engine on a 1979 camaro

[Gaboon_viper]

I have a 1979 camaro that i reacently bought. it has a tired 305 in it now and im looking to get rid of it, but the problem is that I dont know what to replace it with. Any ideas it cant be too expencive because I have to start saving for school. Any help would be nice.

[86TATpi]

What do you want out of the car? You could find a 350 or 400 and put it in, or if you don't really care what it has the rebuild kit for a 305 isn't expensive.

[Gaboon_viper]

I would like to have somthing fast with at least above 340 hp and a 305 is just a little to small

[SMOKEY818]

go with a 350 and just build it up to make 340 or more

[Gaboon_viper]

I have a guy that was going to build a 350+ but i have acess to a 454 but ive heard that big blocks are all that great and i have never had experence with one

[Gaboon_viper]

and i dont know if it will fit

[Gaboon_viper]

I have a lot of automotive knolage but its all form tex books and about zip for experence

[SMOKEY818]

yeah they will fit. you could never go wrong with a big block but you will be paying more, just do your research on what exactly you want. the number one thing is plann everything, so you wont be waisting money

[Gaboon_viper]

thanks

[Gaboon_viper]

Does anyone out there have any info on parts that would headers ect. that would any info would be appricated

[Gaboon_viper]

fit*

[89IROC&RS]

ok well if you are looking to save money, screw the big block, they drink gas like a boozehound downs cheap wine.

you can build a smallblock 350 that will make 400hp for cheap. check out www.chevyhiperformance.com, they have an article where they built a 400hp 350 for less than $1100.00. if you cant find it, PM me and ill sum up the details for ya. or send you a link to the article. Your second gen will hold a smallblock or a bigblock pretty easily, and you dont have computers or emissions per say to worry about, so youre pretty much free to do whatever you want. but you can build a smalblock, that makes 350hp and gets over 20mpg, you just cant do that with a big block.

If you are starting from scratch, i suggest this, scour the boneyard for a solid core 350, get a set of vortec heads, a comp cams xtream energy cam, with less than .5in lift, say a .450 or .480 in lift, edelbrock spread bore vortec intake manifold, dual plane high rise, and a 750cfm quadrajet. the quadrajet is overlooked because its a bit expencive (but you might be able to find a cheap on at the junkyard or ebay) and are fairly complex. however, they offer an awesome blend of economy, driveability, and performance. with the two small primary bores, it drives like a small two barrel carb, getting great gas mileage, but when ya stomp it and those secondaries open up, they are huge and the engine really takes off. throw that together with a 9.5:1 compression, and youll be able to run 87 octain, and make around 360hp and get decent gas mileage so long as you keep out of the throttle, highway mileage would probly be close to, if not more than 20mpg.