Anand

Hello All,

I'm looking to get up to 350 to 400HP on my 69
would the following get me there? any recommendations?

1. chevy 350 block # 3970010 4 bolt
Edelbrock 1405 600cfm carb
2. Edelbrock 2601 performer air gap aluminum dual plane intake
3. It has mild competition cam with new Comp hydraulic lifters (not sure regarding the specs)
4. 1965 corvette camel hump heads 3782461
5. The factory tach-drive distributor was completely rebuilt with a pointless ignitor system
6. K&N 66-3040 - K&N X-Stream Airflow cleaner
7. Hedman Hedders 68280 (side exhaust)
8. 3.55 posi-traction

What kind of compression do you guys think am I getting?

Thanks

BKbroiler

You're talking about net, flywheel horsepower, right? That small carb, mild cam and obsolete heads will not give you 350 hp from 350 ci.

Anand

BK,

Yes net horsepower..What do you recommend, more aggressive cam?
And also what do you think that set up is producing?

Thanks

Shark Racer

I'd go with some modern aluminum heads. Easily worth 30-40 hp over the camel humps.

BKbroiler

You need to match compression with cam and heads. Are you building this engine from scratch? New pistons etc.? Have you decided on a budget? That will influence the head selection, piston choices, cam type - roller or flat tappet etc. If you can make some of those choices you will get plenty of direction here.

Anand

This engine was already rebuilt by the previous owner, all the info I got from him was it has new mild cam with hydraulic lifters, new pistons and rings (not exactly sure what the specs are). I bought the edelbrock carb, intake and air cleaner and headers. to replace the qjet, 71 vette intake, air cleaner.

My budget is around $1500, I just spent $1000 for Carb, intake, headers and air cleaner from summit.

I have $500 left to spend. I've been reading these 461 heads are pretty good and can handle 400+ HP.

Shark Racer

Put the $500 in a savings account, wait until you have 2k in the budget, and put on a set of aluminum heads. Otherwise, you'll be pissing money away.

Promise.

milo30

Probably good advise. Buy a cam and lifters now and not be happy with those heads then it's money wasted. Drive it as is until you find a deal on some USED aluminum heads maybe and then buy your cam.

The heads may be capable of that kind of HP but are you going to have to have them machined? I had to walk away from building a BB months ago because the heads I had were good heads but were going to cost almost as much as just buying new aluminum heads.

Clubby99

All of your upgrades probably added 10 to 15 hp.

birdsmith

In your first post you asked "what kind of compression we think you're getting" but you didn't mention what kind of pistons you're using or what your head gasket thickness is. Compression ratio can't be calculated without that info. Simply put, horsepower comes from cam+carburetion+compression. With a too-small carb you pretty much tied your hands right at the outset...add to that a "mild" cam and unknown compression and you really kinda need to go back to square 1. One reason QJets are so popular with a lot of us is that they are so well suited to a wide range of applications-you can bolt one onto a very tame 350 then pump the same motor up with more compression, trick heads, radical cam, etc. And the same QJet will work fine on the hotrod motor. Edelbrock (read:Carter AFB) carbs are cfm-specific like Holleys and won't work well outside of their correct application.They also look kinda cool (especially Holleys). QJets look dorky but they fit well under Corvette hoods and since they are essentially a 'variable-cfm' carb they also work well in a variety of applications. If it's not too late to send the Edelbrock carb back I would recommend replacing it with something larger (Holleys are great if you've got the hood clearance); probably 650-670 cfm is what you need. Then choose a cam that will work well with whatever compression ratio you have, add a decent exhaust and you shouldn't have too much trouble getting to 350 hp.