Brand new to site, Hello everyone.

Couple weeks ago I got my 72 Cutlass. Bone stock rearend, tranny, 350 2brl single exhaust. Want mild bolt on upgrades. NOT WANTING TO CHANGE/ALTER PISTONS OR HEADS. Has 58k original miles and runs smooth so no rebuild. Will eventually swap to 455 but thats years in the future. Goal is daily driver including hiway just want some extra umpf and sound good. Will drive in cold. Looking for decent gas mileage but willing to sacrifice a little for some get up and go. Have done research and here is what I've found. Have not purchased anything so not locked in and open to suggestions. I know there are similar threads but they all say need specific info goals for the car. So here it is. Looking for pros cons & opinions. From what I've read so far, these are the things I'm considering...


-Gears, change 3.42, extra go but drivable
-Intake, 3711 Edl performer
-Carb, want hassle free including in cold bolt on and go. Heard Qjets are temperamental, recommended have seen Edl 1405 (heard 1406 temperamental), Holley 1805c, Holley street avenger 670, open to thoughts? If recommending carb please include needed riser to clear egr.
-Ignition, change to HEI, understand I need to change module and coil as well, any recommended combo of brand/part #s?
-Cam, I know with low compression of 72 needs to be mild, heard recommended Edl 3712, opinion on this cam? is a cam even worth money over stock?
-Headers, I know make sound better, will I get any extra performance on stock motor? Also don't want low clearance, recommended brand/part #?
-Exhaust, change to dual 2.5", most recommend flowmaster, does X vs H really matter? recommended bolt on kit brand/part #?
-Tranny, should I get a shift kit / stall converter? if so brand/part #?


Sorry if some are sick of the intake/carb/cam thread but wanted specifics for my car and goals. I appreciate any help. Thanks

 

Pro? Get an ignition off any 75ish Cutlass from the boneyard, it's drop in and with minimal tuning and work. I dont have a part number, you can probably find one off someone on this site.

Con? A well tuned points ignition will perform the exact same as an HEI. plus theyre cheap to maintain (What, 10 bucks for a set of points?)

You want bang for your buck? Find a 4Bbl manifold of someone and throw on a well tuned quadrajet carb. You'll probably get both for under 300 dollars and it'll add quite a few horses.

 

I agree, nothing wrong with points. Also, 4 bbl intake (either stock or used Performer) and Q-jet with electric choke.
A better cam will add a little and you get the added advantage of upgrading the timing chain and gears. Is it worth the cost on a good running engine? Hard to say.
3.23 or 3.42 gear will really wake it up.
I would not mess with headers but do a nice dual exhaust with "H" pipe. It will sound and run better.

 

Can you suggest an exhaust system? ILT makes a factory equivalent that's apparently identical to the original. (No H-Pipe though)

I upgrading my timing chain to an american make aluminum CLOYES set. It runs beautifully and is pretty quiet.

 

First off congrats on your purchase and good luck with it. Its a nice looking car. For the intake you can look for a #2711 (I believe) and it won't have an EGR. For a carb a well tuned quadrajet would be a good bet. Once they are set correctly they are less tempermental than a Holley would be usually. For exhaust think about duals off your manifolds if they are in good shape. Keep in mind that the driver's exhaust loops into the pass side then tehre is one outlet coming out of the pass side. If you run duals off those you'll need to run a block off plate on that inlet. For ignition consider a Pertronix or Crane conversion of your points distributor. You have the nice clean look of stock and the added reliability of electronic ignition. The gear change sounds good. Insteda of working on your Turbo 350 think about saving the money and put it towards a swap to a 200R4 overdrive unit. Everyone that has one swears its the best thing for drivability.

 

I have never bought an exhaust system for a hot-rod, just went to custom shops, it is usually cheaper.

 

Great, thanks for advice. So to some it up, bolt upgrades with a stock 350 daily driver...

-Gears change to 3.23 or 3.42
-Intake, 2711 performer
-Carb, Qjet electric choke
-Dual Exhaust 2.5" H style

-Headers, don't bother
-HEI, don't need it
-Cam, small performance bump but probably not worth the $
-Tranny, leave alone and save for 200R4 eventually

Sound about right?

