What to do?
 

Now that I have a new daily driver, I am ready to start making some improvments on the old 72. Here is where I stand. The body is all in all pretty straight. It only has some minor rust over the rear fenders. I had the cab corners replaced in the spring after some @ss hole rear ended me. While his insurance was paying to get the bed straighted and back of cab painted, all I had to pay was $160 for both corners.:D
Anyhow, the body and interior are good. What I really need some ideas about is what I can do with my engine. It is an all original 350, that to the best of my knowledge has never been rebuilt. What are some inexpensive things that I can do to improve the performance. I finally have time to work on it now that I don't have to worry about getting back together by Monday.:)
Thanks for the help.

If the engine runs good now (no smoke, funny noises....) I'd leave ot alone. Maybe upgrade the exhaust.

A new intake and carb would be easy to do. Maybe a good tune up also. How about headers and mufflers. These are unbolt and rebolt jobs for the most part.

Do a compression test and find out how much those old cylinders are pushing. I'd recommend valve seal replacement at least every five years. If you get blue smoke puffing out the exhaust on startup then your engine is due. I would also install HEI distributor if its not there already.

From a pure stock, I would upgrade in the following order----HEI (usually availabe from a later model (75-6-7 truck) at around $35-50. will give you more power, quicker starting, etc. NEXT, if you have stock single exhaust, swap to duals and increse the air flow out the back----if noise is not a problem---go to headers as well---should give you more HP and improve MPG. Switching to an Edlebrock carb and intake will cost a bit but also improve MPG and HP.
All of the above could be done for around $300-400. Now depending on what you want to accomplish, MPH or HP, you could change rear gears or transmission as well. My 72 originally got about 12-13mpg---after all of the above including a 5 speed, I have significanlty more power and up to 22mpg on the highway. Hope this helps---good luck---Huck

You and I could help each other along in this department. I've got a stock '80 350 out of a 1500 that I'm thinking about upgrading. It doesn't need rebuilding, and gets good compression, but its performance leaves more to be desired.

I'm seriously thinking about going with some headers, and doing another swap on the intake for a 4bbl setup. Right now the previous owner dropped a 327 2bbl intake and carb, which I've rebuilt and maintained, but I think I'm ready to move to something else. The 650 cfm carbs look pretty easy to install. The only thing would be choosing the intake you want to use. I'm getting pretty damn good with points, so I'll probably go to an HEI later...

1. Check compression -- make sure all cylinders are close to the same. If your engine has 9:1 CR, the compression gauge should read around 120 -135 lbs. If one or more cylinders are down to around 100, you probably have ring or valve problems. 2. Add dual exhausts with 2.25" pipes. 3. Make sure the heat riser valve is opening when it's hot. 4. Make sure mechanical and vacuum advance work properly. 5. Replace plug wires, preferably with spiral wound models. 6. If possible, replace timing chain and oil pump.

Thanks for the help guys. The first improvment i need to make is put a new battery in it, she wouldn't even turn over Friday night. Didn't have time to play with it though, it was opening weekend of duck season, got to have priortities.:D