Budget 350 build combo

[Sean Buick 76]

Hi guys and gals. I just wanted to share my build combo as it’s an easily repeatable combo that will work well. It should be about 360 HP give or take.

70s 4 bolt main 350 block. Hot tanked, magnifluxed, fully machined and balanced. Bored 60 over, decks squared off, along honed. Stock crank magnifluxed and machined 20/20 for bearings. Eagle rods, TRW forged pistons, vortec heads, vortec style carb intake and a Lunati fiat tappet cam. It works out to 9.4:1 compression and the cam is specced for a turbocharger. Cam specs attached:

 

[Drunkcanuk]

Nice. What were you running a carb or the TBI?
If it was the TBI, what tuning setup?
How many loonies did this run?

 

[Sean Buick 76]

Nice. What were you running a carb or the TBI?
If it was the TBI, what tuning setup?
How many loonies did this run?

I’ve never fired up the engine it’s still on the stand. I’m planning to use an aftermarket TB like a Holley or similar. I built the engine before I had a vehicle picked out for it. I spent 2 years looking for the perfect car or truck for it, and finally found my 4x4 manual trans truck. The cam wants a high stall converter or a clutch is even better.

Here is the $ breakdown:

$300 for the engine complete
Sold or tossed everything except the oil pan block and crank. The machine shop bill was about $2000. Cleaning, bored 60 over as it was already 30 over, decks machined, align honed, crank cut, rotating assembly balanced.

Other parts as best as I can remember. $400 for eagle rods new in the box but second hand, $300 for the pistons, $250 cam and lifters and timing set, $300 for the vortec heads and intake lightly used. A master rebuilt kit from northern auto I can’t remember how much $, lots of miscellaneous costs that add up but no high $ parts. Assembled myself.

Compared to my last engine built it was really low cost. For my turbo Buick I recently built a 355 cube Buick 350 Mighty Mouse with $5000 billet crank, 3.850 stroke, small 3.830 bore so it needs boost. $1000 block girdle to hold the mains in, billet rods, Diamond pistons, max effort pro ported 300 CFM alum
Heads… this cam card attached, should be fun on about 20 psi! The engine bay pic is the old engine the new one has a different intake a better carb hat. CSU blow through e-85, engine is 10:1 as e-85 works well with high compression and boost.

 

[Erik the Awful]

"Budget" engine build with $2k in machine work? I've over here twitching. Nice work, though.

 

[Schurkey]

Balanced? At least some of those TRW forged pistons are referred to as "battleship" pistons due to the weight.

 

[Sean Buick 76]

"Budget" engine build with $2k in machine work? I've over here twitching. Nice work, though.

Hey it costs what it costs, if your not machining the block properly then you end up with a piss poor engine. 20 years ago it would have been $700 for the same work. The same goes for groceries and other things it’s 60% extra.

 

[Drunkcanuk]

Hey it costs what it costs, if your not machining the block properly then you end up with a piss poor engine. 20 years ago it would have been $700 for the same work. The same goes for groceries and other things it’s 60% extra. Call it Bidonomics…

Hey now.....don't forget Uncle Justin!!! Lol

About a year ago I stopped into the shop that rebuilds cylinder heads in town. Asking if the did machine work on blocks as well, they do.
Wanted .30 bore, line bored etc, was gonna be approx $1500.

Don't forget that $2000 is in Canadian loonies, so probably $1500ish USD.

 

[Sean Buick 76]

Yes both puppets to the same people…

 

[Sean Buick 76]

Balanced? At least some of those TRW forged pistons are referred to as "battleship" pistons due to the weight.

I dont think the TRW pistons are heavier than stock but I could be wrong? I dont have the balance sheet in front of me.

I was pretty darn proud of myself for not ordering a stroker crank and billet rods and diamond pistons. Maybe I should do that anyways before I fire it up. If my TRW pistons are boat anchors then I might as well stroke it to 383 and spend some real money on it lol.

Now that I think of it my spare Buick 350 has TRW forged pistons and it’s been healthy for 20+ years under twin turbo boost making about 650 crank HP. It’s on the shelf now but it was healthy when I pulled it out last year.

The reason I went with the TRW forged pistons is because they were on my shelf already and they will not explode like hyper pistons when I’m boosting the engine with a turbo. Piston weight isn’t my concern with a low $ 350, but longevity is.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Hey it costs what it costs, if your not machining the block properly then you end up with a piss poor engine. 20 years ago it would have been $700 for the same work. The same goes for groceries and other things it’s 60% extra. Call it Bidonomics…

There's a difference between best practices and good enough. Are you actually planning on boosting the motor? The the requirements for "good enough" get closer to "best practices" and this moves further away from a "budget build". Again, I'm not knocking your work, I just think that for a street motor it's not truly a budget motor.

I built the engine in WCJr for $2000, including machine work. If the bores are good, there's no economic sense for boring the block. Hone it yourself and plug the factory rods and pistons back in. They're good quality if you don't need lightweight race stuff or forged pistons for a turbo. That's nearly a grand in savings right there. I had a destroyed piston in WCJr's engine, so I honed the bores and went with $200 Speedway Motors "claimer" rods and $115 Sealed Power flat-top pistons. The quench height is spot on (happy accident, I didn't understand quench at the time), and the compression ratio calculates to 9.7:1. Since I'm running Vortec heads, the claimer rods are perfect for an engine what will never see more than 6000 rpm. I went with claimer rods for floating piston pins. I probably should have just paid the machine shop to recondition the stock rods and stick them onto the Sealed Power pistons. That would have saved me another $100.

If the deck is straight and you don't need to adjust your quench height, it's not necessary to deck the block for a street motor. If you blow a head gasket at 200k miles, a shop won't tear down an engine before throwing a new head gasket on there, and it's not an issue. If you're going to be stuffing boost down it, decking suddenly becomes a best practice.

I polish my cranks with some oil, fine grit emery cloth, and a cargo strap. I would only turn one if it had damage.

Call it Bidonomics…

Let's keep the politics off the forum. That's part of what helps keep us all civil.