I have a 69 malibu with a warmed over 307(Edelbrock EPS and 600 cfm carb, Crane Energizer 274H cam, 1.5 roller rocker arms, HEI, and Dynomax cermic coated headers) and a powerglide trans with shift kit and tci breakaway converter, and a stock non-posi rear. The engine sounds pretty good (other than the annoying gear drive) but it is starting to smoke under hard acceleration and is burning a lot of oil and the performance isn't all that great. This car is used mostly for cruising but I do want to try it at the drag strip. I am thinking about upgrading to zz4 and turbo 350. What kind of performance can I expect? What would be a good converter and rear gear for this combo?

I havent looked at the horsepower and torque graph for that actual motor, so I dont know what the curve looks like. Those are supposed to be 355 horsepower and 400+ ft/lbs of torque right(cant remember off hand)? Judging by the cam specs though, if you want to keep it streetable and still peppy, a 3.42 or 3.55 gear and a 2200+ converter sould be real nice to drive yet it should run mid to high 13's with traction and a good tuneup. Personally Id use a 3.73 gear and a 2500-2800rpm converter, and it would probably be a couple tenths quicker getting pretty low into the 13's and still streetable as well. Ill try to find a little more about that motor and maybe I can come up with a little better reccomendation, but as far as I remember the cam specs(hydro roller with 208/221 at .050) Id say that this is about right and the 3.73 gear, 2500+ converter is probably the most you would want to keep in that cams powerband. Hopefully some of the others have some experience to share too.

I've never taken mine to the track, but it's very "streetable" with a double pumper/Performer RPM, set of 4.10's and a 2400 stall converter. It is not very much fun on the highway though. (3000 RPM @ 60 with a 28" tall tire) I think you'd be better off with a 3.55 or 3.73. If you can swing it, a 4.10 and an overdrive trans would be even better. ;)