I'm building an 83 351 windsor for my truck. It came stock with the 2 barrel holley carb. I was wondering if anyone has any idea how much horsepower I can expect when it's finished. What I'm doing to the motor is rebuilding it, adding gt40 heads (they will be ported and polished), an edelbrock performer series intake, an xtreme energy 256H cam, a Rochester quadrajet, performance plugs and wires, and headers. How much horsepower can I expect to see? The stock horsepower for this motor is around 210 I think

 

Your '83 2bbl made about 150hp all stock, the built combo should produce around 300hp.

 

Yeah, the later H.O. Engines were 210 with the factory 4bbl.

 

I must've read the wrong one then

 

Alright thanks... is there anything else I could do that would make the engine around 400 hp?

 

What is your definition of "performance plugs"?

 

Nitrous is the easiest route but then the use of it tends to reduce the engine life by several orders of magnitude.

The difference between 300HP and 400HP with all motor requires more zeros in front of the decimal point. Not only are you talking about using real cylinder heads and aggressive cam, headers, bigger fuel system (pump & lines) you are now pushing the stock transmission and drivetrain to the limit of what they will withstand before breaking.

 

Yep that will cost you a chunk more for sure. At 300hp you will have a strong but very streetable engine that will drive much like stock, but at 400hp you're getting into something that won't idle as nice and will have a powerband much more biased towards upper rpms.

 

Do the same build to a 460 instead of a 351

Sorry could'nt resist.

Todd

 

The heads are really going to struggle to get to 400hp, even ported. Then you're going to need gears and a converter. You're exhaust will need to be bigger and you'll need a performer rpm minimum. And, without a good set of 185-190cc or larger heads you're not going to get more than 350-375hp.

The bigger cam will affect drivability too. Build the engine as you described it and collect the parts to swap a 460 in. You'll need the 460, swap mounts or 460 frame perches and a 460 C6.

Or you can stay with EFI and bolt on a turbo...

 

Or save the hastle of swapping in a big block powertrain and build a 393/408 stroker, with the right heads that will produce a very streetable 400hp.

 

The best or close to the best type of plugs out there

 

I was looking at the 393 kits and I think what I'll do is build this motor how I was planning and then later on down the road build a 393 stroker

 

Maybe one day...hopefully one day.....

 

Running nitrous in a street/ offroad truck????? And ya I'm just gonna leave the motor how I plan to build it since I don't have the funds to make it 400 hp and I don't wanna bust my tranny or anything like that just to have some mountain motor in my truck