quick easy-ish 350 upgrades

[spenser21]

so Ive been reading a lot of post on here in the last week or so. also a lot online as well, and it seems that the first upgrades anyone does to these 350 motors is carb, intake, headers & exhaust, then cam, and possibly heads if your budget allows. I want to work my way to this (if its right). I have an edelbrock carb (1405) on my 350 now, and next will be headers and exhaust, as the stock is rusted/hacked off right under the cab. I guess my question is, am I moving in the right direction? after that probably an intake setup (not sure which one) and then finally the cam...

what do you guys recommend? and what do your 350s have?

pictures are always cool to look at too lol, don't be afraid to show off!

 

[rich weyand]

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

The Edelbrock has its detractors, but it's fine if you tune it. Most people don't, then bitch about it. You can get a good wideband A/FR meter to do it, or I can give you some tuning numbers to try -- jets and rods and springs and such. I'll tell you right now, on a truck 350, the Eddy is running richer than a cob. You should be getting 10 mpg in town and 12 on the highway (60-ish) in a mid-70s K. If not, its the Eddy tune.

For headers, the Hooker 2453 fits the K trucks nicely. 2.25 duals is all you need for a 350. A 2" H pipe behind the transfer case helps.

A dual-plane intake manifold like the Edelbrock 2701 would work well.

Once you get into the cam, we need to talk!

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[RangRayy]

Answer your question with a question. A question you should've asked yourself in the very beginning.

What is your goal(s) for your truck? Street, sreet/strip, strip, towing? More economy or power? Once you answer that then your budget will control most of it.

I just converted my '87 to a carb with a preformer intake manifold and a set of hooker headers with 2.25 exhaust. I would've put a cam in but budget did not allow. Also I needed to set my timing with the carb setup as so I can properly break in a new cam. IMO it makes sense to throw in a new cam/lifters while putting a new intake on just saves the cost of another gasket and time.

But sounds like you have the right mindset.

 

[spenser21]

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

The Edelbrock has its detractors, but it's fine if you tune it. Most people don't, then bitch about it. You can get a good wideband A/FR meter to do it, or I can give you some tuning numbers to try -- jets and rods and springs and such. I'll tell you right now, on a truck 350, the Eddy is running richer than a cob. You should be getting 10 mpg in town and 12 on the highway (60-ish) in a mid-70s K. If not, its the Eddy tune.

For headers, the Hooker 2453 fits the K trucks nicely. 2.25 duals is all you need for a 350. A 2" H pipe behind the transfer case helps.

A dual-plane intake manifold like the Edelbrock 2701 would work well.

Once you get into the cam, we need to talk!

You must be registered for see images attach

if I can work with the edelbrock then id be happy. just saves me another 300-400 bucks for the other stuff. id be interested in what tuning numbers you have for it as well!!! keep in mind this is the first motor im actually getting "inside". question about the exhaust though... mine was hacked off right under the cab so im not sure what was there, but is there a purpose to the H pipe, or does a guy just run duals all the way back?

 

[spenser21]

Answer your question with a question. A question you should've asked yourself in the very beginning.

What is your goal(s) for your truck? Street, sreet/strip, strip, towing? More economy or power? Once you answer that then your budget will control most of it.

I just converted my '87 to a carb with a preformer intake manifold and a set of hooker headers with 2.25 exhaust. I would've put a cam in but budget did not allow. Also I needed to set my timing with the carb setup as so I can properly break in a new cam. IMO it makes sense to throw in a new cam/lifters while putting a new intake on just saves the cost of another gasket and time.

But sounds like you have the right mindset.

well I guess it will best fit into the street class. I say I will take her off road, but maybe only a couple times in all reality. yes id like to tow stuff, but all reality tells me I never will. so if I make a decent, fast, stop light to stop light truck, ill be happy and could probably get by using it for the "other" stuff my mind says ill do.

 

[spenser21]

Yup, that pretty much sums it up.

