Inexpensive 350 Build

[vortecpro]

Honestly there's no secrets. A while back I bought the drive line out of a D/SA Nova for the transmission, planned to sell the engine at a later date. I thought I was going to get a nice trans out of the deal, well it works fine except the reverse clutches are gone, no reverse, but its far from what I could have in there, in fact I know there's 6.70s with the right trans, remember I've got 4 passes on this combo, it should get quicker, I believe there's some in the carb. So to answer your question, I really wanted 98 MPH but got 97.80, I wanted 1.43-1.42 but got 1.45, I wanted 6.8s and got that on the 3rd pass, so all in all I was happy, except the 60 foot. My battery went bad and that cut my tuning short, I think I could have gotten the 98 MPH, but a 1.42 no, I was up to 24.5 PSI in the rear tires when the battery went bad. Shock setting need to be worked with when the engine is dialed in.

[Dave B]

We have been letting our 16 yr old neighbor kid use our old 68 camaro. 358 with old 041 heads and dual plane and 780 vac carb. This camaro has old slapper bars. Its flat top e15 pump gas deal. Almost idenical cam but crower. Do have 1.65 int rockers and 1.6 ex. Et 28" street tires. He run 6.79 -100.21 in 900 ft air last fall 3218 lbs .His 60 was only 1.48. He is putting 592 fast burn alum heads on and taking 2.10 low gear 400 out and doing 350 turbo. Has 4.88 rear gears.Old 12 bolt posi. Going to do spool. We are hoping with south side machine bars under it to see 1.39-140 60s . Hope to get in 6.60 range. He will get about 2 shots at it in spring air before track and temps go stupid. So i def think you will see improvements. Its good to see young kids that still wanna learn race tech

[skinny z]

Honestly there's no secrets.

I'm an amateur racer with a mid 80's Camaro very similar to your son's. At least in appearance.
We've the small overall 1st gear ratio (1st + rear gear) at about 11.5:1. Same slicks. Same engine output (not dynoed but but most accounts am in the 450 HP range).
My best 60' was 1.7 flat. Foot braking to about 2400 RPM before I push myself through the beams.
I'd be happy with 1.6 this year but it seems that it could and should be much better.
Race weight is 3500 lbs though.
You say no secrets but somewhere in there is better than 2/10ths in the 60'.
I need to find that. I hope a better converter and new slicks with help.
Thanks for posting your build and results.
It gives me a reasonable but probably unachievable target.
Still watching with interest.

[Dave B]

like i told my neighbor kid ,in 3 passes you should have a good looking sparkplug.
Then quit dicking with engine. 90 percent of guys mess with rear of car when front isnt free or right. Good trans and converter will outshine anyones tune ability. Getting proper frame rake and pinion angle on low power stuff is huge too. I would say 80 percent of cars i see on scales are all screwed up too. Great place to start and learn. I would say almost same percent of cars are way over sprung also

[skinny z]

like i told my neighbor kid ,in 3 passes you should have a good looking sparkplug.
Then quit dicking with engine. 90 percent of guys mess with rear of car when front isnt free or right. Good trans and converter will outshine anyones tune ability. Getting proper frame rake and pinion angle on low power stuff is huge too. I would say 80 percent of cars i see on scales are all screwed up too. Great place to start and learn. I would say almost same percent of cars are way over sprung also

I'm likely all of the above.
This is the latest iteration of a street car I've raced off and on for twenty years. While I can't say I'll convert it to a race specific vehicle, more performance each time out is always a good motivator.
The two Camaros posted above (Dave B and vortec's) set a pretty high bar in comparison.
But like I said, it's motivational.

