351 is nice but again open your check book.besides cuttting the towers you have headers that are alot more expensive and ALOT of other things that have to be done and gotten for a 351 swap.300 to 350 horse isn't enough for you.get yourself a used rollor rocker engine(mid eighties and up) refresh it,along with a mild cam..(cheep) set of headman headers a good intake a 600 t0 650 carb a good tune and you'll be hitting an easy 300.its the easiest and most bang for your buck you can do in an engine swap. some other stuff i forgot that other guys will chime in like a different distributer and misc stuff.
with my 302 I dont have anything roller in it I have a double roller timing chain ok I lied about nothing roller you got me but I have standard rockers and stock heads with upgraded springs the motor has been bored .040 over and has an extreme energy comp cam and I have a generic rpc distributor an aluminum 4 brl intake and edelbrock 650 carb and headman headers to finish it all off the motor was in the car already and ran pretty good nothing radical just a good running stock motor well I threw on the first intake I could get my hands on (I paid $50 for an old iron 4brl intake) and I put in a high volume oil pump just to make sure Im getting plenty of oil ($50 I think). then I bought a cam kit with lifters and springs to handle the lift for I think $350 then the carb was around $380 and the headers were $150 then the distributor was $50 new I think the 8MM wires cost me like $45 and now my car sounds like a BEAST! I went to a local car show and every one was drooling over a super charged chevelle then I started my comet and every came over like a heard of cows at feeding time asking what do I have in there. I just kept saying a stock motor with a big cam and some cheap headers . all of this for about $1100 now going for 1000hp and I cant keep track of how much I spent I know somewhere in the range of $7k+ so lets see here benefits of a 302 no modifications to the car to make it fit other than motor mounts cheap parts easy installation room to change the spark plugs. not so goods for a 351 shock towers have to be chopped a ways back even more of a squeeze to change your plugs (ive heard) parts are more expensive than the 302 (by looking at a few parts on summit) added weight (not much but still more)
Whatever you do, go ahead and set yourself a reasonable spending limit. Factor in machine shop work, aftermarket parts, and even the shipping on the parts. Whatever estimate/budget you come up with, add $1500-$2000 more to it. That will give you your best estimate, and a little bit to work with.
X 2 on cutting the towers. It makes it a LOT easier to work on. Changin the plugs is damned near impossible with a power brake Mav. This is why I converted mine to manual brakes and steering.
true so true! we stepped well over that fine line of helping and switching the boy (guy,girl all the same) up to what we would do.but it comes from luv.lol we have all pretty much rode with a six in our cars at one time or another and even tho we think we know whats best for him because thats what we'd do,he did ask whats the best bang for my buck on the six.(which is for most of us put two more cyinders on in) i know there have been some coments on here how to better it but is there someone out there that can put down what he can do lets say with a grand, only a grand.now the gantlet is set! lets hear it for real a step by step these are the parts that are BEST for the six and lets see how we can help him.i'm not a six guy but there are six bangers in here so lets do it! lol list of parts.whiah are most important,when to put them on(in order)and lets whatch what happens to the car as he does them.
The basic ingredients for improved power in any 4 stroke are all the same regardless of number of cylinders being leveraged by the crank. Pull more air in.. mix it with more fuel.. then push/pull(scavenge) it out more efficiently = more power. From a "stocker" best buck standpoint.. this usually means: 1. Exhaust(I usually start here simply because I do all my own pipe work and it reduces pumping losses/increases efficiency everywhere in the power band). 2. Ignition(spark curve) 3. Intake flow 4. Carb(airflow and fuel curve) 5. Ignition(hotter spark intensity) 6. Cam 7. Headwork 8. Re-optimize everything listed above after the headwork. Now.. from a best buck standpoint?.. you could just swap in a BONE STOCK 302 and come out about the same price with power to spare over doing all of the above to a smaller 6.
