Well recently I was gifted a 69 Supreme with the 350, the motor has around 74000 miles on it and I just wanted some insight on how to go about rebuilding this or if it’s worth buying a 455 and swapping it? There is a guy in my city with an old 455 and the tranny from a 69 that he is selling for $1000 is that more worth buying and rebuilding?


My end goal with this car is to have a nice street car that I can occasionally take to Friday night street legal at my local drag strip. I’m new to muscle cars so I figured this would be a great place to start! Thanks for the time

 

The 350 is a capable motor that is harder to screw up than a 455 build What are your Horsepower and Torque goals? Budget?

 

Determine the condition of your current engine before diving into a rebuild on a 74K motor, it may need very little work. Start with a leak down test and an oil pressure test.

Do you know if it was originally a factory 4 BBL car? You may already have a HC motor with #5 heads sitting on steel shim head gaskets made of unobtainium.

 

What transmission ? What rear end ratio ? Decide on rebuilding the engine later. Plenty can be done with what you have.

 

Okay this is good to know! My father in law knows a lot more about this machine than I do. I don’t know the capabilities of this motor but i know I need to do a transmission swap as this only has the 3 speed in it. Is it possible to see around or over 400 hp and 500 ft/lbs torque? Budget doesn’t overly bug me as the sentimental value and reasoning for building it far out weigh the cost

 

Yes, very doable especially with a stroker assembly from Cutlassefi in your 350. Edelbrock is releasing a small chamber aluminum head that Cutlassefi has tested. Over 400 Hp and 450+ ft/lbs with the stock stroke iron crank and just over 9 to 1 compression with 357.53 ci.