The "Other" 350s......Again....

Had some people ask me to re-run an older post about hot-rodding the "Other" non-Chevrolet 350s-i.e. Buick, Olds, and Pontiac. Don't know how to re-upload it, and for those of you who don't want to search through 3 years of posts for it, I'll re-hash it here. The reason this information is relevant is from 1968-1980 GM produced millions of Pontiac Tempests, LeMans, Firebird and Ventura models, as well as Olds Cutlasses and Omegas, and Buick Skylarks, Regals, and Centurys. These cars can be purchased for many thousands of dollars less than their big-block brothers-i.e.-GTOs, Trans-Am and Formula 400 / 455s, Cutlass 442s, and GS400 and 455 Skylark / Century / Regal models. If you have or want to buy one of these cars and the price is reasonable, by all means do it. They make great drivers, and the obvious way to infuse big power is to swap in one of the larger 400 or 455 inch engines. However-if you don't need or want 500 hp-( You'll definitely need the larger engine for that ) or just want a little more oomph while your building that killer big-block, heres some good advice, broken down by each line. # 1. Pontiac. Since Pontiacs are externally identical from a 326 to a 455, swapping in a larger engine-i.e.-400-428-455 is literally a bolt-in, most Pontiac enthusiasts go this route. However, if you have a Firebird, LeMans or Ventura with a 350-you can still have some fun for low bucks. The limiting factor on a 350 Pontiac is it's a small-bore / long stroke design. This causes two problems. One-the big-valve heads needed to make SERIOUS power-can't be used-the valves will hit the block. Two-the heavy, long stroke crank and rods ( the same as a 400 ) make the bottom-end unreliable at speeds much over 5,500 rpm. What you need to do is accentuate what Pontiac did to start with-make big torque at low rpm. The largest improvement you can make on these cars is intake, exhaust and gearing. Most had 2bbl carbs and single exhaust. Switching to a factory or aftermarket 4bbl carb and intake-( the manifolds off a 400-455 will fit ) and adding dual exhaust either with or without headers will make a huge improvement. Since most of these cars were automatics, a shift kit from  B&M or TransGo will work wonders, as will swapping the 2.73 or 3.08 gears for some 3.42s or 3.55s. These minor changes will make people THINK you swapped in a 400. A mild cam-like the Edelbrock Performer grind or the Crane Blueprint "068" cam will infuse a ton of mid-range torque. A setup like this-( depending on whether or not you changed the cam ) will give between 290 and 340 hp, and between 350 and 400 lbs ft of torque. That's enough soup that you can smoke the tires at will and you won't have to take crap from little boys in Honda Civic Sis or soccer moms in V8 Cherokees when leaving a stoplight, or just give you a fun, reliable driver until you get that killer 455 built. # 2. Olds 350. From an engineering standpoint this is really the only one of the non-Chevy 350s that's worth hot-rodding. It's an oversquare design-large bore / small stroke, and their was a factory high-performance version-the vaunted "W31" that was grossly under-rated at 325 hp. Do the math- the "standard" 350 was rated at 310 hp. The "W31" with bigger-valve heads, special exhaust manifolds, an aluminum high-rise intake, and hot cam with 308 duration and .474 lift only made 15 more hp than the one in mom's Vista Cruiser wagon?  Riiight. That's why they were only available with a 4-speed and 3.90:1 or 4.33:1 gears! The Olds 350 engines respond well to traditional hot rod tricks-headers, cam, carb and intake, etc, and there's decent aftermarket support-Edelbrock intakes, Lunati cams, Hooker Headers all make performance parts for these engines. You can use 455 heads on a 350-but you'll need special pistons, an electric fuel pump, and the only intake you can use is a special Mondello Performance port-matched Performer RPM. There's other people that espouse getting a 350 Diesel block and using a stroker crank to get 440 inches, but to both of those scenarios I have to ask- "If you have THAT much money and need to go THAT fast, why aren't you building a 455 instead of a 350?  # 3. 350 Buick. Sadly-there's not much aftermarket support for these engines. The reason is-unlike Chevrolet and Olds- that had performance oriented 350 models-there was never a factory Buick 350 high performance version, and unlike Pontiacs-( where almost everything interchanges from a 326 to a 455 ) with the Buicks nothing interchanges with it's 400-430-455 inch cousins. I mean Edelbrock doesn't even offer a Performer intake for 350 Buicks, even though they offer them for 231 V6s and the larger 400-430-455 V8s! A company called T/A performance ( why they specialize in Buick parts and not Pontiacs with that name is beyond me ) offers some hi-po Buick parts but most of those are geared to the big-blocks. Ditto for Kenne-Bell-most of their stuff is for GS455 or Grand National racers. However-swapping the 2bbl carb and intake for a 4bbl one, and adding dual exhaust will help immensely. As will a shift kit for the TH350 and swapping the 2.56:1 or 2.73:1 gears for some 3.23s or 3.42s. Don't waste your time or money buying 3.73 or 4.11 gears; these engines have neither the oiling system or the valvetrain to make power much over 5,000 rpm anyway. If you have a '60's or '70s Skylark or Regal / Century and want to go real fast your only choices are build a 455 or ( Gasp! ) swap in a Chevy. I know it sucks, but that's the lay of the land. Hope this helps out. Mastermind