I have a 1977 Buick 350 out of a buick 225 Electra. Now this thing is full of the 70s EPA garbage. I'm looking at what I can all do to get a little more power out of it. Any tips would be helpful, as an how to delete all that emissions BS. And what's the best carb set up, etc.
The Q-Jet is an awesome carb, contact Ken or Mark here on the board for any tips or tricks. Read Larry's Power Timing thread.
^^^^^^ What Mark Demko said! Ken at Everyday perf. built my Quad and did a great job. Ditto on Larry's timing thread. I also went with the TA Stage1 intake with a TA 290-94h-350 cam. .030 over with new flat top pistons. ported cast iron heads. My engine runs like a bat out of you know what.
Thank you for the advice and I read the timing post! Which was some good info, now I'm looking as to what Intake and carb set up is best to run with stock internals for most HP? Debated about putting a cam in it, but is it worth it or not? Any input would be nice.
Stock stuff is all you need with what you have, the TA stage 1 dual plane and freshened up Qjet with a correctly working distributor will get the most out of what you have boltons are going to absolutely nothing for your engine. Start adding compression and a cam then it's needs will change. I would not do a cam with a stock compression engine , if I was going to go in it then I would just buy another core and work it, otherwise your going to spend hundreds and hundreds of $ for no real gain. .
I would disconnect all that stuff yes , but don't expect too much of a change unless it just isn't running correctly now, or in need of a tune up, all I'm saying there is no significant performance increase to be had on that low compression long block with just a manifold and carb. People have different views on what an improvement is I suppose but there is no recipe for turning a 165hp 77 350 into street stud. Only reason I even mentioned the TA intake is because it will be beneficial later on if you choose to build a decent 350
I gotcha, thank you for the advice. Should I decide on ever going down the street rod road. What would be the best way to go about it?
It all depends on what you want the car to be capable of doing but , I'd definitely try to get around 9.5 to 9.8 comp and cam it accordingly with some headwork and then the little bolt on stuff will begin to matter
I would personally tear it right down and have a machine shop inspect the block and bore... then I would do whatever machine work is needed and use some 10:1 pistons. I measured out a few low compression 350s and they are way low on compression, lucky to see 8:1 most of them are lower.
