CK5 - The Full-Size GM Off Road Community

My 350 is a quality rebuild with 10000 miles on it. it has a eldebrock intake, flat top pistons (9:1), and a new q-jet. Thats about it from stock. But shes still weak pulling those hills. i'am thinking on dumping the manifolds for doug thorley headers and a SINGLE 3" pipe into a highflow cat and a gibson muffler, (to keep the noise down). what to you think? would you go duals? (i'am trying to stay inexspenive)

sounds like you need more low end torque, a set of doug thorley tri-Y headers and single 3" will do you some good. single 3" will be cheaper to do cuz there's less bending. now obviously you don't need doug thorleys but a tri-Y header is better for torque.

OH, also what size tires and gears do you have? if you're too high geared it'll feel weak, mudbogAD had 35"s and 3.08s and his jimmy was sluggish compared to what it is now, we put 4.56s in it and now its a frickin hot rod!

I'am running 4:56's in my axles and 35" goodyears, for now. I wonder if my low power woo's could be from a poorly tuned engine? I'am not a q-jet guru and might have it setup wrong. maybe i should try and find a shop with a dyno who would tune it for max power?

I NOTICED THAT SUMMIT RACIING HAS A SPECIAL CAM FOR TRUCKS THAT NEED LOW END TORQUE AND LOW R'S HORSE POWER. IT'S ABOUT 100 DOLLARS AND COMES WITH NEW ROCKERS. PLUS YOU STILL HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT YOUR DRIVING THE HEAVYEST TRUCK OUT THERE. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif IM RUNNING MY STOCK 3:73 ON 35'S AND I STILL DO PRETTY GOOD. I'M SHIFFTING TO 4:10'S AND GOING WITH THE CAM. I REMOVED MY CAT AND FOUND A BUNCH OF HIDDIN POWER /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif

A good low end cam would wake that thing up, but better flowing exhaust would help too. Ideally a K&N, good cam, and free flowing exhasut should be done together...but even one at a time will each help. The cam probably most of all. Comp Cams makes a great cam for low end in 4x4's. It's their Extreme Energy line of cams...dual pattern with slightly more lift and duration on the exhaust side to compensate for poor flowing factory heads. I have the 260H from Comp Cams which is a single pattern cam and even with gearing that is far from optimal in a heavy 4 speed truck it's pulls hard from 1200 and up. I run 3.73's and 36's...

Rene

We run a 350, had better wires, plugs put in it when we got it. Dualed it out with some Calif turbos and and tubes out the back. Put a k&n filter in it and synthetic oil. What a difference, we run 32" tires and just dropped a 12 bolt in. It has great pickup fully loaded and cruises above the legal limit with no problems, hills included. We also run some quality fuel system cleaner in it every 3 months. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

my K20 runs with a 350 right now... it seems plenty powerful, although I'm itching to throw that 454 in there.. I have no idea what cam it has in it, or what kind of heads, but it has some hooker headers, and a performer intake. (if the valve covers are to be believeable, they're erson heads, but I doubt that... ) of course the downside is, it only runs on premium...

-Rich

Sure sounds like a "tuning" problem to me. You said you have 36"s w/4.56's which should be o.k. (in regards to putting it closer to stock gearing ratio). Anyways, ther's no reason a stock 350 wouldn't be "powerful" enough for yer Bourbon, depending on what you mean by "power". My '80 has a factory rebuild w/40k, 4.10 gears, t-400, np205, Q-jet, and 33" tires. When properly tuned, I have no problem pulling a 2 horse trailer all over the NW. My $.02.