I just recently purchased a '71 Chevelle with a (I believe it's stock) '78 Chevy 350 in it, TH350 trans and a 12 bolt rear, not sure what gears. I'm debating on doing a 454 big block swap with a TH400 in the near future. Therefore while my 350 will do for now and since I may not keep it I'd like to beef it up some without putting too much into the engine.

Right now it has a pair of (I believe) 882 heads on it, stock intake, Q-jet carb and a pair of headers. What are some inexpensive upgrades for performance? I was thinking maybe a cheap Summit cam and a shift kit...maybe a used aluminum intake....anything else?

How about a distributor recurve kit? Cheap and effective. ;)

Heads...

Go find a set of 186s.

cam and a small stall converter. something like 2000-2200 would work good with a mild cam. even with stock intake and carb

How about a 150-shot of nitrous?

Heads wouldn't be bad if I could find a set of good heads for cheap ready to bolt on and go.

I think I heard someone say used aluminum intakes like performers and weiand action plus go for $50 on ebay.

A new summit cam with maybe a new summit converter? Not bad, but do remember I may not be keeping this engine/trans. so I don't wanna sink too much into it. Know what I mean? smile.gif

Nitrous? Maybe someday. Not today. Good idea though, just not for me. I like it "all throttle without the bottle." ;)

sounds like your best bet is save the money for the big block. every thing you buy for the car now you cant use later. unless you get something like a msd6al .but used parts are cheap for sbc if you want to go that route.

FIRST, check compression and leakdown. Let's verify that it's worth adding performance parts to this engine.

Second: Verify that the distributor curve is appropriate, and the weights and pins aren't worn through. Assure that the carb isn't shot. If it's rebuildable, (or even useable as-is) there's nothing wrong with the Q-jet for that level of performance. EGR and air pump aren't hurting your performance, so verify that they work, properly, if your engine has those items. In short, verify you don't have tune-up problems that will hamper the horsies.

How about pulling out the composition head gaskets and installing steel shim gaskets? Slightly better compression, much better quench. A pair of gaskets is about $20, and you get to inspect the heads, lifters, and cylinder walls while it's all apart. No extra labor to install a different intake, since it's off to pull the heads.

You'll want to verify the pistons are at least .015 down in the bores while the heads are off. You'll also want to verify that the existing cylinder heads will accept the steel shim gaskets. In '78, you could easily have the almost-guaranteed-to-be-cracked lightweight heads.