5.0 vs. 71 Chevelle

I just recharged my K&N filter, and decided to go around seeing if it made a difference. I rally to the freeway, get on, and rally hard for about 5 miles, and get off, takin surface streets home. Well, theres a 71 Chevelle in my area which I always admire when I see it, he even has the 71 table marker from carls jr :p, real clean, but I had never seen it move, well as I was drivin up he was pulling onto the road. We both get alongside eachother and he starts pullin on me a lil, so I gun it, he took the bait and were both flyin down the road, but a minivan is ahead of him, and a stop after that, well I stop and wait for him, we both wait for the minivan. I figure finally he dosent wanna go for it because he hasnt taken off, well, he guned it, tires squeelin with flowmasters (unmistakable sound, but not deep enough to be a bigblock, so i'm assumin 350) so I drop the hammer, he flys ahead of me, but I start pulling hard, and take him with room to spare. Finally I see my turn and I decide 3 car lengths at 70 is enough, well, smart thinking on my part because a cop was commin on the other road, wouldnt have been good two cars flying away :hehe: so I went home, and smiled, now having two chevelles put under by my 5.0 :bandit:





guess recharging the filter was a good idea :D

I mean really even with all the exhaust and intake upgrades you have done, 350 SB with any kind of mods should tear your car up. But then maybe i underestimate your car. There's a kid who thinks his '91 5.0 Stang can be my '79 Z28-- What a dreamer. I don't know though Maybe next time you race a Chevelle you should tape it and post the clip on the net somewhere.

I have to say nice kill.

Neither motor is anything special and with the mods he has he should be able to take a bone stock 350ci. They aren't THAT powerful, I don't see why the aftermarket for them is so big or why people like them so much. They are many motors from Chevy that are by far better than the 350ci.

Originally posted by Polygon
I have to say nice kill.

Neither motor is anything special and with the mods he has he should be able to take a bone stock 350ci. They aren't THAT powerful, I don't see why the aftermarket for them is so big or why people like them so much. They are many motors from Chevy that are by far better than the 350ci.


i cant believe you just said that... Polygon Im hurt!

A bone stock 350 ehhh... I suppose Polygon but it all depends what bone stock 350 we're talking about. a Camaro's 350, a Corvette's 350, a 1500 Silverado's 350, a Caprice's 350, a Nova's 350, a Chevelle's 350. All the same motor, but produce different Stock HP numbers. So Which 350? A stock 350 can range in power from 250hp-370hp. And i mean Stock as from the Factory.

The reason why the aftermarket is so big for BOTH the Ford 5.0 and the Chevy 350 is because the potiential to make big power is easy with just a few bolt ons. Dont forget theirs more Hot Rods, Custom Cars and Trucks, and more Muscle Cars than there are Imports. And dont forget lots of us are smog exempt... so thats why we have our slow 5.0's and not so powerful 350s.


Please... Please name me a few motors that are better From Chevy than the 350ci.

Got to agree with redneck on this one even thou Pollygon will attempt to kill me but it seems that the 350 have very good potential.Imo an unrestricted and well working 350 should have taken the 5.0 appart

hahaha, hate to break it to you, but he was defending both engines.

A 350, with someone who dosent shift *yes, an automatic* in a very heavy car vs someone who does shift, does launch, has done mods, and has a heavy car as well...you do the math.

I dont care if noone believes me, I killed it, and once I hung with a 72 that had some mods *intake, 700cfm carb, both from edelbroc*, it also had 3 people in it *all kids...I know them, combined they weigh around 310*

The 71 chevelle had 2 different stock 350's

RPO CID RATEDHP TORQUE COMP
L65 350 245@4800 350@2800 8.5
L48 350 270@4800 360@3200 8.5

Now, if it shifts too soon, he wont pull as much.
Along with his weight, and how much wheel spin he had, and the fact eventhough it looked clean, and sounded clean, it could have had a bad motor. But I do know he was going for it, the defening roar of flowbies is a surefire giveaway, unless he had it idling that fast :rolleyes:

427 and the 454 are better engines then the 350. Do they have a bigger market, I think it would be around the same. They don't have any twin turbo setups or anything but I would imagine there is a nice blower system for those engines.

My 4.3L is better then a 350 as well. lol j/k.

I'm actually inclined to agree with DeVil on this one here, a 454 bone stock would have more then a 350 bone stock, therefore with equal mods and things you will get a more powerfull engine.

As far as VS the Chevelle, the 5.0 is a stick TV? and the Chevelle is an auto? (yes i believe that's right).

So then having nearly identical powerplants as is, with the 5.0 having some mods and a manual transmission, the Chevelle SHOULD have lost. I'm also assuming it's bone stock though. Not to mention that the 5.0 is newer then the Chevelle, i'm gonna assume better engine as a result.

If i'm wrong let me know, but this screams accuracy to me.......:sun:

DeViL beat me to it, I would pick those two anyday over a 350ci. I was not really trying to downrate either engine, they are both good, but like you said redneck, it all depends which 350, and the same can be said for the 5.0L. I should have taken that into account.

bs :p

If he got the jump and "flys ahead", then there is no way you could have gotten 3 cars at only 70mph.

I'd take the Tri-Power Pontiac (GTO) used over the 350 as well.
The 427 was one of the most beastly Chevy engines ever. They used them in the Stingray Corvettes. Would of been nice to see the 50th Anniversary Corvette with a 427 (7.0 L?) but of course that never happens...

You know what an impressive 350 is though, that LS6 the Z06 has. 405 hp and no dual overhead cams, no blower, no nothing just straight 350 ci's of power. I'm certainly impressed with that 350, it seems to run as strong as the 396's in the Chevelle as well.

