RV Cams?

IF you to the cam, together with switching to 1.94 heads, a new intake manifold, port the heads and manifold, new carb, add headers with crossover pipe and dual exhaust, it will wake up and tow much better.

But, I would do that to a 454 instead and drop it in, instead of putting that work into the 350. Old 454's aren't expensive and rebuilding a 454 doesn't cost much more than rebuilding a 350.

If you put that together with an axle gearing change to 4.56, you will have a great tow vehicle, provided you are fine with crusing around 55mph on the freeway.

Bearsfanatic85 wrote:
Down Home, Your kidding right? I mean seriously, all im looking to do is raise the Hp rate from 165 to around 250 to 300 which for a small block chevy really only means headers/dual exhaust, intake and cam. Like I said i dont want a race truck I just would like to be able to stay above 35 going up hill. My question was directed to anyone that may have done something similar and if so what were the specs on the cam.

IMHO he's not kidding at all and his post is on the money.

Look, here's the problem. You have an old smog engine. It has small port heads to keep the velocity up which kills the HP. It also has small intake ports, again, to keep the velocity up which kills HP. It also has a small cam which also kills the HP. It has small exhaust and that also kills the HP. It also has very low compression pistons to keep NOX down which also kills the HP. Everything on your engine kills HP.

You just can't change just one part on that motor and get 100 or 150 more HP. I wish it were that easy!

To make the power you want with that engine your going to have to keep the block, crank and rods and throw everything else away and buy new stuff including a totally new exhaust system.

As you can see. You can build up your block to make some good power or you can buy a crate motor. What ever you want to do it's not going to be cheap.

Bearsfanatic85 wrote:
The truck only has 80,600 miles on it, But the 350 is only rated at 165 hp

True, it's a dog of a motor. Had the same thing in my 85 C20 Crew Cab. We called it the gutless wonder but only pulled a very small motorcycle trailer with a couple of the old 3 wheel ATCs back in the day. For any serious towing with this era of truck, you need the 454.

You can pickup a vortech 5.7 long block fairly reasonably priced. it would be a huge jump in power all the way around vs what you currently have. It should bolt up to everything for the most part and should get you around 300+ hp with a mild cam and be a lot better on fuel

In 1993 my bother-in-law souped up a 400 small block, we both pull from Ia. to Montana he got4 to 5 mile per gallon. I got 9.8 miles per gallon with little 6.2 diesel.

I have advanced the cam timing 4degrees on these 350 engines with a lot of improvement in torque. What it does is close the intake valve sooner and creats more cyl.presure. If you know someone that knows how to do this it is less expensive and at 80K miles you probably need a new timming chain anyway.

Don't waste your money. Headers and a cam will never get you anywhere near the 85-135HP you want. The headers and exhaust might give you 20-25 and the towing cams and intakes are more designed to move your torque curve around to give you better pulling power. The heads on those motors are your limiting factor. I did it on several trucks of that vintage. Definite improvement but nowhere near what you are looking for.

My advice would be to buy a bigger inch crate motor. Then when you are ready to sell you can put the stocker back in and sell the crate.

Good Luck

If you are gonna swap engines go with a big blk LS motor With stand alone efi. The eng is much lighter due to the use of alum and they make great power. I'm a Ford guy but know some guys makin good power with the LS lineup. Save the old eng in case you ever want to return it to stock. Spend all the money you want and that snall blk will only tow so well. Not worth the investment

Bearsfanatic85 wrote:
Down Home, Your kidding right? I mean seriously, all im looking to do is raise the Hp rate from 165 to around 250 to 300 which for a small block chevy really only means headers/dual exhaust, intake and cam. Like I said i dont want a race truck I just would like to be able to stay above 35 going up hill. My question was directed to anyone that may have done something similar and if so what were the specs on the cam.

It should improve some power, have you upgraded the exhaust yet such as headers and dual exhaust, this will help the most, the cam does no good without exhaust improvements, also what about the intake, is that stock as well, better distributor would also help, just the cam by itself does little without other performance improvements, also your MPG will suffer.

Down Home, Your kidding right? I mean seriously, all im looking to do is raise the Hp rate from 165 to around 250 to 300 which for a small block chevy really only means headers/dual exhaust, intake and cam. Like I said i dont want a race truck I just would like to be able to stay above 35 going up hill. My question was directed to anyone that may have done something similar and if so what were the specs on the cam.