Thread: Engine rebuild tips and help

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Welcome to CHR!
The 350 Chevy in a Firebird has been a very popular swap and not to get too far ahead of myself, yes, most parts for small block Chevys (SBC) are literally swappable and do just bolt right up – with very few exceptions.

A couple questions before we jump right into the “how to build it” sessions:
1. What is your budget?
2. What casting number(s) do you have?
3. Is this an automatic or a stick? What transmission?
4. What is your rear end ratio?
5. What do you want to do with this car? You want optimal performance at 5500RPM but how often will the car really see 5500RPM? If you’re going to use this for a daily driver it will be different that say a boulevard bruiser or a drag car.

I would strongly recommend a total engine build rather that just heads and cam. To do this right, you should pull the engine and have the block prepped by a competent machine shop. There’s a whole list of other things we can discuss here and I would caution you not to select a cam (consider only a hydraulic roller) and heads without knowing for certain what pistons are in place and if the block is square. Along that line, you can do some of the work yourself if you have the proper tools (some of which are expensive) and it may make sense for you to have a machine shop do the heavy work and you can perform the final assembly.

I would also encourage you to consider a 383 stroker approach as this really brings the SBC alive and has a lot of potential as both a streetable ride and one that can allow you to see God when you shift into second gear when it’s built correctly. This approach does require custom machine shop work on the block as well as a stroker kit with crank, rods, and pistons.

Let us know what your thoughts are and we can jump in with some proven build recipes.

Regards,
Glenn

Thanks for getting back to me Glenn!

To start, there really isn’t a budget. I’m not really constrained here, but I obviously don’t want to shell out 10’s of thousands of dollars for a little small block. Ideally I’d like to just find a few options at different price ranges and see what I think is worth the money, or if you or anyone else has recommendations, I’m all ears! If I have to pick a number though, I feel like around 2k is enough. Just from what I’ve seen online at least. Heck it may even be overkill, I’m not sure to be honest.

Second, the casting number is 3932388. From what I’ve seen online, I believe that makes it a ‘69 model year.

The transmission is a turbo 350 automatic. I just had it rebuilt with a higher stall converter and a shift kit so it can handle a bigger cam.

I believe the read end ratio is a 2.7:1 or somewhere around there. That’s just from me rotating the tire and counting the driveshaft rotations, so I’m probably a little off.

I want to keep it streetable for sure, ultimately I’m just looking to go fast. I should also clarify, I should have said “peak” performance at around 5500 rpm. It probably won’t see it that often honesty. What I should have said is I would like a good power band from 1k - 4 or 5k. This will remain a street car, but obviously I’m here for as much power as I can reliably get. This car is strictly a weekend toy as well. I mostly drive it to shows and meets, but I’d love to start drag racing at my local track just for the fun of it.

As I mentioned before as well, the engine was completely rebuilt about 8 years ago, that’s when I got the car and put the 350 in it. Beforehand a friend of a friend had it in his truck. Once I got it, it was sent off to a machine shop, that’s where it was bored out a bit and got brand new pistons, rings, and rods. Unfortunately, it was 8 years ago and I was just learning about cars at the time and I don’t recall what size pistons are in it. I figured that it might make a difference for picking the right head though.

Ultimately I would rather not have to send the engine off to a builder, if at all possible at least. If that’s really the only smart way to do it, then so be it. I’d love to put in the time and effort to learn how to build these, and I’m ready to spend a pretty penny.

Thanks again for getting back to me, Glenn. I really appreciate your help so far.

-Vinny