I from the north Houston area and have a '71 Skylark with a 350 2-bbl carb auto trans. I don't know the first thing about cars and all technicalities involved. I'm asking for advice and some tips to get my baby to run in the thirteens. Right now everything is stock, where should I start or should I do things to prep. Please help, I thank you for helping. Just talk to me!! o No:
Rikki, To get that car into the 13's would require a lot of work. I'm not trying to discourage you, but if don't know much about cars, someone else will be doing the work and that increases your costs significantly. The stock rear in those cars was usually a 2.56 non positraction. Great highway gears but not much for takeoff. If I was you the first thing I would do is get the TA performance highrise Stage1 350 aluminum intake manifold with a good quadrajet carb. Then install a 2 1/2" dual exhaust with or without headers (with headers if your budget allows). Then get an HEI electronic ignition(from a 75 Regal, boneyard or rebuilt). That should give you a substantial performance increase. After that if you want to go with 3.23-3.42 gears and a cam/torque converter change, that will wake your combo up even more. Of course all of this assumes you have a solid motor to begin with. If the motor is tired and needs a rebuild, you should consider that first, then you could change pistons and get that 8.5:1 compression up to 9.5:1 or better and add the cam in at the same time. Have fun! Larry
Hey Rikki- Welcome to the V8BB, were all good people here, happy to help! Larry hit the nail on the head! Advice on your car cant get much better than that. Infact, I just did a 71 350 2V with those exact upgrades. Actually, I had to re-build it. Was just going to do a stock cam swap, but one of the cam bearings fell out of the block, so I had to pull the motor. Put new rings, bearings, and gaskets in it. Upgraded the cam to an ISKY 262H. I ordered everthing from PAW, they advertise in all the car magazines. Rebuild kit with rings, bearings, timing chain, and oil pump kit was $150, cam was $129, lifters were $37. Machine shop cleaned the block [$24] and honed the cylinders [$30] and did a valve job on the heads [$60] with new valve springs [$48] and installed new cam bearings [$23].. When I re-assembled it, I used a stock cast iron 4V intake and Q-jet carb from the junk yard. [$40] and an HEI distributor [$15] Got a carb rebuild kit from pep-boys [$32] and new cap, rotor, wires, and a re-curb kit for the HEI [$62] and a set of BOSCH platinum plugs [$18] Also a new 180* thermostat, new belts, and hoses [$27]. Had the radiator boiled out while I was at it. [$40] I got everything back together, and towed the car to a friend's exhaust shop, where he put 2 1/4 inch duals with turbo mufflers on it for the "good guy" discount of $200. Drove it back home, and dialed everything in, used the heavy weights and the medium springs in the distributor kit. 32* of timing all in by a little over 2000 RPM, tuned out the carb, changed all the fluids in the car [P/S, brakes, tranny] and adjusted the brakes, and just for fun, installed a B&M Tranny shift kit I had laying around [about $25] and topped the whole thing off with a chrome open ellement air cleaner from K-mart [$14.97] Including taxes, everything came in just a hair under $1000 The difference was night and day!!!! Before, the car was a worn out slug. It would not brake torque at all, and if you punched it from a stop, it would only lay about 6 feet of rubber. I think the ET's would have been somewhere in the 18's at about 70 mph, but that's just a guess. After the work, I swear it had an extra 150 horses. It would brake torque with only about 1/2 pedal, and punching it from a stop would lay 50-60 feet of rubber, but the biggest improvements were in the mid-range, from 30 to 70 MPH, the car hauls like it's tail is on fire, chirps the tire on the 1-2 shift, and it now has a nice sounding "rumble", where before it did'nt sound like hardly anything. Now, it feels like about a low 15 car. It's faster than my brother's carbed 84 mustang GT, and gets up to about 90 at the end of the 1/4 mile express way on-ramp:Brow: I did this car for a close personal friend, and for $1000, she got: Complete engine rebuild performance cam new dual exhaust 4V carb and intake HEI ignition Total tune-up [belts, hoses, plugs, wires, etc] radiator serviced All fluids changed Tranny serviced Brakes serviced engine compartment pressure washed and spray painted and a chrome air cleaner I had about 30 hours total invested in the project, over a 2 week period, [and was paid $200 to do it... "good guys" discount] The buick 350 engine is very straight-forward and simple design, and is very easy to work on. If you can find a friend who can help you, you could most likely do the vast majority of work yourself [under his supervision]... I'v been doing this for years, have friends who give me "discounts", and know where to look for the bargains, so I dont know if you could do all this for $1000, but you could try... Cut a few corners, look for bargains, see how close you can come. Even if you paid a local mechanic to do all this, you should not have to spend more than about $1800. It's money well spent, because I know that car is good for at least another 100,000 miles now, AND it's got some "performance"!!! Rikki, were here to help... Any ?'s, ask away, we will do what we can Let us know what you decide, and keep us updated:TU:
13's are pretty ambitious from where you are starting... It can be done, but the MINIMUM you'll need to do is: Ported Heads 4 barrel intake (preferably Poston S-divider or TA Stage1 350) Good Camshaft that matches your COMBO Good exhaust sytem (2.5" minimum, headers will make a HUGE difference). Posi rear end. Your car should have the 8.5" rear end so you can get a posi for not too much. ignition upgrades, good carb, etc. In addition, putting in higher compression pistons will help, traction bars, and some practice... Remember, its teh whole CAR that gets into the 13's, not just the engine. You need to figure out everything from bumper to bumper. MY car ran 14.990's on a very very mild build but without any engine modifications it is capable of close to 14.000. Traction is the big big issue, no matter how much power your engine puts out, you don't go anywhere if all your tires do is spin in place. POSI, slicks, and suspension.