350's are still powerful engines. Even in the regular Corvette thats 350 hp as well. Thats still a lot of power, but if you want to go into the older engines of the 60's and early 70's, there were simply other better engines that were made.

Now thats a race I'd have liked to have seen. Nice Kill!

Originally posted by DeViL

350's are still powerful engines. Even in the regular Corvette thats 350 hp as well. Thats still a lot of power, but if you want to go into the older engines of the 60's and early 70's, there were simply other better engines that were made.


You might be right i was thinking of the 350's that come in modern ta's with an air package you get about 350 hp.
I guess older 350 were weaker. Then terminal velocity would have had more power.

I dont doubt that you beat him TV, if you did you did.

oh, so we're talking all of Chevy's motors? including big blocks? I figured we were sticking with Small blocks. Chevy Big Blocks are a whole other field of power.

So sure the 427 (7liters) and the 454 (7.4liters) would be better engines when compared to the 350. And yes, the 427 and the 454 motors do have around the same aftermarket support as the 350, BUT the deciding factor in who has the better toy is who's wallet is thickest. Big Blocks are expensive to build, and their aftermarket supports that factor. I still say the best bang-fer-ya-buck is the 350.

For example:
For $4,050 you can get a stroker 350 that makes 538hp 495ft-lbs

For $4,169 you can get a stock 454 that makes 330hp 420ft-lbs

So as you can see big blocks are nice, cause they make good power stock. Unfortunately you're going to pay up the rear for aftermarket parts. Big Block parts are on average 30-50% more expensive than small block parts. But you can make big power with them... so its just a matter of how fast you want to go.



DeVil mentioned the Tri-Power GTO, thats Pontiac... not Chevy. Pontiac has been known to throw in the most random motors from around GM's parts been from Buick 400 motors, to Oldsmobile motors, to Chevy motors, and its own Motors. So BLAH at you and your choice :p :)

theres no way any motor has more aftermarket support than a chevy 350. Next bang for the buck motor from chevy is the 454 IMO.

and nice kill btw.

Good kill TV! got to keep those GM products in their place, well really any thing with wheels that will race, in its place.

Ok, when my dad and i originally pulled out the engine to the Z we thought "what engine should go in it now." Well naturally he chose the 350 SB, why you say, because-- Cheaper, decent stock hp, plenty of room for mods, very very reliable engine, fairly light for a V8, and it has the potential to run 9 second 1/4's(with the right mods) It came stock with 325 hp, since then we have put about $7,000 dollars into it(recently a crane cam, and lifter kit). We haven't regretted it yet. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that personally i think that the 350 SB may be one of the best engines aside from the 427 Hemi. And long live the Camaro's and T/A's(you will be missed but not forgotten)

Well the tri power is based on a chevy motor is it not? I didn't think Pontiac ever had its own division for desigining a completely different engine.

They are expensive now to build yeah but if you wanted to compare building one in 1971, it would of been better off having a 454 or a 396.

Yeah forgot to mention nice kill btw.

Originally posted by DeViL
Well the tri power is based on a chevy motor is it not? I didn't think Pontiac ever had its own division for desigining a completely different engine.

They are expensive now to build yeah but if you wanted to compare building one in 1971, it would of been better off having a 454 or a 396.

Yeah forgot to mention nice kill btw.

Yeah the Tri-power concept was first used on the Chevy Bel-Airs in the 50's... If im not mistaken.

Yes, Pontiac never reaallly had its own engine design area. But they made some cool cars.

OH, and the 71 Chevelle does exist. Me and TV were dippin the Bird and we saw it. It sounds healthy, but we're not sure if its got a 350 or not. It could be a 307. They were real popular back then in the 'base' models... Food for thought.

While we're on the chevy SB, the LT5 is a much better engine than the 350(even though it's 350CI, it's a VERY different engine).

Josh, that is a rather big limb :p , the ford Cleveland is a better motor by far.

Best example, the 400 Cleveland(not directly factory), is a 400M smallblock(based off of the cleveland), with Cleveland closed chamber 4V heads. 2.20 valves stock :eek: , and ports you can lose a beer can in!

The 351C was completely useless for the street, because it didn't have enough displacement to support the ports and valves. The 400M does however, just barely enough to make it streetable.

good knowlage Cbass :D I'm impressed, very very few know of the 400C, to my knowlage anyway

Anywhoo, Redneck beat me to it, It could be a 307, and if I see the guy again hopefully i'll pull over and talk to him. If he had a 307, it wouldnt be a suprise why I beat him

Second, yes, he did jump ahead of me, mostly everything does :hehe: but then I take it, see, my friend has a 65 mustang with a decent 289, he has 411 gears also, when we race he always takes me off the line by quite a bit, but then I always buzz by him wining the race by alot.

I launched after he did, his wheel spin slowed him down, so my launch was about when he started forward, he had a good car length on me, and I pulled, and passed him.

Is that the engine they used in some of the Firebirds? I remember them having a Formula Firebird called the Formula 400.

I don't doubt that there are better engines than the Chevy 350 SB, maybe i just got caught up in it and i neglected a few other engines. But i've never heard of the Cleveland 400, could you post some information on it and enlighten me a little more so i can have the knowledge, it would be much appreciated. And Devil i'm sorry for raggin on the XTreme, i have never done that before, you've probably put some good earned money into and i shouldn't be bagging a nice truck like that.

The Ford 5.0 has quite the strong aftermarket presence, it rivals the Chevy 350. It may be smaller in CI but it sure as hell puts out just as well. Anybody who has seen a slightly modified 5.0 should know what I am talkin about. The 350 is respectable, for a Chevy, but I'd take a 302 over it anyday.

You're new here so I'll go easy on ya'. Please do not drag up very old threads like this one. If you want to discuss it, from now on, just make a new thread.

Thank you ~ Polygon