New cam shaft a good way to start

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Dilsterboy

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I have a 165hp 350 chevy in my 72 lemans its a canadian car. If i want major performence on one modification. Would a new cam be a good start?
 
Not really, a performance cam depends on having free breathing intake and exhaust components which you currently dont have. I would start with the intake system and install a matched intake and carburetor such as the one's on the link below. After that I would go for a full dual exhaust. Beyond that you can look at cams and heads. Anothere really inexpensive modification is to recurve the distributor.

http://www.summitracing.com/search/...idle-6-000?SortBy=Default&SortOrder=Ascending
 
Agree with Melsg5. You really can't get any kind of huge performance gain with just one modification. Intake/exhaust, and THEN a cam change would work. Rear end gear change will help too, depending on what you have back there. You would probably get the most bang for a cheap buck by tuning your distributor.
 
The small block Chevy is a great little power plant. There are so many things that you can do, some more expensive than others, but you've got to know what you have.

1. Do you know the year of the engine?
2. Look at the ends of your heads and tell us what shape you see embossed;
• Check this page to help you identify them; http://www.fastnuf.com/Headguide.html
3. Do you have a two or four barrel carb currently?

Air flow through the engine is key to performance. The later the engine, the more restrictive the flow. Hopefully your 350 is '72 or earlier but you can work with later models. The heads and compression will determine how much performance you can squeeze out without machine work or replacement.

Dual exhaust will probably be the most dramatic (noticeable) change you can make on your stock engine. Some may be psychological from the sound, but you will see and feel a real difference. A nice set of headers will improve that too but be careful, a cheap set will leak, sound tinny and won't last.

If your heads are earlier (camel humps are awesome!) they will flow nicely as is, with the exhaust and add a nice, torquey intake manifold with a small, spread bore carb. You could be very happy with the results!
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Looks like he has a mid to late 70's smog motor ( 350/165 ) mainly used in trucks of that era. ( dished pistons , small cam and valves, small port heads)

Casting number is on the top of the block on the drivers side rear to verify.

Doug in P.R.:cool:
 
That motor was used on the 72 Chevelle in this country and since Pontiac in Canada used Chevy engines that is the stock engine for the 72 Canadien market LeMans.
 
Mel, you are a wealth of information sir! (or a very good Googler! ;) ) Either way, I am impressed, thank you for all the help you provide here!
 
It's a combination of being old enough to remember the 1972 cars when they actually were new and google
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Dilsterboy said:
I have a 165hp 350 chevy in my 72 lemans its a canadian car. If i want major performence on one modification. Would a new cam be a good start?
Click to expand...

165 is Net HP , a good rule is to add 90 to the number to get the rough old Gross HP rating . ( to see how it compares to the 70 and back motors.)

Doug in P.R.:cool:
 
I think a good set of headers is the way to go, along with the true dual exhaust along with an H-pipe for more low end torque, then other things like a reasonably aggessive cam. A distributor re-curve is also an excellent idea. I like a properly rebuilt/tuned Quadrajet carburetor over Holleys.

Of course, one could put a Pontiac 400 in the car, but being a Canadian example, eh, the factory power plant was a Chevy.
 
To get the most gain you need a matched system of heads, cam, and intake. One thing that wasn't mentioned was a higher stall converter.
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