Motorvation
When I got the car it had the original 350 and was supposedly rebuilt. It ran, but I drained about 2 gallons of gas/oil out of the pan and knew the bearings were toast. The previous owner kept flooding it in his attempts to move it around the storage areas over his period of ownership.
That brought up an interesting dilemma. It's a Pontiac, so pretty much any displacement block will fit right in it's place. What to do, what to do. A stroked 400 or 455 seemed too easy. I felt somewhat required, or rather, possesed, to do something with the original block since it was still serviceable. About this time Pacific Performance Racing had some cranks made with a 4" stroke and small journal 3" mains. This was a 428 crank essentially. When combined with a 350 block bored .030 it would produce 383 cubes. That seemed like a match made in heaven, and you can imagine the quizzical looks I get when I tell people it's a 383 and they are clearly looking at a Poncho. Ace at PPR just so happened to have built one for High Performance Pontiac magazine. It churned out 462hp and 446ft lbs of torque. More torque than any stock stroke 400 with similar modifications could hope to manage. Since this was a street car with 18" radials, I figured that would fit the bill. I called Ace and had his ultra light balanced rotating assembly sent to me. His motor had a Crower hydraulic roller. I chose to run a Crower hydraulic flat tappet, but had the same essential lift and duration. His heads are fully ported iron 76cc heads. Mine are pocket ported and milled 67cc closed chamber '67 GTO heads I had with big 2.11 and 1.77 stainless valves. As fate would have it, the '69 350 blocks were blessed with valve reliefs on both sides which helps unshroud these monster valves. I don't know what the output is, but it should be in the neighborhood of 450hp. An otherwise completely stock version of the stroker still managed 440ft lbs, so torque is abundant in the little 350 that could.
The machine work and short block assembly was handled by a local machinist I've used frequently and is a big Buick guy, so he understood some of the nuances of properly building a Pontiac.
The specs:
.030 over 1969 354 Pontiac, 3.905 bore
4.00 Tomahawk crank, ultralight forged pistons and rods with ARP bolts
Fully balanced and blueprinted
Stock windage tray and pan
1967 #670 heads, 2.11/1.77 valves with guideplates and 3/8" studs with Crower springs, milled to 67cc
PRW 1.52 roller rockers
Static CR 10.75:1
Crower 292 Hi-Draulic Hauler Cam, (236/242 @ .050) .516/.523 total lift
Tomahawk single plane intake
PPR Aluminum valley cover
Quick Fuel/Pro Form 750cfm dp built by Mark Sullens for E85
RobbMC 550hp Pontiac mechanical fuel pump
PRW aluminum equal flow water pump
R.A.R.E aluminum pulley set, clear powder coated
Professional Products Harmonic Balancer
Hedman 1-3/4 ceramic coated headers
To round out the exhaust I went with Flowmaster's American Thunder system because I like the sound of Flows and I liked the stainless tips. With the rowdy cam and flows, it has just the right amount of attitude. That might be an understatment for some.
