Question tho, where are you at with this project? Any pictures you can post? Did/Does the car drive at present?
That’s closer than I thought someone would be, still pretty far though. I’ve never seen another skylark in California since I’ve had mine
It does drive, someone tried to do a restoration about 15-20 years ago but they ran out of money and it just sat in a barn in Oregon till about 2017. The reliability of the motor isn’t that bad I don’t think. I’ve replaced many parts, I just drive the car to school maybe one or two times a week
I have slowly been doing thing to make it look better and drive better and just replacing broken stuff
I found it in Oregon and had it shipped here to California and when it got here the truck driver let it roll off the ramps in to a concrete wall so they paid to get the trunk and back quarter panels repainted so the back of it looks a lot better than the front
You want oil filter from napa or wix. You want cam break in additive with zzdp. And every oil change needs the zzdp . I would suggest a point conversion kit. You may need to pull heads for the valve springs, consider milling heads. You need 45 cc chamber for about 9.2 compression. About.060 off heads
That would be quite an expense as the whole motor will need to be disassembled. Might as well get a valve job done since you have new springs. Don't spend money on porting the heads, just a good clean up, then have them milled as Alec stated. Just know that you'll likely need to machine the intake as well so that it lines up still. Did you get a compression test done on the car yet? Might be worthwhile to see if the bottom end is still good.
You could put in high compression pistons . That would be a better choice. The factory hi compression only nets 9.2 compression . So decking block .020 bumps that to 9.65. Forged lightweight would be best if you can afford it. Uem1734 flattop v6 pistons would net 9.6 but sit lower in cylinder. They are inexpensive budget pistons. Mill block .020 nets 9.9 with those. I would check damper dudes for a rebuild on your harmonic balancer as soon as you can afford. As these changes will affect the 50 year old balancer.
you won't get 400 hp untill you put that compression up to 10 and port the heads. you should do some porting on the heads at least to help with the cam. the duration is a little high for a stock engine. I had a 268 comp cam in there on a 71 motor and it was slow out of the hole but it did a 100mph in second gear. I used a 650 double pumper Holley too on a stock intake, car ran just fine until I was ready to upgrade engine some more. So you can put that cam in your stock engine with your 650 Holley with the SP3 and it will run fine. Maybe not at its maximum ability but will be good. If your Holley is a vac secondary type then it will suck. The guys here do a nice job with the Q-Jets they sell here. I wouldn't look any where else than here for that. Get the SP3 carved out for the Q-Jet mount. Put in a 2300 convertor and some 342 gears with a posi that is where you spend the rest of the money instead of waiting for those heads. Mine runs better with the SP3 than it did with the TA dp intake.
I think we all have to remember that the guy is 17. Gears, converter, head porting, engine disassemble and reassemble, valve job, new pistons, block work, etc. is going to be extremely expensive. Gary, what is your budget on this build? Any quotes you have from local shops to do all the work you want done?
I don’t really have a set budget, if I really want or need something I’ll save my money till I can get it, my family did say they would help me to get these parts put in for a graduation present. I try to do some of the work my self but I just don’t have all the right tools for every job. I was planning on getting some different gears and a posi rear end
Unfortunately, working backwards to match everything to the cam. I think leaving the stock cam for now, spend the money on heads, big valves blended, milled possibly, and a little more converter.Dual exhaust. Recurve distributer. Then tuning. Which will be a learning experience with the holley. And still may be untapped potential. Would be a good start for a younger person. Get to the cam when you are ready to dive into engine internals. Collect parts as he can afford.
Take ALL of those parts back except the new timing chain set because if the original one is in there it is getting ready to fail. With your refunded $$$ upgrade your rear end first with a posi and a better gear set like at least 3.42:1 or if you think you're going to swap in an overdrive later, go with a 3.73:1 to 4.11 or if you don't care about fuel economy go with a 3.73:1 if you think you're not going to swap out the TH350. This will give you the best seat of the pants bang for the buck than any of the other engine parts will do for you. When you have to wait for funds to be available but you want results, start at the rear of the car and work your way forward. Better rear end gearing will give you better performance in all 3 gears. Your car probably has an anemic 2.56:1 rear gear ratio in there that is the culprit to slowing your car down, BIG TIME. Gearing sucked back in the day because they were trying to eek out better fuel economy without overdrive.
That would be a better choice is to not use that cam kit. Better choices available to work with what you already have. I would not go so deep on gears. 3.42 maximum. Unless later goals Require some more gear. A 72 rear should be a common 8.5 so used gears are abundant. Especially 88-99 gm trucks which often had 3.42 gears.
I recently freshened up my 70 Skylark 350, I purchased a double roller, Crower level 3 cam, new stock replacement lifters and pushrods, and replaced the nylon buttons on the rocker shafts. Trust me, they are super brittle and new once are a couple of cents! I ran the Lucas 30W break in oil to break the cam in then the Lucas Hot Rod Oil 10w-30 that has zinc for the next 500 mile break in. I currently have the 2:56 rear and yes, it great for Highway cruising but im replacing it with a 3:42 shortly, even with the 2:56, the car wants to spin the wheels and I've had it chirp 2nd manually shifting it. I can't wait for the 3:42s I do have lightly ported heads that might be a game changer but the little 350 likes to run. I'm still using the stock pistons which were in the SO block 2bbl engine. All of the guys above me are giving you great advice, I would go with TA performance parts especially on the cam but the Crower lvl 3 is awesome if you are otherwise stock as well
