Has anyone purchased the top end kits from olds rocket parts? They have a head, cam, intake kit thelats suppose to be a big upgrade for our 350's. I'm just looking to increase the performance on my 72. I'd like to get as close to 300hp as possible without a full rebuild.

 

Keep in mind that your 350 has pistons with HUGE 24 cc dishes for a whopping 8.5:1 advertised compression ratio (in reality closer to 8.0:1). With that low compression ratio it’s easy to overcam the engine. You have to stay conservative on the cam duration to keep from killing the low RPM torque.

 

In addition in order to get a decent comp ratio you’d need to cut those heads to well under 60cc’s from the 82 or so they are out of the box.
Add to that the cams he offers are 50 year old designs, there are better ones out there.

 

yes I know, I talked to comp cams this week about that. Olds rocket parts has several cams, but their top end kit looks pretty promising. I was thinking the 69cc heads, and changing to a better cam than he recommended because of the pistons.

 

didn't realize that. Maybe I should just build my own kit. Either his heads or speedmaster , then cam and edelbrock intake. I plan on running the holley sniper.

 

He’s not an engine builder and all he does is look in a book. He’s never had ANY of these combinations on a Dyno so he’s only guessing at what will work best.
And again, you’ll need way less than 69cc heads to get any real compression out of it.

 

after I found his website, I've been looking for videos, dyno numbers, and reviews. Can't find anything, that's why I asked on here cause that makes me a little worried. I just want to give her a bump in power cause right now, she's gutless. She's just a cruiser and doesn't even chirp a tire.lol

 

His heads ARE Speedmasters. I’d seriously consider changing the springs on them as well. The ones they come with are junk.

 

that's nice to know. The cam comp told me to run is the 206/212 because of the low compression. Maybe heads, this cam, intake, sniper efi, and headers I could maybe get 250+hp????? Engine only has 90k on it and doesn't use a drop of oil.

 

Or just drop a stock 455 in it and call it a day.

 

I'm trying to keep the original engine in her. She runs great, just lacking the ponies. If this engine comes out, it will be for a ls swap. Not another carb engine.

 

I thought you WERE putting an LS in it.

 

I was going to do full drivetrain, suspension, and brakes at same time. Until I saw how much it was going to be.lol part of me wants to keep her original, but other side of me wants to make her perform like a muscle car she is.lol ls swap is inevitable, I was just trying to get her some more hp to be enjoyable until then. I'm buying parts as I can for the swap for maybe next spring. I wanna do the hotrod power tour next year.

 

The rear gear is either a 2.56 or maybe a 2.73. Change that to even just a 3.23 and you’ll see a noticeable difference.
On top of that grab an RPM intake, small cam, a PROPERLY JETTED 750 carb, and of course headers. You’ll hit your goal.

 

I can't do gears with a th350. At 50 I'm already pulling 2k rpm with 2.73 gears. Anything under 70-75 out here you're getting ran over. I don't want to hurt this engine just trying to keep up.

 

Best bang for your buck right there.

You may have different gears than you think. In my car, I'm doing about 2000 RPM at 60 MPH and it has 3.08s.

 

Phil,
Here is my take on it. If you really are not going to do anything to the bottom end I think you would be better off either having someone do your factory heads over or buy another set already done.

As romantic as aluminum heads sound I am pretty sure that all of the current offerings have a lot bigger combustion chamber than your present heads. That will reduce the compression ration way down and kill performance.

If you stick with the factory heads you can pick a cam that is better matched to them and pick up some performance. That along with a manifold and I think you will be happy with it.

Also Like Mark said . . . . either swap in a little more gear or maybe a little higher stall speed converter. The converter will give you a stronger off the line feel without really affecting highway rpm much at all.

 

Meh. My car has 3.23 rear gears and when it had short 245-60-14 tires the engine turned 3400 RPM at 70-ish highway speeds. 2000 RPM is nothing - mine turns that on 45 MPH surface streets going to work and back.

The factory cam is very, very small - .400” lift and 186* duration. Install a cam with around 204* duration and you’ll see a huge jump in power. Add a higher RPM converter and better rear gears and it will feel like a completely different engine. Over the years my car has had 2.56, 3.08, 3.23, and 3.55 gears, and with each swap it felt like the engine had 50 more horsepower..

 

If you can find a good used 2004R, it is an easy swap and the best of both worlds. Add a 2000ish stall, big Transgo kit and stator, if worn for more durability. Add 3.42, 3.55 or 3.73 gears and posi, that alone will make a huge difference. As Mark said, rpm intake, tuned carb, small cam, headers and duals. The stock 1600 stall and 2 something gears make these cars slow off the line.

 

ok, even though I consider myself a car guy, I've never heard of a 200R4 trans. after some research, I think that will be the game changer. I was looking at torque converters, but they're all over the place. 2k-2500, 2200-2800, 2500 flash stall. I got lost pretty quick with all the differences. also guys talking about converter lockup, installing toggle switches, others doing something else, before I pull the plug and order a new trans, I guess I need to do a lot more research, but since she's going for a diff rebuild in 3 weeks, I can do a gear swap then.

 

Odd, because they were everywhere from 1981-90 and a very popular muscle car retrofit since then. With that 2.74 first gear you'll get more dig even if you don't change the diff gears, but who knows what you'll do with the potential 140 MPH+ top speed. If you do change your rear end gears you can go as numerically high as a 3.73 and still experience significantly reduced highway RPM. Just leave enough money in the budget for new rear tires every six months.

Only caveat is, the 200-4R may need a little reinforcement to survive behind a high-torque/high HP engine build. Those '80s era motors it originally came behind weren't exactly ground-pounders.

 

I grew up during the 700r4 craze. I was born in 83.lol with this new info, I think 3.73's would be perfect and I still plan on doing just cam, intake, headers, and sniper efi. I'll leave the heads alone since the cost outweighs the benefit. I just want a nice peppy driver. I'm not looking to win races, just have fun.

 

The 2004R bolts right in place of the TH350, a 700R4 does not. All that is needed is the crossmember moved back to the TH400 location and emergency brake cables for a car that came factory with a BBO and TH400 transmission. Yes, something like the big Transgo shift kit, trans cooler and possibly a deeper pan with a bottom feed filter should be considered. Part of the reason modern cars are fast is a very deep first with close gear ratios. The 2004R has about the best gear spread and ratios of any 4 spd automatic.

 

Many of us have those dog pistons in a 72 and no matter what cam, intake, or gears you drop in you will not be happy, I thought a new cam, intake, headers and gears would be a nice upgrade and while it as an upgrade its still a dog. my advice is to save your money to either do your LS swap or you need to get that motor down to bare and start with the machine shop. The pistons you have in it now will always be a problem.

 

I didnt see it mentioned, so I apologize if this is a repeat. OldsRocketParts is an alias for Mondello Performance. So beware who your spending your money with