Swapped my 72 cutlass supreme 350 rocket 4bbl with a 64 330 high compression and wanted to know of the old 350 was worth keeping. How much hp did the 72 350 rocket 4bbl come with

 

Well basically the 72 rating is LOW because that year the rating method changed to SAE NET which for a 4v 350 with Dual Exhaust is 200 and the mechanically identical 1971 350 4v is the older way rated Brake HP at 260 hp , both 4v and 8:1 compression. So yeah a 330 10:1 4v 64-67 engine is more HP by a little but ya can't beat CID for TQ and the big fail on most 350s is ultra low compression from crap rebuilder pistons.. The 72 has the last year of small chamber heads so if it is merely just build with a better piston more like the small dish 68-70 310 hp variety it would easily out power the 330 .. I used 67 #4 330 heads on a smogger piston 350 a while back with a stock cam and it ran really well. the 330 heads are 5 cc smaller chamber than a 68-72 350 head so its a good bump for a dished piston 350

 

Many, many moons ago, having had both 71 and 70 4 door Cutlasseseses simultaneously, the higher compression 70 had noticeably better throttle response and “zip.” The 71, for purpose of this discussion being equivalent to a 72 wasn’t a slug but the 70 was clear winner in the “pickup“ category.

That 72 350 is a viable engine to run as is for daily driver duty or as a building block for a higher output build.

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Alright I'm located in Washington not sure what I'm going to do with the motor it's complete with manifolds but I kept the 4bbl. It was locked up and found the 330 for cheap so I saved myself the hassle. Also the 330 was just rebuilt. It's outside on a stand now covered maybe I'll bring it in

 

Wow.

YES! The 350 is worth keeping, regardless of "hp rating". Why does that even matter? It's locked up and needs rebuilt; make as much hp as you can afford. Keep it dry!

Did you get a 64 flexplate or flywheel with the 330?

 

Basically an overbore with a piston and cam swap will easily equal or better that 330 you put in. Your 350 has huge 24cc dish pistons and a peanut cam. It should have the better N crank and can go quite a bit larger on an overbore than the 330. Both the 330 and 350 heads should flow similar as factory assembled. Keep it, there are a bunch of performance parts recently made specifically for the 350, your 330, much less is available.