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| | Forums66 Topics126,778 Posts1,039,288 Members48,100 | Most Online2,175 Jul 21st, 2025 | | | Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 Wrench Fetcher | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 | There is a set of 461 camel hump heads for sale near me. THey are in good working condition. What is the value of a set of these heads? Also what cam/piston setup would work best with these in a mild 350 small block? | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | They're worth whatever the buyer and seller agree on. Most of those heads have been worn out, rebuilt, and worn out again, possibly several times. Other than impressing the mouth-breathers at a car show or building a period-correct high performance 327, they really don't have any advantage over any other cylinder head with a 64CC combustion chamber. I used to get 60CC chambers by angle milling the old 76CC low compression 350 heads. With a set of 1.92" intake valves, some 1.6" exhaust valves, and a little pocket porting, I was getting dyno numbers the camel hump heads couldn't begin to match.
If the seller wants more than about $200.00 for a set of 461 heads that haven't had new valves and guides installed, he's trying to rob you.
You'll need to use a pretty radical cam to hold the compression pressure down to a manageable level with flat top pistons in a 350- - - - -about a 280 degree duration with a .400" or higher lift. You'll have a premium-gas only engine that's very picky about how much timing advance you can run without detonation problems and piston damage. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
| | | | Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 Wrench Fetcher | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 | i currently have a 350 disassembled that will go in my truck. I want to get my truck going before it starts getting cold out seeing as i don't have a garage to put it in. I want to do a performance engine but my budget kinda ruins that idea. Would it make sense to buy an engine and get it going and then over winter rebuild my 350 and do it how i want? I found this one fairly close to me https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/pts/d/vintage-1964-chevy-small/6258592941.html | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | That one's priced about $100.00 or more too high unless it's needed for a numbers-correct restoration. Definitely stay far away from the single plane manifold he's offering unless you never intend to run the engine below 3K RPM. The 300 HP engine offered in 64 had the original "camel hump" heads, and the only one that was actually factory rated at 350 HP was a limited-production Corvette option. The 300 HP engines were available in the Impala body styles, beginning in 63, IIRC.
Plan on spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $4-5K, minimum, to build the kind of engine it seems like you want, and that's if you do most of the labor yourself. The round track race-winning 350's I built a few years ago sold for around $15K. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
| | | | Joined: Apr 2005 Posts: 2,832 'Bolter | 'Bolter Joined: Apr 2005 Posts: 2,832 | I know nothing of your skills or finances but for what it would take to get 400hp out of a 350 you might consider an LS3 engine. It is a 327 that easily bumps the 300hp mark and gets 25mpg. I see on Epay they are selling in the 1k range and a controller harness is 12 hundred. Figure another $500 for motor mount adapters and exhaust by the time O2 sensors and bungs welded in are factored in. For 3k you can have an engine that has bukoo horsepower, idles baby butt smooth, and easily goes to the 250k mark on the odometer. Just one other route to consider.
Evan
| | | | Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 Wrench Fetcher | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 | That 327 comes with a points distributor, core q-jet, and he said he can swap it for an edelbrock torker intake. Eventually id like to make my truck kind of a street/strip style. It has a 4.56 rearend so something that makes more top end power would benefit from this right? | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | It's a worn out, obsolete engine. It's going to require a massive outlay of cash and labor to make it anything else. Give it a good cleanup and a fresh coat of Chevy Orange paint, and brag about it to people who don't know any better. The torker manifold is worse than useless without a couple of thousand dollars' worth of carburetor and valve train upgrades to make it work right, and then it will only work at RPM ranges seldom seen on the street without putting every cop in a half-mile radius in the mood to write you a handful of tickets. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
| | | | Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 Wrench Fetcher | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 | would it make sense to sell the torker intake and purchase just a basic dual plane? | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | It's already got a dual plane on it, one that General Motors spent a lot of time, money and engineering expertise to build. Why mess with success? Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
| | | | Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 Wrench Fetcher | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 | Totally did not think about that. | | | | Joined: Oct 2016 Posts: 916 'Bolter | 'Bolter Joined: Oct 2016 Posts: 916 | Take your block and build a 383?
~ Dave 1950 Chevrolet 3600 3/4-ton with 261 engine & T5 Transmission | | | | Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 Wrench Fetcher | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Mar 2017 Posts: 54 | it would be pretty cool to build a stroker but the truck still needs pretty much everything so i need to keep that in mind budget wise. | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | What's the advantage of a stroker, other than the brag factor? Most folks have no idea why they should do it (or not) or how to do it right- - - - -it's just something cool to talk about. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
| | | | Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 147 Shop Shark | Shop Shark Joined: Apr 2007 Posts: 147 | A stroker engine would have more torque in the lower rpm range than the same engine with a shorter stroke and larger bore but with the same amount of cubic inches. All other things being equal, the short stroke engine will normally have a higher rpm limit. Bob
55 Cameo 396 TH 400 with overdrive 65 Caliente conv 67 BB Caliente conv 67 Mercury 1 Ton 76 GMC 3/4 ton 454ci 84 Buick Turbo Regal
| | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | What about the rod/stroke ratio? How about lubrication boundary layer speed considerations when choosing a rod journal size for the stroker? Will the increased stroke create clearance problems between the rods, crankcase walls, and/or camshaft lobes? Inquiring minds want to know, and people without a clue will create more problems than they solve when they start tinkering with internal engine geometry. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
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