Howdy.
I am the proud new owner of a 1976 highboy. I have been pulling a boat with a camper on my truck and it is horribly underpowered while going uphill and I find myself shifting into third and sometime second just to keep foreward momentum. I want to increase my power and performance without creating a bottleneck in the heads (dont want to replace the heads entirely). Here are some specific details on the engine.

Enigne runs well, starts everytime, but has a hard time at idle when cold.
Stock 360 rebuid done about 40k miles ago
2 bbl carb
headers
standard distributor
4x4
power assist steering (will be soon swapped to a 79 true power steering via conversion kit)
manual 4 speed transmission

everything else on the engine/truck is pretty much stock.

I was thinking about putting a new alum intake with a 4 bbl holley or edelbrock 500 cfm carb as well as putting a rv cam in it. Maybe swapping to an electronic ignition. As you may be able to tell I am new to engine performance upgrades but I have a good amount of experinece in engine rebuilds (from the block up) and can do the work myself.

What I need to know is some specifics regarding the best intake, cam, and carb combos. If I really, really need to do some head work I will, but if i can get away without doing it that would be a plus.

My plan is to make this a good old fashioned workhorse with a good sound powerful engine. I am also going to do a slow restoration to the entire truck so any info regarding good parts for this boy would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance.
Joe

 

Moved to proper forum.