives then I would shoot for a hp level of no more then 360, or a tad over 1 hp per cid! You'll need 200 Intake cfm @.400" lift to make this level of hp while keeping the idle sane with a Auto Trans , and this calls for head work other then the average machine shop can provide that does not have a flow bench!
Or, you can wait for the long awaited TA Performance aluminum heads. You will easily be able to run 10-11:1 compression with those heads on pump gas, depending on cam shaft choice.
Pull the engine . A rebuild to do it right. Balance crank. Get the harmonic balancer rebuilt. That’s a must with the age and increase in power
That is around what an untouched sbb 350 factory head already flows.(plus or minus around 15 cfm) Jesse, don't let your machine shop talk you into letting them "gasket match" your heads, that will hurt flow more than increase it. You're probably going to have a hard time finding a shop that will want to port your cast iron heads anyway. If you're a hands on type of guy you can port your own heads to increase the flow if that interests you I can post some direction for that, let me know. If you have the high compression '68 4 bbl carb engine, if you rebuild with "new" pistons and get cheap replacement ones your engine will run weaker than it does now just so you know. If your engine runs good now, to increase performance would be to ditch the 2 speed trans for either a TH350 or better yet a 200R4 and change the rear gear to an at least 3.42:1. Better more modern gearing will do WAY more than increasing the HP a little bit! If you still want more after the better gearing then a bit of head work in the winter would be a good time for that because there would be more down time doing engine work than swapping a trans or changing the rear gear. If you still want to build your engine, here is a good thread to read; http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/the-dyno-numbers-are-in.200499/ The naturally aspirated HP numbers are quite impressive when you build a stroker sbb 350/370. The one in the link was built for boost and made 422 HP N/A before any boost! And the thing has less than 9:1 compression with a dual plane intake with a mild flat tappet cam! Build one that can spin to 6,500 RPM topped with the new SP3 single plane intake with similar head flow the 16 year old kid got when he ported his first set of heads with 10:1 compression cammed to run on premium and you would be looking at around 440 to 460 streetable HP. Even more HP if you go solid roller cam so it will spin to 7,500 RPM, probably an around extra 50 HP or so beyond the above. Now a stroker with the better gearing and you better of made some brake and suspension upgrades before those to help control that extra power!(safety first)
I've been thinking about this, I HOPE the interest is still in the Buick 350 when these heads finally come to market.
FWIW...I just had my new 350 built. Was a low comp engine but all new long block. Had ported and milled iron heads, stage one springs from TA, thinner head gaskets, TA 212 cam, ported TA intake, headers, hei ignition, ne Q jet carb. Before build engine fell on its face at 4200 rpm...now pulls to 5k and keeps going, I lay off high revs because Im sure its not a good idea. The shop that built the engine and build many muscle car engines estimated its around 350 hp...I know this the milled heads and gaskets raised compression and port work with springs in my opinion were biggest help. Also do not over cam the engine with lower compression. Good luck.
