New poster, here. I think I've found the way home! I have a '72 Skylark that I am planning on turning into a GSX clone. It has a bone-stock 350 with Q-Jet. The only thing this car has not stock would be dual exhaust...no headers, either. I need some advice from you Pros out there. What can I do to make the engine put out about 350 HP? I was thinking at least a new cam, manifold & carb, headers, posi. What else does anyone recommend? What types of parts have you/do you use with success? Is 350 HP out of a '72 too much to ask? I guess what I'm wanting out of the car is something that sounds like a beast, and can fry the tires and have lots of power up to about 70-75 mph. What do I need to do? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm pretty new at this kind of thing. Any help would sure be appreciated. Also, does anyone know if Olds 442 sport mirrors can be used on the Skylarks? they look about the same to me, but what do I know? Thanks in advance for any replies.
The power is in the heads. Too much cam may hurt the low end so much is is not fun to drive. Get the heads preferably alumnum set up with about 10 to one compression. Since you have a 72 it unfortunately may require a piston change. Just my opinion is it will be cheaper and give you more performance if you buy a used 455 and swap. I have seen them on here from 400 on up. To do the things you will need for the 350 you will spend more.
With obtaining 350 hp using stock heads should be fine. You should be able to get that rating with upgrading the cam, using higher compression pistons, and aftermarket carb and intake. The factory rating for a high compression '70 350 is 315 hp., so you'll only be needing 35 more hp to obtain your goal. If you have the money, get the heads ported as this is the biggest area of gain, but not the cheapest.
Here's my $.02. If your engine isn't in need of a rebuild yet, save your money on the pistons and rings till it does. But once it does need a rebuild, do the job right and upgrade to some better performing parts. 350HP isn't going to be very difficult. New intake, headers, and cam will get you to 350 HP no problem. SOme other items to consider to enhance your cars manners would be a rebuilding your Q-jet (There is a guy on this board who is suppossed to be the master. Ask around, you'll find him), and getting your distributer recurved (Once again you'll find that Ignition Man on this board can help you out). You'll be very happy with these few mods. Tubbed is correct, most of the power comes from cylinder head porting. He ought to know. He currently has a 350ci Buick making over 500 HP!!It can cost from a few hundred dollars to thousands. It's up to you how much power you want. But this won't be nessasary to get 350HP out of your engine. This board has tons!!! of info. Look around a little while and you'll find the questions to all of your answers. By the way, what's your name? ,Aubrey
69GSCAL: My name is Mike Hooper. Thanks for the info to all you quick replyers out there. Anyone know what gear ratio would be a good set-up for my '72 GSX wanna-be? I'm thinking Eaton posi? Also, does anyone have any recommendations for brand/type of manifold, headers, aftermarket carb & cam? I hear Poston makes some good stuff, but what do I know? Not much. Plus, what cfm does a Q-Jet make? I've heard 600, but not sure. So many questions, so little time.
Almost forgot, do you have a 2 or 4 barrell carb? If you have a 2 barrell then a new carb is definately requireded. Well, not required but . . . . . no, never mind, it is required!!!!!! If you've got a 2 barrell look on this board for a 4 barrell Q-jet. Q-jets are my preference but any 4 barrell carb will greatly increase your performance with a 4 barrell intake to match. This would be my first upgrade if I were you. You'll see an enormous increase in performance with this. Also, so you don't end up stripping out your fuel inlet on the carb as I did, forego the fuel filter at the inlet of the Q-jet and put in a seperate fuel filter inline before this point. Taking this apart to check and replace your fuel filter will eventually cause you to cross thread/strip out the threads. Fuel dripping on your intake on a hot summers day will start a fire really quickly! Nothing worse than watching your car burn to the ground as you stand aside helpless on a desolate road. Let us know what your budget is and how much experiance you have and we can give you a better idea on what you can do yourself and what you can have done. ,Aubrey
His has a 1972 J 350 in a Skylark which is rated at 175 hp, 270 torque to start with and 8.5 to 1. Even if you converted back to gross from SAE by dividing by .8 he would only be at 218.75hp which leaves him 131.25hp to go. Much cheaper to go to a used 455 particularly if he could sell the old engine for something. He would have to tear down the 350 engine and put in in 1970 pistons to get the hp and compression up to the 1970 350 Sp engine specs of 315hp gross.
