I have a 73 w/ the original 350 CI (190 HP) engine. I know nothing is free, but what is the easiest ( and of course cheapest) way to get more HP out of this engine? Thanks in advance fellow C-three owners

______________

Performance mufflers and air cleaner would be fairly cheap.  

______________
Dave C..........My mantra: I can not be bought!!      Long and short term leases available.

Whats your budget? Will you be doing your own work or sourcing it out?

______________

GEN III 5.7L "LS6" Engine swap
TKO500 5 spd.

Mine is a '79 with similar low horsepower. I feel your pain!

|UPDATED|2/16/2014 4:55:29 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Those of you that think a lower restriction air filter will get you more horsepower might want to watch this.  They don't do much at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCi2yo4UqPI


______________

   

What's your budget?

If you've got an extra $1K sitting around, I'd swap the (boat anchor) cylinder heads, intake, and carb.  That, along with a new HEI distributor, is a huge bang for the buck.  Those cylinder heads are junk with a capital J (I know, mine had the same ones!)



______________


"Let them that don't want none have memories of not gettin' any."
- Brother Dave Gardner

I had a good budget and I had a number of folks tell me that swapping the original engine for a crate would be cheaper than working on the original. However, since it is original and I wanted to keep it relatively so (and since I have no room to store a spare motor in my garage), I went with an upgraded cam and just a "refresh" of the original. Not a significant power gain, but is still happy with what was done. If a crate engine is in your budget, you should consider it.

______________

I wanted a Corvette my whole life, but I never dreamed of all the wonderful people I would meet because of it!

do what Marshall did ... buy a C6 !!!

I would start with a carb rebuild and a re-curve of the distributor. Cam, heads, intake and exhaust go together if the budget allows next.

______________

Distrib is a no brainer.....heads. You can do everything else in the world but crappy heads will never let your engine make power. Heads alone will make a significant improvement....even the cheaper GM performance aluminum heads. Edelbrock RPM are better, AFR would be the e-ticket. That and the electric distro would be an excellent base to build off of. Add intake, carb and exhaust as budget permits. Shoot, I have a nice set of worked L-98's I'd be willing to let go. I want the AFR's.

______________
My Christmas present to ME! Bought Sat 11-30-2013. 72, 350 4 spd, Silver with blue interior...Can't you just hear Pablo Cruz playing in the background?

Very interesting.  I wonder what the gain or loss would be on our cars.  I assumed that with the technology in ours being 30-40 yrs old you would get much better air flow with a better air intake/filter system.  

______________
Dave C..........My mantra: I can not be bought!!      Long and short term leases available.

Check this out. http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1105_leaf_blower_supercharger/



______________

My Gawd, you gotta love this internet thing!  That's it, I'm buying a couple or 4 leaf blowers!

______________
Dave C..........My mantra: I can not be bought!!      Long and short term leases available.

To me, you only benefit from a low restriction air filter at high rpm.  We don't operate our cars near redline.  I could see getting an AEM Dry Flow just so you don't have to buy any more paper ones and you don't have to oil the Dry Flow.

I'm just sticking to stock air filters on my daily drivers.  I took the K&N off my truck after I looked at the MAF sensor in the intake tube.  Oily film on it and I didn't over oil the filter.


______________

   

Heads heads heads!!

______________


"Let them that don't want none have memories of not gettin' any."
- Brother Dave Gardner

Horsepower is for bragging...torque is for driving. That being said....are you looking for top speed, or just more 'round town driving grunt? Top speed has more to do with horsepower, while bottom end, off the line performance is mostly torque related.
A good intake/carb combo, and a nice set of headers with free flowing exhaust system is the easiest, and cheapest performance enhancements you can make without tearing into the engine. Big cams require higher compression to function properly, plus larger valves/better heads will increase that even more. But...start with the basics(intake/carb/headers/exhaust), and then you can build on that foundation later, as time & $$$$ allow. A good electronic ignition will help, too, but you may not be able to "feel" the increase in performance....


______________

Joel Adams
C3VR Lifetime Member #56    
My Link


(click for Texas-sized view!)             NCRS

"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

Go to a  3.73 rear gear.

|UPDATED|2/20/2014 11:24:40 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

You can get a set of Edelbrock RPM aluminum heads for less than the intake/carb/free flowing exhaust. Bigger valves, stainless seats, better flow AND port velocity plus....bonus, more compression with the closed chambers.....just sayin. Yes, its a bigger tear down but man, your on your way to a 450 HP if you wanna plug in the other matching bolt ons. 

______________
My Christmas present to ME! Bought Sat 11-30-2013. 72, 350 4 spd, Silver with blue interior...Can't you just hear Pablo Cruz playing in the background?

Head swap would be one of ways to go. On dad's 76 it was a stock engine(180 hp) that  had been rebuilt stock which was probably for the best as i was just starting to drive and probably gotten into trouble if it had a little more ponies..... but that aside, i did go to a swap meet and found a set of heads, 1966 double hump small valve heads.  picked them up fairly cheap, had the local shop redo the valves and guides, which  actually costed more than the heads did... but the main thing i would suggest is that if you do 'shop' around for a set of older heads, do make sure(MAKE SURE) it has the facing and bolt taps for accessory mountings... the ones i got did not, a veeeerrrryyyyy discouraging detail i overlooked... but i was a little kniave then, didn't turn a wrench to often back then, but live and learn... long story short, the heads did add about 1500 more rpms to the redline area, and could definatly feel a bit more 'umph' under the hood.... that was with a 308 gear, later replaced with a 370 which did push you back in the seat a little more....

______________

StingrayJim
NCM Lifetime Member #1936

Stingray's '76���������������������������� StingrayJr's '78���������������������������Lil Red '94

(click each one to see a bigger version)