Awesome, thank you! I think I am going to stay with a small block 350 in it but it will be a long while before I get to the engine.

 

If you're going to spend the bucks on a rebuild, why stay with a mouse?

It will cost you close to the same to upgrade to a rat, plus in time you'll say "Yea, it's pretty fast, but I want to go faster"

As of tomorrow, I'll be stuffing a 454 HO into mine, and I hope that the 425 HP / 500 ft.lbs toque will satisfy me for a while. Who knows, in 2 years I might be boring it out to a 468 or stroking it to a 496...hell..can probably get away with a .100 overbore and get a 505...hmmm....

 

I was thinking of the weight I would save. But for the size of the vehicle I should stop thinking about weight and concentrate on power. It is very tempting to stuff a big block in there when you look at the amount of room you have in the engine bay with the current 350. It would be kind of cool to do a twin turbo 350 though. There is definitely enough room.

 

Turbo implementations on SBC or BBC are extremely costly.
Bang for the buck, I'd go with a big block that was available in your year. 396, 402, or 454. More torque, less money than a smallblock and a hell of a lot cheaper than a turbo. Also, turbocharging on a carburated application is tricky - its been done a zillion times in the past of course, but for the average shadetree mechanic, I wouldn't touch it.

 

Thanks for the advise. I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head right now because I haven't started to do anything to it yet. I thought about switching to a modern fuel injected engine also but think I want to stay carburated just because of how much easier it is to work on.

 

Hey Cap, you should throw this in there..

 

Alright, I'm convinced I need a big block now.

 

Now that's one BIG pic!! Just curious... how much $$$ for that engine?

 

The ZZ572 runs about $8000 for the short block and runs between $11,500 to $14,000 for a turn key although I have seen them as high $18,000. It's worth it though. If you get the ZZ572/720R it puts out 720 HP and 685 Ft. Lbs. of torque. The ZZ572/720R is the race prepped version though so it doesn't run on pump gas.

 

Anyone watch overhaulin last night. GM gave Jay Leno a prototype 350 i believe that pushed out over 1000. And he put it in a toranado. It would burn out (and i mean burn out from 0 all the way to 100. and would burn out startin from 50 to 100