so ive heard....

[BlazinLow_inORE]

I have heard from lots of people around here that a 79-80 chev 350 is not very good to have. It was ther worst years of production performance wise. is this true... because I have found a 80 350 for 200$. Would u do it?

[1993blazerlt]

yea you can always swap out the cam to get more proformance. The compression ratio is pretty low on those engines but that makes them perfect for a forced induction aplication.

[nomaboy]

i always thought the biggest reason for the lack of performance of those years was all the emissions crap they stuck on there.

[Mike 92S10]

I had a brand new '79 Z28. Compared to other model years it was really weak. That was the years of the so called energy crisis and horsepower was of no concern to auto industry and yes the emissions crap was also a factor. Catalytic converters and such came into existance.
Look around you can probably find a better motor for about the same price.

[Rhansen]

Most of the heads were 76cc chambers (with moderate to crappy flow numbers) - so with flattops and a std. head gasket you get about 8.5:1 CR, which severly limits your cam choices. I did use one of these motors (cheap junkyard special) and was pleasantly surprised with the performance, ended up being about a second quicker than I expected (ran 14.05). Just fight the urge to overcam it.
In hindsight I should've milled the heads a little and used a .015 head gasket to up the CR, then run a slightly larger cam. Probably only worth 20hp though.

[20Xtreme02]

There's nothing wrong with that engine if you are going to go through it. You can install a better cam, go with different heads and pistons if you want. I don't think the block itself is any different that earlier years. You can hog out the heads and install bigger valves if you want. The lower compression ratio would be good with today's crappy gas or a supercharger.

[Rhansen]

Most of the heads were 76cc chambers (with moderate to crappy flow numbers) - so with flattops and a std. head gasket you get about 8.5:1 CR, which severly limits your cam choices. I did use one of these motors (cheap junkyard special) and was pleasantly surprised with the performance, ended up being about a second quicker than I expected (ran 14.05). Just fight the urge to overcam it.
In hindsight I should've milled the heads a little and used a .015 head gasket to up the CR, then run a slightly larger cam. Probably only worth 20hp though.
add - this is assuming you're not going to rebuild it. IMO it's a waste of time to rebuild it so close to stock configuration.

[BlazinLow_inORE]

i can get a whole rebuild kit... pistons and everything for about 100$ so thats no problem... i was just wondering if it would give good peformance for my blazer