400-450hp 355 on a budget?

[Marv D]

Originally Posted by Pete357

Waiting on the finished product yet with much anticipation. Just have a few tranny questions if anyone sees it under this thread, if not i will start a new one. I do not believe the 4 speed saginaw that was in the truck will be satisfactory for what i want to do. I do have a couple of decent TH 350s laying around from the circle track days. Would it be wise to send one of them out to get looked over for behind this motor or should i be looking at other options? Truck will be a daily driver/street strip toy running both 1/8 and 1/4 mile. Also what will i be looking at to make the swap, cross member, tranny, torque converter, flex plate, shifter, and drive shaft, am i overlooking anything?

Pete, My good friend runs a Hughes STREET STRIP TH350 in his 3400 pound 74 Nova. Has been running low 10s for the last 2 years,, but the street saw lots of 200 mile round trip drives to the track behind a 406 that ran 11.3's for the 8 years prior to that. If built well a TH350 will take a heck of a lot. But in stock (short clutch pack, stock sprag) form they become the weak link if thraction is there.