Picked up a 76 FS which had prior issues with the driver's side head gasket. it pitted the block and head between the cylinder and water jacket. Picked up another disassembled 350 from a local guy to rebuild in case the block is too bad. So far had the original Qjet and heads rebuilt. Not looking to build a beast but better than stock would be nice without MPG suffering. Medical bills are forcing the the ugly word of budget into play. Been looking at complete rebuild kits and seems price varies a lot. Any suggestions on who sells the best kit that can come with the higher compression pistons? Should I have the machine shop balance the rotating assembly? If so, How much is the typical cost? I drove the car from calif. to Oklahoma before the head gasket blew and was surprised it ran as strong as it did.
The most low cost effective way to gain high compression is using the 3.0 flat top pistons, they give about 9.5:1 with no head milling. I would mill that block 50 thou and use the 3.0 pistons for about 10:1 compression. Yes have the assembly balanced, it’s not too much money.
.050 off block with 3.0 pistons would net around 10.95 to 1 3.0 pistons are the cheapest though. that pitting may clean up with some resurfacing. Higher compression and a decent tune and a distributor recurve, should increase power noticeably. I would look at the crower level 3 cam or the ta 284-88. Both will work with the 3.0 pistons well enough. A little more lower torque. The ta 212 is ok but really would need headers and duals for best gains. A 2200 torque converter with any of these cams will also help it, without giving up much mpg, and still help the 2 series rear gear to perform. Get a ta performance backgrooved front cam bearing. Balancing, well I would suggest rebuilding the harmonic balancer at least. Many people rering an engine without balancing, it may have crank resurfaced without issue. Summit racing has .001 over bearing, mahle I think. Same bearing fits a Pontiac 301 rod. Cb610 I believe. gasket sets from eBay with bearings and rings are like 250 or so. get a standard volume oil pump. I think you can do bottom end for under 1500 fairly easy. Maybe less .
Did you get block surface cleaned up? I would suggest looking at how much compression the piston will make before going with a cam choice . And I suggest a double roller over stock timing set. Higher valve spring pressure, more lift , more load on timing set.
So far I had the heads rebuilt. waiting for word from the machine shop if I need to order the 3.0 flat tops and rings in standard or oversized, Picked up the lunati cam that is dual grind with about the same specs as a TA 212. Have a double roller timing set. TAs, cam bearing and lifters. The block is at the machine shop getting cleaned up. Crank is at crank shop getting checked out. The stock Qjet has been rebuilt. Going to run the stock manifold and logs since I am needing to this on a budget. Lost most of my clients to the pandemic so having to be more frugal with my money than I would like to be.
Many of us are also financially effected by the scamdemic, I’ve lost about $150,000 so far. Good to see progress!
