Need a little advice

[scott in cincy]

Gents,
I'm in the process of fixing up a '96 K1500 with a 350 to drive daily. I'm done with brakes, steering, and suspension, so I am turning to power mods.

I'm thinking bolt-ons as I have to deal with smog testing in Nashville. My goals are to have 250- 300 whp and pass smog.

I have a rebuilt 350 with stock internals and dart heads. I'm thinking of the following:

*Upgrade the tappet to MPFI
*Magnaflow manifold back exhaust including new cats.
*tune

Are there any other mods I should be considering? From reading a lot on here, it looks like intake mods are not that helpful and I have to be careful on smog. With 150k miles on the truck, should I upgrade the distributor?

Open to other suggestions, and thanks!

 

[SkyHighColorado]

goals not possible if you need to pass smog.

 

[scott in cincy]

goals not possible if you need to pass smog.

That's ok, what can I expect?

 

[SkyHighColorado]

I'm honestly not that sure about the vortec engines and potential with emissions. I would look into a set of headers, the high flow cat and cat back. Putting a nice cam in would probably help with a good tune, but I don't know how emissions would go with that. Here in Colorado they are getting really strict on everything. My truck is relatively stock when it comes to the engine and I have a hard time passing. I think all you have planned already is a good start, but as far as rwhp goes its hard to hit 300 without a power adder or an aggressive build. Maybe that's just because I'm at high altitude

 

[slowburb]

The MPFI won't help with performance all that much...just driveability and idle quality, unless your poppet spider is toast.

The OEM distributor puts out enough spark for your engine, provided it is up to spec. Same with coil, wires, and plugs.

Headers and exhaust will help, as will a tune. You could get close to the lower end of your stated goal with these upgrades.