Quote:
Originally Posted by truckster
I would put in an L31 Vortec - in fact, that's what I'm doing. A basic Vortec 5.7 with the HT 383 cam should get you in the neighborhood of 330 HP and 400 ft/lb of torque. It's a whole lot less than 4-6k. And in my opinion the Vortec can't be beaten for reliability.
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Totally agree !!
Let's face it, the old engines were great 50 years ago, but they were junk. It's 2018, and if you want lots of power, fuel efficiency and excellent reliability then scrap that old 350 and put a late model fuel injected engine in it. If you still want more power, then put a single turbo on it. Other than nostalgic reasons, there zero reasons to still be using a carburetor. If you're determined to use the original block, at the very least put fuel injection with timing control on it, but IMHO rebuilding a 50 year old engine is throwing money in the wind.
The engine in my truck is a (LM7) 2003 5.3/4L60E that I got from a donor truck that I bought for $500. It had about 120K on it, and all I did was external gaskets and rebuild the transmission. Been driving it for 2 years and it runs like a top and gets the same mileage as the new trucks. With such a short wheel base, I wouldn't want any more power.