Thread: 71 Camaro engine choice advice

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Seth I’m more into the nostalgia/sleeper stuff so take this with a big grain of salt. Personally my first impulse would be to throw a mild Big Block in it.

My second choice (and the one I’d really more likely do if I was going to drive the car much) would be to use a 350 or 383 with a good set of cast iron exhaust manifolds (something like the repop Corvette manifolds by Dorman or the Sanderson’s. I’d go the sleeper look on the engine. If I went with an aftermarket intake and heads I’d grind off the manufactures logo on the manifold and paint it and the heads engine color. Then I’d either go with the stock painted valve covers and air cleaner or chrome aftermarket ones with a 307 or low HP 350 air cleaner decal.

Basically that’s the formula I used when I built my 77 Mustang II coupe. With the 302 Decal on the aircleaner (and 302 emissions decal on the stock painted valve covers) it looked so stock under the hood nobody picked up on the fact that it was really a 351W with Edelbrock heads and intake.

By the way if you do go the fist gen SB route those old A6 AC compressors are about bullet proof, they draw a bit of HP but will last as long as about anything else …..and a lot better than the R4s that replaced them.

Like I said just my 2 cents.



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