Thread: 350 rebuild kit

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You will be a lot happier going the route you are outlining, rather than rebuilding a tired/used engine. I am in the marine business, and we stopped installing rebuilt or remanufactured engines years ago because of the high failure rate. And our engines came from people like Jasper and other well known names. We were losing like 10 to 20% of the engines right out of the box, and this is from people who have very controlled environments, and do this day in day out.

Every time I fire up an engine I personally build, I hold my breath, because you just never know. For someone who hasn't done it a few times before, even if you get friends and relatives to help, it is a real crap-shoot. I even check engines I get back from the machine shop, because they sometimes screw up......humans.

As for the upgrade to different rockers, pushrods, etc. I feel you should rethink that. You are putting this engine into a Chevy Van, essentially a box on wheels, that will never see the North side of 4500 RPMs. Stock drivetrains are fine with that, and more. The same engine is used in every Mercruiser/Volvo/etc. marine 5.7 boat engine, and they are built to run at 4600-5000 all day long.
But it is your engine, and only you can make that call.

As for PAW.........yep, their website stinks. But order a catalog, and then compare it to Summit, Jegs, etc, and then shop for the best deal. I use all 3 and more.

You are making some good choices and being smart enough to ask others for suggestions. And that's all we can give is suggestions, and you know what they say about opinions.