The Edelbrock has its detractors, but it's fine if you tune it. Most people don't, then bitch about it. You can get a good wideband A/FR meter to do it, or I can give you some tuning numbers to try -- jets and rods and springs and such. I'll tell you right now, on a truck 350, the Eddy is running richer than a cob. You should be getting 10 mpg in town and 12 on the highway (60-ish) in a mid-70s K. If not, its the Eddy tune.

For headers, the Hooker 2453 fits the K trucks nicely. 2.25 duals is all you need for a 350. A 2" H pipe behind the transfer case helps.

A dual-plane intake manifold like the Edelbrock 2701 would work well.

Once you get into the cam, we need to talk!

You must be registered for see images attach

also... damn rich...that engine bay looks good!!!

 

[RangRayy]

Gears will help with that too. Advice I've been given is put the H pipe as close to the engine as you can. Believe Rich said right behind the transfer case and you should be good. I have the 2452 headers which are the 2wd version of 2453. I wish though I would've gotten something different as far as headers. They are a weird tubing design and disrupt everything. My #5 wire was getting burned by being near the tube.

 

[spenser21]

Gears will help with that too. Advice I've been given is put the H pipe as close to the engine as you can. Believe Rich said right behind the transfer case and you should be good. I have the 2452 headers which are the 2wd version of 2453. I wish though I would've gotten something different as far as headers. They are a weird tubing design and disrupt everything. My #5 wire was getting burned by being near the tube.

I didn't even think about gears... ya I guess that would make a pretty big difference. my truck has a 4in lift with 33s on it. nothing huge but definitely wouldn't hurt to have a little more power to get going. I wouldn't even know where to start with gears.

 

[RangRayy]

Rich can help you out with that.

 

[rich weyand]

OK, several things.

With the Hooker headers, they routed the pipe to get a better tune from them, without going full-boat. This makes the #5 and #6 wire routing a little weird. The trick is to use wire holders, and to exit the #5 and #6 wires *first* and loop them forward, then exit the #7 and #8 wires from where you think the #5 and #6 would go, and loop them back. So in this picture, from the outside in, the wires are #6, #8, #4, #2.

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The H-pipe on a K truck is hard to do ahead of the transfer case. The picture shows mine. The issue is that the firing order on a V-8 is not L-R-L-R-L-R-L-R; it's L-R-R-L-R-L-L-R. Those two pulses, one after the other on the same side, mean that #4 and #7 cylinders exhaust into a higher pressure than the others. The H-pipe relieves that pressure to the other pipe, which is currently low pressure. There's no actual flow: the air in the H-pipe just moves back and forth. This results in somewhat greater low-end torque. The H-pipe in these pics bends down around the drive shaft, just behind the parking brake cable, under the transfer case tail cone

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Your carb tuning changes are here:
http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=32168.msg272122#msg272122

Primaries: jets .092 (#1425), rods .062 x .052 (#1441); secondaries: stock; step-up springs: 8# (comes with #1464). You will also need to replace the airhorn gasket (qty 5 is #1499) when you change the primary jets. Adjust the float bowls while you are in there, as they will be wrong.

As for the engine bay, Aw, shucks. Only change from this pic right now is a straight radiator house that gets rid of the dog-leg original. I can do that because I got rid of the shroud and the propeller on the front of the engine. I went to an electric fan, and love it. Quicker spool-up on the engine, and better heat in the cab.

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I also block the grill in the winter with a fender protector. Otherwise it runs cold all the time and mileage sucks.

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[rich weyand]

As for gears, do you know what you have? Check the RPO card in the glove box.

 

[spenser21]

ill check it out tonight after work and get back to you on the gears. I have no idea whats under there lol

 

[rich weyand]

Or you could tell me what rpm you are running at 60, if you have a tach.

 

[spenser21]

Or you could tell me what rpm you are running at 60, if you have a tach.

Ha not that fancy yet...yet lol

 

[silverscottsk10]

I like this thread [emoji106]
Gives me ideas for when I start getting my truck built


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