 

The only thing I will comment on is the trans. If you are not doing much highway driving, go 3.42 and stay with the TH 350. Better trans, cheaper parts. I have 3.73s and 14" tires and it is fine around town. If you plan on trips or a lot of highway driving, different story.

 

I have the following setup (Yeah, i know i dont listen to my own advice..)

Edelbrock 1405 Manual Choke (bought it new off Amazon) But i have a spare, rebuilt Q-Jet in the trunk.

Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold (7111)

1975 Distributor HEI i pulled out of a boneyard (my car didnt come with a distributor) I bolted it on and it runs great.

Rear 2.73 Open Corporate Differential (i just changed the oil), new cover, runs great.

 

Yep, I'm going to be on the highway. It's not in the budget for a new tranny right now so I'll probably go with the 3.23 gears.

 

They will be fine. Do you know what is in there now?

 

I guess I don't know for sure. I just assumed with a 2brl single exhaust that it has 2.73.

 

sent you a pm on a 4 bbl intake with q jet

 

I will agree with others that if you're looking for performance improvement, you won't gain any by converting to electronic ignition at this level of tune.

I also agree that the QuadraJet is a dead-reliable, all-season carb, and you can still get 'em cheap at the junkyard.

I would say that for normal street driving, you probably wouldn't notice an improvement from an aftermarket intake manifold compared with a stock manifold.

I would agree that dual exhausts will give you a bit more power at the top end with a 4-barrel, but would not recommend any "huge" pipes. 2¼" duals are fine up to about 370 HP, so I wouldn't go overboard (see this post in this thread). I doubt you would notice any performance improvement at this level from an X-pipe versus straight duals (though you might prefer the sound one way or the other).

I wouldn't bother with headers, as they have a good chance of being a huge PIA to install, and then paying you back with a series of new minor problems, all for the sake of only a small gain at your build level.

As far as rear-end gears, I would do the math using the size tires you plan to install and see what your engine RPMs will be at your preferred highway driving speed, then try driving around at those RPMs (which probably means, "in second gear") for a while to see if the sound annoys you.

Sounds like a fun project - Keep us posted on how it goes!

- Eric

 

WOW, that tire link is amazing, Eric.

My next set of tires are going to be 225/70R14.

Right now they are 215/60R14, no wonder why my speedo is 5miles per hour off.

 

Glad I could help!

 

On the carb, I am a huge QJet fan and will only run them on my cars. However, it's an incredibly steep learning curve, and working with abused cores can be tiring. So if you don't have someone local that is good with them, I would be a bit cautious about jumping into that swamp.

For ease of setup and basic tune, the standard Edelbrocks are hard to beat. It's an ancient design that's been basically reliable for decades.
For something that is more like a qjet in terms of performance and balance, there's the new Street Demon carbs. If I wasn't neck deep into qjets I'd probably run one of those.
If nothing else, I'd consider one of those a "starter" carb, and when you're really comfortable with tuning them, you can start collecting qjets and parts and make the swap later. As I've learned, changing too many things at once, and trying to learn a bunch of things at once, is tough.

For ignition, go whatever is quicker and easier for you. Points conversion or HEI. With what you're running, there's not a big need to focus on ignition. Or, even leave in the points!

Is the engine coming out? If so, then I'd replace the timing chain. You most likely have the stock one, which had plastic teeth covering the cam gear. They fall apart, leaving a lot of slack in the chain. I highly recommend the Cloyes chains. If it's not coming out, then it's not worth messing with. Similarly, I've done cam swaps with the engine in the car (in an apartment parking lot), and it's not fun.
For the first step, I'd get the standard "RV" cam. It's a mild step up, so there's not much need to reconsider the rest of the setup. The next step is a 214/224-ish cam. I really enjoyed one like that in my 350 for years.

At this point, I would keep the TH350 and install the TransGo shift kit. Maybe get a higher stall converter - in the 1800 range.

Also agreed on just taking the car to an exhaust shop and getting a quick 2 1/4" dual system bent up and installed to the manifolds, and have them cap off the unused hole on the passenger manifold. As you get deeper into this illness you can move up to a larger system and headers.

 

Can you guys suggest a good american exhaust shop?

I drive down to the states alot. So this would be easy for me.

What would you guys estimate for a standard 2 1/4'' dual exhaust on an A-Body should cost?