[vortecpro]

We have been letting our 16 yr old neighbor kid use our old 68 camaro. 358 with old 041 heads and dual plane and 780 vac carb. This camaro has old slapper bars. Its flat top e15 pump gas deal. Almost idenical cam but crower. Do have 1.65 int rockers and 1.6 ex. Et 28" street tires. He run 6.79 -100.21 in 900 ft air last fall 3218 lbs .His 60 was only 1.48. He is putting 592 fast burn alum heads on and taking 2.10 low gear 400 out and doing 350 turbo. Has 4.88 rear gears.Old 12 bolt posi. Going to do spool. We are hoping with south side machine bars under it to see 1.39-140 60s . Hope to get in 6.60 range. He will get about 2 shots at it in spring air before track and temps go stupid. So i def think you will see improvements. Its good to see young kids that still wanna learn race tech

NICE!

[vortecpro]

Honestly there's no secrets.

I'm an amateur racer with a mid 80's Camaro very similar to your son's. At least in appearance.
We've the small overall 1st gear ratio (1st + rear gear) at about 11.5:1. Same slicks. Same engine output (not dynoed but but most accounts am in the 450 HP range).
My best 60' was 1.7 flat. Foot braking to about 2400 RPM before I push myself through the beams.
I'd be happy with 1.6 this year but it seems that it could and should be much better.
Race weight is 3500 lbs though.
You say no secrets but somewhere in there is better than 2/10ths in the 60'.
I need to find that. I hope a better converter and new slicks with help.
Thanks for posting your build and results.
It gives me a reasonable but probably unachievable target.
Still watching with interest.

Are you running a 700R4?

[vortecpro]

like i told my neighbor kid ,in 3 passes you should have a good looking sparkplug.
Then quit dicking with engine. 90 percent of guys mess with rear of car when front isnt free or right. Good trans and converter will outshine anyones tune ability. Getting proper frame rake and pinion angle on low power stuff is huge too. I would say 80 percent of cars i see on scales are all screwed up too. Great place to start and learn. I would say almost same percent of cars are way over sprung also

Post a picture of it, I want to see it.

[skinny z]

Honestly there's no secrets.

I'm an amateur racer with a mid 80's Camaro very similar to your son's. At least in appearance.
We've the small overall 1st gear ratio (1st + rear gear) at about 11.5:1. Same slicks. Same engine output (not dynoed but but most accounts am in the 450 HP range).
My best 60' was 1.7 flat. Foot braking to about 2400 RPM before I push myself through the beams.
I'd be happy with 1.6 this year but it seems that it could and should be much better.
Race weight is 3500 lbs though.
You say no secrets but somewhere in there is better than 2/10ths in the 60'.
I need to find that. I hope a better converter and new slicks with help.
Thanks for posting your build and results.
It gives me a reasonable but probably unachievable target.
Still watching with interest.

Are you running a 700R4?

Yes sir.
As a cruiser ( maybe now a former cruiser) I like my overdrive and lockup converter.
I think I see where this might be going though if any of our previous conversations are anything to go by. (And thanks for those conversations too!).

[vortecpro]

I cruise my truck with 5.13 gears and a T350 with 8 inch converter every day almost, you're only hurting yourself. There is no secrets, but there is mindsets.

[skinny z]

While I could on about that cruise thing, it's all in the definition (as I cruise mine for 5000 miles at a time often enough!) it would kill your thread on the build side.
That said, I see what it takes to be quicker.

What's next for the (L98) Camaro?

[6.50camaro]

Boy, I'm dying to get to the track for the first time this year. Rained out the last two Saturdays. I will update my Home ported 441 head thread as soon as I get some results from winter changes

[vortecpro]

Boy, I'm dying to get to the track for the first time this year. Rained out the last two Saturdays. I will update my Home ported 441 head thread as soon as I get some results from winter changes

Please do

[vortecpro]

While I could on about that cruise thing, it's all in the definition (as I cruise mine for 5000 miles at a time often enough!) it would kill your thread on the build side.
That said, I see what it takes to be quicker.

What's next for the (L98) Camaro?

Well I'd like to get it dialed in, a battery ended my testing, 4 runs. But really what I want to do is make a transmission change, I will never get the car to leave with the current trans.

[skinny z]

I will never get the car to leave with the current trans.

That sir, is a very telling statement.