Q: My current restoration project is a first-gen Chevy II. I need your help to pick out the parts I need for the engine.
The engine is a 350 LZ9 from a 1984 C-30 Chevy van. The carb will be a Holley 750 cfm with vacuum secondaries, the heads will be Edelbrock Performers with 64cc chambers, and it also has a 7-quart Moroso oil pan. I want to bore the block to .030 over and use one of your rebuild kits.
What compression is more acceptable for street use with pump gas—9.73:1 or 10.9:1?
For the valve train, I’ve already purchased some Crane Gold Race Rockers (1.50 ratio). I’d like to use a Crane hydraulic roller camshaft (I’m looking at the CRN-104224, 214°/220° duration at .050 inches, 270°/276° advertised duration, .452 inch/.465 inch lift), and COMP Cams roller lifters and pushrods.
What do you think?
I have a TH-350 automatic with a stock 10-bold rear-end and 3.08 gears.
Do you have any suggestions?
A: Sounds like a cool project!
We would recommend going with the 9.73:1 compression ratio on pump gas.
Here’s the rebuild kit for that ratio and standard size crankshaft.
The camshaft you currently have picked out is for a computer-controlled engine.
Instead of that, we’d recommend the following parts list:
- Crane Hydraulic Roller Camshaft (214°/222° duration at .050 inches, 276°/284° advertised duration, .488 inch/.509 inch lift)
- Crane Hydraulic Roller Lifters
- Crane Chromoly Pushrods
- Cloyes Original Race True Roller Timing Set
We recommend stepping up to 3.73 gears in the back to complement this setup.
Good luck!
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or you could just sell me the car. that would be the best swap of all! lol!
Too much CFM carburetor… for this build, a 600 is just fine…
What kind of oil pan are you going to use?
You stated that you have a Moroso 7 quart oil pan, the unique K member of these early Novas requires a front Sump pan and special oil pick up. I do hope you have one that fits your chassis. Enjoy!
No way should you move to 3.73 gears with a TH350 unless you are driving in town only. You’ll scream at 3k RPMs at 60 MPH. 3.42 is what I found best.