350 oil mods Darryl: What type of oiling mods did you do to your 350? I just read (and reread) Steve Dove's book and am a little concerned with cam bearing failure. Also, what type of oil pump did you use? Can I get away with just a booster plate or do I need the hi-volume? Larger pick-up tube? Thanks for your help!!
the only engine mods I have done to my car was install the TA Performance High Rise Intake manifold and an edelbrock 600 cfm carb with electric choke. HEI would be nice to put on. Also the 2.56 rear and 60 mph in first gear may sound cool but performace where? Get a posi 3.56 rear that would put the 0-60 times up there. Also take off the monster truck tires and install some 235/60s on it. That would be nice. www.angelfire.com/retro/1971skylark
Re: 350 oil mods Nothing very exciting... The motor I talked about above had 300k miles on it. I used a front cover I had laying around that was low miles, as the 300k one was worn out completely. After the block came back from cleaning, I used my set of block brushes to clean out the oil passages, and a fine rasp [file] to clean up the casting flash in the oil passages where I could find it. Followed that up with pressure washer thru all the passages, then compressed air, and finally WD-40 to keep it from rusting... Then back up to the shop for the cam bearings. When I re-assembled, I used the "white" spring in the melling pump kit. It says the white one is good for 40 lbs, and it looks a little "beefier" than the stock one that came out of it originally. That's it...
Re: 350 oil mods Cam bearing failure is a problem in the 400/430/455 motors. not much of a problem on the 350 (but can happen). What you would want to do is relocate the cam bearing oil hole location to the 3-4 o clock position as recommended in teh book. All the drilling out of passages, bypasses, etc... are not really necessary on the 350 (unless you are putting out massive power). Someone posted on another thread that the Buick 350 is a much better block design than the 455. I think its true. Dan
350 Oil Mods Thanks Dan. Do I still need to be worried about boosting oil pressure/volume for a medium to high performance application. The primary purpose is a budget bracket car which still remains some what streetable.
Dave, I wouldn't use anything more than a booster plate and adjustable regulator. The 350 doesn't have a 3.25" main bearing journal like the 400-430-455 crank. It will survive just fine on 10psi/1000 RPM. Get a good cover with the right clearances and you'll be fine. Larry
Thanks for the advice guys. I have done some other reading and came to realize that wanting my car to hit 13s was a little drastic. So Im going take it a small step at a time. And if you guys would like to share any thing else, will gladly listen. I'm going to put the TA Stage 1 350 and a 625cfm carb on it. My car is a 2-bbl, are there any conversion kits? Thanks again for the tips and I will ask if I have any other questions!!!!:TU: :TU:
Conversion kits? Just bolt on the TA intake and your 4bbl carb. I would go with a Q-jet over the 625 carb... Even an 800 cfm would work... Btw, you'd be better off getting a cam first because even with the TA intake the stock 2bbl cam isn't gonna flow any air... Stock iron 4bbl intakes can be had for $25ish and get a 70-73 Q-jet (350 or 455) For about $250 you should be able to get a Cam kit, 4bbl intake, and a carb. You will notice a NICE difference.. Dan
Dan $250 WOW!!! Were exactly can I get a cam kit, 4bbl intake, and a carb for only $250. I have looking around and $250 seems awfully LOW. If you could give me a few hints or manufactures were you can get them. That would be so helpful. Rikki
T/A -212 cam..........$139....................T/A Performance Lifters................$64 @ $4 each......Napa, Autozone,etc 4V intake........... under $30..........junk yard, classifieds 4V carb...............under $40...........Junk yard, classifieds Total...................under $250 There are a few other things you will need to put it all together, for example... Gaskets..............$30-$50..............Napa, Autozone, etc Carb rebuild kit......$30......................T/A Performance Carb "rebuilder"......$50...................Ask your friends Timing Chain..........$30...................Autozone And there are a few things you really should consider... New water pump, oil pump kit, belts, hoses, new 4V air cleaner, etc... And you must remember..... This is very important..... You never know what you will find once you open up a motor... The example I used above where I rebuilt a friends 350 for $1000 is a good example... It started out as a new cam. The original one was worn out, and I was just going to replace it with a stock one... $200 total repair... Once I got inside the engine, a worn out cam bearing fell out, requiring me to remove the engine from the car, and tear it apart. Since it was already apart, a total performance rebuild for a few hundred more dollars made a lot of sense... Especially since the all original engine had 300,000 miles on it. Rikki, you may very well want to consider the idea of finding a buick 350 4V engine, complete in a junk yard for $150-$200, buy a $39 engine stand, and just start building it up right!!! Especially if your skylark is your daily driver! The best part of that idea is when you "replace" the engine, you can re-sell your original running 350 for $150-$200 and get your money back!!!!! There are a couple people here on the BB from your city, might want to look them up, and "ask real nice" for help Good luck!
if he was going to do an engine swap, anyway, i'd put in a 455 if the money was available. if driven daily, though, i'd say keep it at a 350...i wouldn't think of putting a 455 in my driver...too much engine. (well..can never have too much engine, more like too little money)
