I`m going to do a head and cam swap on the pretty stock 350 in my chevelle and I`m just looking for your opinions or thoughts. This is just to get me by untill I can get another motor built. also, this is not my daily driver. I`m not worried about gas mileage or freeway rpm`s. Here`s what I got going,

stock 350, unknown mileage but runs good but lazy. open chamber heads but don`t know what pistons are in it.

I`m installing stock 1.94 valve 186 castings with a fresh valvejob,seals and new springs. I`m going to use .015 steel shim head gaskets.

Isky 280 mega hyd cam.

"knock off" RPM airgap intake with a 625 BG road demon.

Car already has 1 3/4" headers and complete MSD ignition with a pro billet dist. and 6al box.

I`m swapping from 3.31 gears to 4.11 gears.

I`m going to swap the B&M torkmaster 2000 for a cheap vega converter. Worked good for me in the past.

I`ve got 28" tires and it does have a posi and the rear suspension is Jegster lift bars and Jegster adjustable uppers.

I`m just curious what you guys think. It`s not the best combo but it should get me by. By the way, I already have all of the parts except for the converter.

boy I thought someone would nail me for wanting to run a vega converter.

I say go for it! I did pretty much the same thing with the 350 that came in my chevelle. Unknown mileage (it was high.....)

Stock 487X heads 2.02/1.60 valves, and springs to match the XE284 cam.
Stock flat top pistons, which gave me about 8.5:1 comp with the 76cc heads, and .015 shim gaskets.
Same MSD ignition you have (Mostly for rev limiter, set at 6600 rpm)
RPM intake, and holley 650dp.
1 5/8" headers, and flowmaster 2 1/2" exh.
255/60-15 BFG's, and a 4.66 rear gear, close ratio muncie.
I also used SSM liftbars and adjustable uppers (same setup as you, just different brand name)

While it was over cammed, and under compression, and WELL worn.... it still ran pretty good, and got me a best of 13.5 @ 104mph. Could have been better, if I had better tires.

I say, have fun with what you've got. I took pride in making my worn out mismatched combo run as good as I could. Plus, being low-buck means failures/problems don't sting as much.... :)

Thanks Chris. yeah our combos are pretty close. If I run a 13.99 I`ll be happy. I don`t expect to run that good but I`m not happy with the way it runs now so I`m changing stuff. Like I said, I already have everything except the converter. At the very least I should be able to spin the tires which it can`t do now. Thanks again.

Don't be too dissapointed if you have a little trouble spinning the tires from a dead stop..... with the big cam and low compression, it will be a bit soggy at low rpms. Mine had nothing below 2500-3000 rpm. Above that and it would pull pretty hard though. I guess the manual trans and 4.66 gear helped a lot there.

With your tall 28" tires, a little less gear, and a tight-ish (?) convertor, you might be a little dissapointed with the off idle acceleration. Once it gets up into it's powerband though, watch out....... :D

I don`t think the converter is going to be that tight. The last vega converter I used got 3k footbrake and would flash to 4k. The compression should`nt be too low either, closed chamber heads with a steel shim head gasket. even if the motor has dished pistons it should be close to 9.5 to 1. I`m going to run it with the tires I have now since they look pretty new but when they are worn out I`m going to a shorter tire.

I`m hoping to get the front suspension back on in a couple weeks so I can start doing the motor work and have my buddy set up my gears. i`ll keep everyone posted. Thanks.