# Building a 72 Pontiac 350



## AJ:) (May 9, 2013)

Hi !

I'm looking at freshing up my 350, Would some older heads off a 400 and more aggressive cam along with a four barrel carb and intake make a dramatic difference? It is the 2 barrel low hp engine, I would like to make it snappy and keep the original engine.

LMK if you have any thoughts either way.


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## ALKYGTO (Mar 29, 2010)

Is the engine worn out or are you just looking for more oomph? It costs about the same $$$ to rebuild a 400 or 455 and you can do that while you are still driving the 350.

Also consider a 200R4 trans or a manual trans to add some gear oomph while retaining some cruisibilty with your stock rear or maybe go to a 3:23 or 3:55 rear gear. 

Fortunately if you do go with headers, exhaust and an intake carb you can use those again on the 350's bigger brothers when you do your transplant. :cheers


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## AJ:) (May 9, 2013)

The motor has been sitting for quite awhile. 200 R4 can be built to handle decent power? I don't recall them being a tough trans.

Maybe I will hunt for an older larger engine?


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## scott9804 (Aug 19, 2013)

AJ:) said:


> The motor has been sitting for quite awhile. 200 R4 can be built to handle decent power? I don't recall them being a tough trans.
> 
> Maybe I will hunt for an older larger engine?


What did you decide to do with your motor? I'm looking to do the same thing you are.... I have a numbers matching '72 Lemans with a 350 2bbl. My other car is a Sport with a 400, so it has a better sound and of course more power....I had thought about finding another 400 for this car, but I hate to swap it from the original motor. Anyway, my plan, unless someone here can convince me that another route would be better, is to pull the motor out, swap it to an Edelbrokck Performer intake and a 600 carb, swap to a set of #607 heads (1967 428ci) that I have, with a little more aggressive cam, freshen all the seals and gaskets, paint the block and drive the wheels off of it. I'd like to know if anybody has done this type of build on a similar 350, and what kind of results they've gotten.


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## Icefan71 (Apr 7, 2011)

I have a 72 Lemans with a 350/th350. I swapped over to a factory 4 bbl intake/quadrajet. I also added a Summit 2800 cam, Summit 2 1/2" dual exhaust, factory HEI, 3.36 rear. I have some tuning to do so i can't say how it performs just yet. It has a smooth idle, not agressive at all. but it should be a pretty descent driver.

Short video idling
1101131518_zps90c04576.mp4 Video by Icefan71 | Photobucket


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

Lots of info on the 'net. HPP has an article on a 350 build that produced about 480 hp, or thereabouts. Lots of potential. You could even put a stroker crank in it for more cubes if you want. Get a ton of power that way. I once had a '65 GTO with a transplanted 326 in it. Car was a 4 speed with a 3.23 rear gear. The 326 had a Crane cam of unknown spec 9but was pretty lumpy at idle) and it had a Holley 4bbl and tubing headers. It ran very, very well. I ran it against my 440/4speed 3.23 '66 Coronet, and the Coronet only took the GTO by about a car length in the quarter. The smaller Pontiac V8's have a LOT more torque and power than their given credit for.


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## scott9804 (Aug 19, 2013)

geeteeohguy said:


> Lots of info on the 'net. HPP has an article on a 350 build that produced about 480 hp, or thereabouts. Lots of potential. You could even put a stroker crank in it for more cubes if you want. Get a ton of power that way. I once had a '65 GTO with a transplanted 326 in it. Car was a 4 speed with a 3.23 rear gear. The 326 had a Crane cam of unknown spec 9but was pretty lumpy at idle) and it had a Holley 4bbl and tubing headers. It ran very, very well. I ran it against my 440/4speed 3.23 '66 Coronet, and the Coronet only took the GTO by about a car length in the quarter. The smaller Pontiac V8's have a LOT more torque and power than their given credit for.


What I'm hoping to do is just to get about 300-325 HP out of my 350.... that's not an unreasonable goal is it? I had a 400 built about 15 years ago, and I wasn't too concerned about cost at the time, and the "mechanic" who did it for me was NO engine builder by any means, and he kind of ripped me a new one.....I ended up with $3900 in a 400 with probably a little over 300 HP, and it still had valve train issues!!! My point is this....I don't want to go thru that again, and I don't want to dump 4k into this motor. So, if I find a reputable builder, hopefully one who is well versed in Pontiacs, shouldn't I be able to get 325 HP for under 3k?? Or am I totally delusional?


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

Heres something to think about...they have arguably not made a strong 400 block since 1976, so by attrition the number of 389 and 400 blocks will dwindle and make them rare and expensive like the 455's/421's before an affordable stroker kit was put on the market. So since the brilliant engineers at pontiac decided to make the only line of engines that were pretty much interchangable with stock parts can't you basically make a 350 stroker??? I don't claim to be an engine guy myself but with the multitude of 350/326 doorstops out there this could be an inexpensive (in pontiac terms) alternative to our 5-1oK engine builds? lets hear some formulas from the engine guys (BEAR??).


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## geeteeohguy (Feb 2, 2008)

There are 350 strokers being built over on the other forum. And putting out a lot of power. I think a 350 is a good base, but it is just as expensive to build as its bigger brothers. I think I spent more than 2k 25 years ago when I did a stock rebuild on the 400 in my '67. I don't think 3k will get you very far on an engine project this day and age. I think it's going to be more like 4-5k at least. Price out the parts and labor, or call a good machine shop like CVMS to get a ballpark.


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