1977 chevy 350 with a 4 barrel carb.?

Question

i recently inherited a 1977 chevy truck. its got a 350 with a four barrel carb. i want to rebuild the engine and muster as much hp out of it that is possible. what kind of rebuild kits, replacement parts/and or add ons should i get

whats a good starting point?

Answer 1

How much horsepower? You could get a good rotating assembly for it.Then you could get a good heads cam and intake combination with a new carb.You might want to take it to a machine shop to have it looked over before you start to rebuild it because it is a fairly aged engine and the block may need a bit of work.Thats assuming its the original engine and if it isnt its still a good idea to have the block looked over.

Answer 2

If you are temted to go the 383 route your Chevrolet store is the the place to buy. Reason: 2 years or 24,000 miles. Summit does not do that.

The other guy snarled at your stock motor, it may be a gold mine because of the steel crankshaft and main bearing caps. You may have a four bolt set up. As for the old 348 what a joke that poor old thing was superseded buy the 409 in 1961. It was a good runner till 1964. Where are you going to find one of those poor old boat anchors.

Any good engine shop can get an excess of 500 HP out of a street 350.

78.9% of the modified sportsman motors in the northeast are Chevrolet 350's. The remainder are 467 big blocks.

Answer 3

Besides the fact that I hate the 350 motor, there is no amount of cash you can't waste on this pig.
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A 1977 350 is due for a "GM tune-up" aka a new camshaft, lifters and timing chain/gear. It comes in a skin package and is GM hottest profit maker.
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The 4-bbl is known for it's leaky floats, so a rebuild with brass floats will make a huge difference.
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Most people opt to use the old truck motor, the 348, because it had 4 bolts for each crank bearing.
This is a solution? What a crock!
Why bother?
The 350 was designed to be a cheap motor from day one at a time when GM was building real high performance motors for their high performance cars already on the road!
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If I had the money to waste on a 77 truck with a 350?
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Dump the 350!
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The 1977 pick-ups all had the universal generic GM frame.
Great! This means you can drop any big block engine you can lay your hands on!
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May I suggest a 396, mildly tuned to 375 horsepower?
Check out crashed Camaros and old Chevelles.
Hell, look around, you might find an old Corvette motor!
I've seen your truck with monster big blocks, in stock tune, blowing off everything in sight!
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Answer 4

well I would suggest a 383 stroker which involves a 400 crank and a .30 bore on the block, this engine provides a massive amount of torque and a lot of hp. but I have done research and it is almost just as expensive and a lot easier just to buy a crate motor from summit the come preassembled and all you need is the brackets for the engine, carburetor alternator and a water pump etc. summitracing.com as a wide verity of engines out there and also all the parts you need to build one your self. here is the engine that I would recommend http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=NAL%2D12499101&autoview=sku

Answer 5

Well it all depends are you looking for bolt on horsepower or motor work??? bolt on go simple get you some good exhaust and depending on how well the truck was maintained but, a good general rule especially with old chevy's replace distributor, spark plugs and spark plug wires.......now for motor work the possibilities are endless but, get you a cam and bore it out it will increase your hp and make your vehicle sound meaner than it really is.

Answer 6

There's tons of companies that offer rebuild kits for the 350. You could hit 500hp easily with enough money and knowhow.

Answer 7

It would be real easy (but not for me) to spend $10,000 to get "as much hp as possible" and not get any traction at all. Pickups are light in the rear. Horsepower is useless if you can't make traction.
That said, get a Summit catalog.

Answer 8

The sky is the limit, bro. You can turn any old school American V8 into a fire breather, the only limit is the depth of your pockets!

Answer 9

about 150 hp and 200 ft pounds tq...77 is prime smog engine,,bad cam,,bad intake and exahust flow,,,sorry,,its a smog engine