Whats the cheapest way to gain 50 hp on a 1974 L-82 stingray corvette

headers, Dual exhaust, intake, new heads and a cam. Lots of threads on here about different cams and heads. Chevy 350s are easy to upgrade and there are tons of parts available.

NOS

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NEX-ML1000/

http://www.summitracing.com/search/P.../?Ns=Price|Asc

if it still has the factory exhaust then headers dual exhaust and some tuning will put you close. an intake will help too. no need to change the cam until you change heads. for some reason everybody wants to condemned the L-82 cam, yes there newer bettter ones but this was a popular upgrade cam back in the day. the problem is it was installed 4degrees retarded. an adjustable timing chain will fix that.

You should state trans. L-82 cam is not bad esp. if auto. May just need a timing set or cam could be worn.
Headers, turbo mufflers, Al. intake to start.

PS & tuning of course

You want torque - not hp.

If you have an automatic , I'd suggest a 700R as your first step.
The 700R has a 30% steeper gear. Turns your 3:55 gears into 4:60 gears when in first. Turns your 3:55 gears into 2.40s on the highway. You can lay a 60ft patch on the strip and still get 24mpg (or better) I got 26mpg with my 350. Pulled it out and stuck in a 383 and get 24mpg now.

OK, this is where I have to say something. Torque is a static rotational force until combined with rpm, then the measurement of this combination is horsepower. Torque x RPM / 5252 = Horsepower. Don't believe me, clamp your torque wrench in your vise and pull it up to 300 ft lb. How fast is your vise going? Horsepower is the work being done, moving your car is the work. People confuse strong bottom end with torque and a strong top end as horsepower. It is always horsepower if there is work being done. The best way to make a quick street car is to make strong torque over a wide RPM range, from bottom to top. The higher in RPM you can maintain your torque, the more horsepower you make. 400 lb ft of torque at 2500 rpm will move your car exactly half as quickly as it will with 400 lb ft of torque at 5000 rpm. That would be 190.4 HP at 2500 and 380.8 HP at 5000. The best way to get your tail whipped is to make all your torque in the bottom end and go up against a car that has made a wide power band or has moved the torque towards the higher rpm. If you have moved the torque towards the top all you have to do is gear and drive it appropriately to make use of the power-band. As I said before though, wide power-bands over a broad rpm range will be the best for the street.

50 anything wont be cheap

Depending on what you consider cheap

Torque is king on the street in most cases.

Yes you are correct. But what I'm saying simply is - if you only have X amount of dollars , you'd be far better off to put it into a transmission to give you better kick in the pants off the line AND lower rpms on the highway. Just something to think about , instead of some arbitrary '50 hp' number.

you should probably define "cheap". many on this forum have a high threshold of spending, especially YOUR money.

Generally on a stock engine if you were to bolt on a Performance Intake, 600-650cfm carb, performance distributor etc.. it will jump you about 30HP. A nice cam swap in it and you will hit your mark fairly easy.

Tune it, add tube headers, and you'll feel like you have 50 new horses.

Aint that the truth!

OH MY GOD another over thought out answer that just turns off people to anything mechanical!
Heres a down to earth answer, tune your distributar to 36 degrees at 3000RPM, free flowing air cleaner, gap your spark plugs to .040.
Then headers and new exhaust with your choice of just about any aftermarket muffler as long as its not stock. (shameless plug for Flowmasters)!
Then a good hi rise intake, (not performer style) prefer the Summit brand or Professional Products if you like saving money.
Holley Carb, 650 Double pump with manual trans, 750 vacuum secondary with auto.
This is just a start.
If you can't feel more power in the seat of your pants then just sit in front of the computer and do mathematical equations until you figure out how to incorporate nuclear fusion into your engine.

No, just a reply to someone saying you want torque not horsepower, something I have seen over and over again. It confuses people. What I wrote is the absolute basics!

This is like someone asking for pancakes for breakfast by reading the ingredients on the side of the box to the cook.
Nobody cares about torque, thats why everything is reefered to as a horsepower gain.

Find " / " on a calculator while actually laying under the car and working on it.

No one cares, all I want to hear is "400 horsepower" and then you got something.

Again, this is nothing but the basics. I was taught and I understood the concept of torque and horsepower in junior high school more decades ago than I want to admit. If I couldn't understand this simple concept and formula, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I can't conceive what you see wrong with correcting a post that read: "You want torque - not hp." I simply corrected that incorrect idea and gave an explanation of why it is wrong.

Its not wrong but I never see people post Threads about needing more torque.
Build horsepower and the torque will come!

Did you miss the post above where couperdecar said "You want torque - not hp."?
Thats what V2racing was responding to.
His response makes complete sense if you read the whole thread.

Head/intake and cam swap would easily gain you 50-60hp....probably more. This is assuming you already have full length headers and a good exhaust system.

Cheapest way on a 350 would be to do a Vortec head/intake swap with the upgraded springs/machine work. Then do a nice modern style cam like a XE268 or Lunati Voodoo equivilant...something in the 224/228 range with around .525-.550 lift on a 110lsa. All of this should net you around 380-400 crank HP ASSUMING your engine is very healthly before you start modding it.... I would probably mill the heads a bit and use a .030 MLS layered head gasket to try to bump the compression up some....You are likely in the sub 8-1 compression range.... You can't gain much without a piston swap but.... you can probably get an honest 8.5-8.7:1 with milling and thin head gasket.


First and foremost, do a compression and leak down test to determine if your engine is still sealing well enough to even mess with it.....If not, youre wasting money bolting on new parts.