400 with a 3 row and a good fan wont overheat. i know. i own one. gearing with a 350 trans isnt so terrible if the cam makes power to a decent rpm. 700r4 isnt a huge deal to get into a gbody. im running one behind my 400. at the point your looking at 383s you might want to just step up to a 400.

 

Sorry MonteMan, you kinda lost me. What is a 3 row? Also, can you suggest a cam set-up for the TH350?

 

3 row radiator. my car came from the factory with a 1 row, and bone stock the 400 with the 1 row never ran hot. 3 row with a good fan shroud shouldnt overheat. at the point that your spending the money to do a motor build with a 400 you might want to pony up the cash and get an electric fan, and a 2 row aluminum radiator. the aluminum radiators cool way better than the copper brass ones. if youre going to run a 350 trans with some gearing in the rear youre going to want to get a cam that makes power up to 7000rpm. something that builds power from 3000 up. the problem with running 3.73s-4.11s with a 3 speed trans and a small block with no cam is that the motor runs out of steam at 4500. so the cars screaming its head off and going nowhere on the highway. at least thats the issue that i had. when you have a motor with a decent combo you can cruise on the highway, and not have that issue. granted youre still spinning the same rpm with ,or without a different cam, but the cam is just starting to really come to life. personally i liked the 350 better than the 700, but i was daily driving, and cammed up with gearing was just annoying everyday. if the car was just a weekend warrior i would have stayed with the 3 speed.
OP if i were you i would figure out exactly your goals/expectations for the car. then you can pick out a good combo. your heads have to match with your cam, your cam is going to determine your convertor, and gearing. its all about a good combo, and being willing to compromise.

 

Cam set-up for 350 motor or TH-350? In any case, to choose a right cam, you need to take compression ratio, exhaust set-up, rear gear, torque converter, idle quality, vacuum to run accessories such as power brake into account. If you want it streetable, stay below 220/230 at .050 lift.

Don't go overboard. Choose a wrong cam (too big) you'll hate driving the car. Most of us like to, but usually won't make that much HP. If you make 350hp and over, in a true streetable motor, do let us know. You have something to brag about. Not one of those "it should be making ***hp" but actual # from dyno. I've seem too much 350hp V-8 (according to the driver) lose to a 150hp Honda's.

 

Thanks guys...I was talking about a cam set-up with the SBC 350 AND the TH350 combo. MonteMan hit on it for me. I guess I still have a lot of homework...lol.

 

ls1 and a T56 would be my vote

 

How hard would that be to drop into a 4th Gen body? What would be the pros/cons of using the LS1/T56 combo vs the 350 setup?

 

Not sure about that, I don't know squat about 4th gens. I'd imagine the engine itself couldn't be too hard- I'd imagine someone makes bolt in mounts for them.

Pro/cons of an LS1 vs an old school SBC 350:

The LS engines are lighter. The aluminum block for an LS is like 40-50 pounds lighter than an iron block for an SBC. Plus, add to that a hollow cam, aluminum heads, and a composite intake, among other things- and the LS engine will likely be lighter. The bottom end of the LS engines is very strong- even in the aluminum versions- they use a cross bolted 6 bolt main cap design from the factory. They can be used with their factory fuel injection- or easily swapped to a carb setup, and have very good factory ignition. LS engines are know world wide for making big power with small numbers of mods- hence why people are swapping them into everything now. There are all kinds of bolt on mods- strokers, turbos, SC's, DP nitrous, etc etc.

As far as cons go- I guess the wiring would be a downfall, especially if you wanted to use it all as is (ie fuel injection, DIS ignition, etc etc). The only other downside I could see would be cost. Old SBC's are a dime a dozen since there are so many of them. LS engines are obviously more expensive, but there are many bargains out there (keep in mind, they came in trucks, SUVs, etc- especially if you don't mind going iron block). You say your uncle owns a junkyard- so I'd imagine you should be able to get some kind of hookup on something decent.

The one thing is, you are pretty vague about your power goals. You say you want a little bit of go, and to get a smile when you hit it- but if you'd be content with a 14-15-16 second car, it may be a lot cheaper to go with a basic old school SBC. For me, especially being a weekend toy, and your uncle owning a JY- I'd rather overshoot your power goal a bit, that way you won't get bored.

As far as the trans- IMO, a 3 speed like a turbo 350/400 is a great drag strip trans- but since you're using this on the street, and it won't be a drag only car- I think a manual 6 speed would give you more power to the wheels, would be more fun to drive, and would get better gas mileage.

Upside is- if your uncle found a camaro/firebird- you could get the LS/T56 together with all goodies in one package.


Overall though- was just throwing it out there as an idea. I honestly have no clue how hard it would be for a first timer in a 4th gen; just that that exact swap is being put into all kinds of cars (search ls swap on youtube some time)- and is getting to be massively popular due to its power and reliability.

 

I agree with bumpin' find a complete donor car and you'll have everything you need. Serch google there is some info on a 87 areocoupe build like that. Plus it would look bad as hell

 

ls motors also have superior heads from the factory. the gen1 small block never really had an awesome set of factory heads. if you were looking for a straight bolt in gen1 with the 3 speed would be the way to go. the ls motor with a stick is nice. i nver went for it because at the time the ls motor was relatively new/expensive, stick shift with jersey traffic is a nightmare, and i think the 4 gens are kind of heavy for a stick. the only plus to me of having the stick would be improved driveability. you can run a rowdy cam and not have to run a 3000+ stall convertor. it gets annoying having to stab the gas pretty hard at every light just to get the car moving. true hp #s are always good, but when youve been in legit 400/500+ hp cars you can ballpark it a little better. ive never seen 150hp civics beat anything, but 4th gen 305 montes making 150hp. 1hp per cubic inch is pretty standard, and is pretty much as mild as you can get and still be respectable. if you put anything under 300hp in that car youll be extremely disappointed.