Hey guys, I currently have a sbc 355 in my 81 trans am. The guy who sold me the car said it was recently rebuilt with only a few thousand miles on it. After looking up some numbers on the heads, intake, and carb I found out they heads are off a 305 with low flow numbers, the carb is a quadrajet, and I believe the intake is an aluminum one off of a corvette of some year. The block is a '79 4 bolt main out of a truck which is supposedly bored .030 over.The motor has never given me any problems, but it is kind of a dog. So, I was looking around at some top end kits to try and wake the motor up. I want to be able to drive the car often, but also be able to go to the strip and not be embarrassed. So far, this is what I have found and seems to be the best bang for the buck.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TOP-END-KIT-CHEVY-350-SBC-PERFORMANCE-KIT-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3f0bf466a1QQitemZ270783506081QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_2178wt_1165However, I am not very experienced with building engines and was hoping some of you guys could tell me if this is a legit kit or not. Like I said, I don't want something that is gonna give me a lot of problems. I was thinking of going with the dual plane air gap intake and the 230/230 duration .480/.480 lift cam with the 1.6 RR. From what I have read, a combo like this should produce about 400hp/400 ft-lbs. The kit doesn't come with a carb, but I think a 660 cfm carb would be enough for that setup. Seems like a reasonable street/strip setup to me?
I have hooker comp headers into a 2.5" true dual exhaust with aftermarket "flotech" mufflers I believe (supposed to be a knockoff of flowmaster after they lost their patent?) The pistons are supposed to be forged, but we will check the internals out when we tear the engine down to see how much of what the guy told me is actually true. Obviously, if the bottom end is junk we will not waste the money on a top end kit. But, from what the guy said the bottom end is supposed to be strong.
Basically, I am a little skeptical of buying a top end kit off of ebay, but I am a grad student and don't have 5k to spend on top of the line parts. Just hoping for a little input. I know next to nothing about details of building an engine and just want to make sure the important parts of the heads are strong and of good quality. Let me know if I left anything important out. Thanks for the help ahead of time!!
-Cody