Good to meet you Mike. Here are few necessary links for a Buick owner; http://www.paeenterprises.com/paeframe.html http://www.trishieldperf.com/ www.taperformance.com I'm missing a few I know. If anyone else can think of others please chip in. Poston and TA Performance will be your only choices for replacement headers and intake manifold. They're both quality manufacturers and can help you choose the best parts for your needs. Look for a carb with a cfm rating of 750cfm or 800cfm. I made the mistake (this seems to be how I learn everything these days) of using the old formula of Displacement x RPM x height /weight or something like that. That's definately not it but more importantly I came up with a cfm rating in the low 600s. I bought a 625cfm Holley and lost tons of power over my original, dirty as hell Q-jet. I'm told that Buicks require more air flow than most. I can't tell you why but I believe it after this. Q-jets between 69-72 will be either 750 cfm or 800cfm. Either will work for you. Big Block, Small Block? No worries, both will work for your 350. I think that swapping out the 350ci for a larger 400ci or 455ci has been common in the past. I also think that most of the guys that did this are looking at that old small block in their garage a little differently after reading the "She's Alive" post in this forum. Your 350ci can put out a lot more power than your car is even able to successfully put to the ground in it's stock condition. When you do reach the power your looking for, traction will be your enemy. Fortunately for you you're in Ohio. I've seen many members here that live in Ohio. I'm sure you'll find you live near more than a few of these guys and I'm sure they'd be willing to give you a hand with some of this. Take care and enjoy your 'lark. ,Aubrey
Here's a carb for sell. $10.00 plus shipping! Can't beat that. http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43411 And to help you with it's rebuild. http://www.carcraft.com/howto/57178/ These things are easy to rebuild. The first time I did it it was trial and error. No book, no mag, no web page, no experiance. it took a full day but I got it done. There are plenty of mods for these carbs that will help performance but better leave those to the pros. ,Aubrey
I made an error on the price. It's $30 plus $10 shipping. Still a worthy deal though. As far as the compression of the engine, I don't believe this is that great a factor. Increasing your compression by 1.5 points isn't going to give you a substantial increase in HP. I can't recall the #'s but I recently read an aticle about this and it proved that 1 point in compression was only worth %3-4 (I believe) more power. Of course when the engine needs a rebuild you might as well get the higher compression pistons, but for the time being I wouldn't consider the $/HP to be worth it myself. Intake, carb/carb spacer and headers can all be done on a Saturday afternoon leaving you all day Sunday to tune and cruise your ride. ,Aubrey
Thanks so much to all of you. I'm so glad I found this sight, as it's good to be among true Buick fans as myself. There's just something about those Buick A bodies, you know? Yet, to find that my "mighty" 350 is straining out a whopping 175 HP is more than a bit depressing. Sheee. Well, I guess there's nowhere else to go but up from here. My funds are tight until August, when the Missus gets out of nursing school. I guess until then, I'll just salivate. I didn't realize the Q-jet was such a good carb. I was thinking about going the way of a Street Demon or something along those lines. I really don't want anything more but to give the 'Lark a bit more balls. Well, at 175 HP, quite a bit more balls, I guess. Damn those insurance companies! I don't plan on dragging, just cruising and maybe a few burn-outs here & there. Maybe a beefier intake/cam/header combo would do the trick, until I can save enough for a 455 beast. I just want a nice, lopey growl and some torque to fry 'em good every now & then. I'll be sure to check out those links everyone gave me. I noticed PAE sells a book about building up Buick engines, but it only mentioned the 455, so I guess it's not for us small-blockers. That's what sights like this are for!
The book that is carried by PAE does cover a buildup on the 455, but the two motors are similar in design aside from displacement, so the book can be helpful. It does have important information on 350's such as bolt torque specs, bearing clearances, etc. You mentioned that you would like to be able to do burnouts.... A stock 350 in good shape, even a 2bbl, should have no problem incinerating the tires, even if you have numerically low gears (2.73, 2.56, etc) If you can't light up the tires as is, I would consider doing some diagnostics on the motor, such as compression and leakdown tests. These should give you a good indication of the condition of your engine. I have a stock 2bbl 350 that will smoke the tires, and won't quit until you let off the gas. (EDIT : That was when it was in my brother's '72 skylark, that car had a 2.56 rear. I haven't finished intalling the motor in my skylark (4.10/posi) yet to see if it can spin the P275-60-15 drag radials) If this is just for cruising, and you won't see much highway time, I would put in an agressive gear ratio, like 3.73's, along with a posi. A good intake, a mild cam, and headers should get you a nice quick 350 powered car. I would not necessarily jump right to a 455. Most likely any 455 you find cheap will need a rebuild anyways, and you will need to buy other parts to make the swap (frame mounts, motor mounts, fan shroud, bigger radiator, correct fan, accessory brackets, throttle linkage+cable). If you determine that the bottom end of the 350 is in good shape, I would definitely just leave that alone and concentrate on the top end. That's where the power is, anyways! Good Luck!
We run a quadrajet carb on our Apollo. Works good... If you're looking the get the most for your $$, spend that carb money elsewhere... BTW, our Apollo listed below has a 350.
Wow! What else have you done to that 350, Isaac? At least the Apollo weighs somewhat less than the 'Larks do, which I'm sure helps with quarter times. Do you have a standard Q-Jet or did you change to set up at all?
