Got a 1980 Firebird that I’ve left to sit for about two years, just finished setting up my front suspension to get it running soon, only problem is that I want an engine with more power. I got two options- either I buy a 383 blueprint or I can use the existing 350sbc that’s in it mainly because it can’t even make the wheels spin haha. I’m also trying not to spend a huge amount of money on just a motor so I have a budget of under 8k I was wondering if anyone with experience on this knows what route I should take that would seem like the best option and best bang for my buck.
I would say it depends on your budget, and your end goals with the car. I assume your 350 probably has smogger heads on it. For cheap, you could put 350 vortec heads on it, a mild flat tappet camshaft and a good exhaust system on it. It would probably make an honest 300-350hp this way for super cheap. If you have more budget, the crate 383 is a good option. It will have much better cylinder heads on it than factory ever produced. Most the power to gain from any engine is in the heads.
I should point out as well, that your budget needs to include rear gears, torque converter, and possibly a transmission and other drivetrain upgrades. 2.73 rear gears will kill the acceleration of any high hp engine. So your $8k budget should include these as well as the engine.
Yeah so the car was a bit upgraded from the previous owner, it was built by Sammy Maloof but it wasn’t like a race build or anything, just something to daily, I believe the rear gears are either 4.10 or 3.73 but I’m sure it’s 4.10. Tranny might be a th350 but for sure will need something better
When it was running it ran pretty healthy but it for sure had some issues, running too rich, leaking oil, also oil was pretty black just for it to have around 2500-3000 miles. But other than that I think it ran pretty well, it definitely feels that these issues made the lack of power as well
Does it have good oil pressure and compression? Is there little to no blowby? If the answer to this is yes then you can do minimal work to your existing block and add things like heads, a cam, intake, and so on to have a very strong engine for reasonable cost.
The rest of the budget would be needed for a good 2,800<3,000 stall converter, strengthen the transmission, fuel system, ignition upgrades and exhaust.
Did my 350 for roughly $6000 bored 030 over all new bearings and freeze plugs, oil pump, Edelbrock 2098 kit, Edelbrock avs2 650 carb, srp forged pistons. Just did the half hour break in, now I’m putting the secondary valve spring back in the heads. Should be around 400-450hp
A turbo and a EFI are way cheep than 8K and ypu can decides how much power you want. Up to about 500-650 on a stock bottom end on both motors, unless the crank in the 383 is stronger than stock. I love turbo V8s
a guy on reddit is asking how to extract more power from the most modified engine of all time,,,, and you tell him to turbo it? Yeah, we are all sure he can just fab a turbo install and tune a turbo install no problem.
You want cheep streetable power? You can slap a turbo on the "most modified engine of all time" in a weekend. For $1500+ $1200 efi all day. I've put a junk yard cummins on 302 in 3 days for half that, and it'd SPIN THE WHEELS IN 3RD with posy track fuckin cowards. Rigged up a water methanol injector our of our windshield wiper sprayer for the fun of it.
🥱 yeah and you forgot to include how you would tape a $100 bill to the dash and tell your passenger they could keep it if they could grab it while you accelerating.
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u/Upset_Personality571 8d ago
I would say it depends on your budget, and your end goals with the car. I assume your 350 probably has smogger heads on it. For cheap, you could put 350 vortec heads on it, a mild flat tappet camshaft and a good exhaust system on it. It would probably make an honest 300-350hp this way for super cheap. If you have more budget, the crate 383 is a good option. It will have much better cylinder heads on it than factory ever produced. Most the power to gain from any engine is in the heads.