Smog is a bitch. I need about twice the power I am getting from my 350. I would rather not go with a BB for my front end is too heavy as it is and to comply I have to bring my 85 up to 91 emissions equipment and standards. Gm makes a target 383 PN12497317 that I think might work(still not sure it has an egr). any ideas?

Charlo

Alright, so the asshole who told me there are no vortec head/manifold combos that will work for a rochester q-jet was full of shit. I found a couple. The PN I gave was for a gm target 383, I just found out that list is 5 grand so fawk that shit. Here is my deal, I have a rebuilt 350 with 90k on it, I would guess it is running around 170hp. Only thing wrong with the motor is the miliage and the rear main seal(besides power ofcoarse). I have about $2200 coming to me, with this I can either get a target 350 with vortec heads, and a intake to adapt my q-jet, or I can put in a 454 from a 92 blazer with 70k on it. Or finally I can build my current 350, I was thinkng heads and a roller cam. What do you reccomend?

Charlo

rebuild your motor with vortec heads and edelbrock intake and throw a Q-jet on top. With the money you have you could easily afford a roller cam and have no trouble making twice the power you have now.

Originally posted by NE-RokToy
rebuild your motor with vortec heads and edelbrock intake and throw a Q-jet on top. With the money you have you could easily afford a roller cam and have no trouble making twice the power you have now.

Yup, rebuild the 350 with the vortec heads. Just be sure to stay at or below 9:1 compression. More than that is rough on todays pump gas. The vortec heads are small chamber (64cc) so keep that in mind when ordering pistons. Also out of the box, vortec heads are only good for a cam up to .480" lift. I just went through the same issues, but got lucky and ran across a 5.7L vortec crate motor for $1250.00. I'm putting in a different roller cam, and should make about 350hp and 425ftlbs of torque. This is what Desktop dyno show a mild 350 with vortec heads and a mild cam (Xtreme Energy 250) doing.

This is with the roller cam.........

Shit, if I can get anywhere near those numbers Ill be happy. So I am looking at 4-5 hundred for the heads, 1 something for the manifold, That leaves plenty room to play, If I can find a 383 block for cheap will that work well with the vortec heads or is that too much for em?

Originally posted by charlo
Shit, if I can get anywhere near those numbers Ill be happy. So I am looking at 4-5 hundred for the heads, 1 something for the manifold, That leaves plenty room to play, If I can find a 383 block for cheap will that work well with the vortec heads or is that too much for em?

The vortec heads will work just fine on a 383. I had that exact setup in my old 67 GMC 2wd. Just keep an eye on compression ratio. That motor ran at 9.9:1 and was REALLY hard to keep from pinging, especially with a load on it.

Check out www.enginekits.com. they have a 383 kit that runs about $670.00 WITH a new flexplate and balancer, and balanced.

The numbers I came up with put me @9.1 : 1 compression for vortec heads and a 383 block. Did I do my math wrong or did you use a larger piston or get your heads decked or something? 9.1 is just about the ratio I would like so I hope you had something going on.


Charlo

Originally posted by charlo
The numbers I came up with put me @9.1 : 1 compression for vortec heads and a 383 block. Did I do my math wrong or did you use a larger piston or get your heads decked or something? 9.1 is just about the ratio I would like so I hope you had something going on.


Charlo

What pistons are you looking at?

Well you can keep it cheaper than that....
you can get vortec heads off of ebay for $250-$300 including shipping.
I have a 1991 vortec police 9c1 motor out of a Caprice police car that is going into my truck. It is tbi but I am picking up a intake tomorrow.... from a local camaro junkyard. A 1987 and up aluminum intake off of a camaro will fit. I wont use the egr spot just put a plate over it and the intake is $60.
vortec's are so nice...
I got lucky....
I got this motor which has a hydrollic roller cam/lifter setup too..
it is rated at 260+hp without vortec heads.... so once I get the motor in and get myself some heads... I will be around 300hp then I will add on a few other boltons to boost hp a bit more...

Rootbreaker, I know I am not the first to tell you this but the vortec heads werent released till about 96. I think $60 is a lot of money for a used intake which I am pretty sure will not work (well) with the vortecs. The vortec heads have 4 bolts that hold the manifold to them the older manifolds can be drilled to work but the ports do not match up right. The vortec heads also use a special bolt(pn 12550027) which bottoms out in the head so it doesnt crush the gasket. I am getting my heads from a buddy at the dealer for about $400 new. EdelBrock makes a intake that will work for you for about $130. Thank you for the response though. As for the compression it just depends on what piston I use.


Charlo

I just bulit my bros 350 for $2150 and we had it dyno'd before we droped it in and we were at 343hp and 313 ft/tq at the flywheel. My suggestion, bulid a new motor for w the 2K that your getting instead of droping it into a 170hp 90K money sucker!!! That $2k is only going to get you up to maybe 280 hp with vortec heads and all the works! Bulid a new one!!!

I basically am building a new motor. Here is how it is gonna look.
vortec heads and aluminum intake from gm goodwrench with all gaskets and bolts $600. Edelbrock q-jet I already have. A 383 block from enginekits.com $670. I still need to decide which cam I will use. and weather or not I want headers right now. I am trying to keep compression around 9.0 right now and save money cause if my luck stays good I may add a supercharger still. This is all smog legal which limits me to vary mild cams and head/intakes with an egr. My biggets concern is that I should spend more money for a better block and bottom end.

Charlo