ZZ4 Top End overhaul...need advice and/or suggestions!
06-19-2013, 09:32 AM
#1
ZZ4 Top End overhaul...need advice and/or suggestions! Afternoon fellas. I am ready for more HP out of my ZZ4 crate motor and need some advice and suggestions for heads/cam/intake/carb combos. So far...this is what I have come up with: RHS Pro action aluminum heads (2.02 1.60s, 180 runners and 64cc chambers), comp cams XR288 .520 .540 lift 236/242 duration @ 0.50 110 lsa, comp cams ultra pro magnum 1.52 rockers with guideplates, edelbrock rpm air gap intake and speed demon 750 double pumper. I have a power brute st-10 2.64 1st gear 4 speed with 3:73s and detroit locker. This is a street car with a few trips to the strip a year. I know there are a millions ways to go with this stuff but would like to here other options. Is the XR288 cam too big?? Will the carb be enough? I would like to run high 11s on drag radials. So around 450-475 hp. Like I said its a street car...but I want it to be a cocky street car 
I know I can call comp and talk to a rep but I wanted some other gear heads thoughts before I go to the source...mainly because I know they will tell me put the motha-thumpr cam in and I dont want it. To much bark...not much bite. Any and all advice is much appreciated.
I know I can call comp and talk to a rep but I wanted some other gear heads thoughts before I go to the source...mainly because I know they will tell me put the motha-thumpr cam in and I dont want it. To much bark...not much bite. Any and all advice is much appreciated. 
06-19-2013, 04:58 PM
#2
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Just my opinion, but 450-475 HP from a carbed 350 isn't going to be very streetable.
That's a big cam and the engine will not have a lot of torque down low. It will run great at the strip and will suck on the street. If you have an automatic tranny, it will be even worse.
You really need more cubes to stay streetable in that HP range, at least a 383, preferrably a 406.
I was in a similar position to you. I had a ZZ3 and rather than upgrading all of the other stuff, I got a Procharger. I got almost 450 RWHP with a much smaller cam and ported stock heads. Ran that for almost 10 years and then just moved on to the L92.
Just in case you haven't already, you might check out the first gen site (camaros.net). There are always several good threads going on about carbed engine builds.
That's a big cam and the engine will not have a lot of torque down low. It will run great at the strip and will suck on the street. If you have an automatic tranny, it will be even worse.
You really need more cubes to stay streetable in that HP range, at least a 383, preferrably a 406.
I was in a similar position to you. I had a ZZ3 and rather than upgrading all of the other stuff, I got a Procharger. I got almost 450 RWHP with a much smaller cam and ported stock heads. Ran that for almost 10 years and then just moved on to the L92.
Just in case you haven't already, you might check out the first gen site (camaros.net). There are always several good threads going on about carbed engine builds.
06-21-2013, 07:37 AM
#3
Just my opinion, but 450-475 HP from a carbed 350 isn't going to be very streetable.
That's a big cam and the engine will not have a lot of torque down low. It will run great at the strip and will suck on the street. If you have an automatic tranny, it will be even worse.
You really need more cubes to stay streetable in that HP range, at least a 383, preferrably a 406.
I was in a similar position to you. I had a ZZ3 and rather than upgrading all of the other stuff, I got a Procharger. I got almost 450 RWHP with a much smaller cam and ported stock heads. Ran that for almost 10 years and then just moved on to the L92.
Just in case you haven't already, you might check out the first gen site (camaros.net). There are always several good threads going on about carbed engine builds.
That's a big cam and the engine will not have a lot of torque down low. It will run great at the strip and will suck on the street. If you have an automatic tranny, it will be even worse.
You really need more cubes to stay streetable in that HP range, at least a 383, preferrably a 406.
I was in a similar position to you. I had a ZZ3 and rather than upgrading all of the other stuff, I got a Procharger. I got almost 450 RWHP with a much smaller cam and ported stock heads. Ran that for almost 10 years and then just moved on to the L92.
Just in case you haven't already, you might check out the first gen site (camaros.net). There are always several good threads going on about carbed engine builds.
06-21-2013, 03:18 PM
#4
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The problem is big cam and streetable don't go together. There was an interesting question in Hor Rod last month about what makes a big cam "thump" at low engine speeds. Basically, it is the engine misfiring due to inconsistent A/F ratio across the cylinders. This is caused by reversion waves coming into the intake tract from the cylinders due to the wide valve overlap.
EFI would help, escpecially if it were port EFI. Tuning a carb with a big cam is no fun - fairly easy to get it right at WOT for the drag strip; very difficult to get part throttle cruise right for the street. There are not a lot of people left out there that really know how to tune a carb. I fought mine the whole time I had the blower on the car. It's one of the reasons I made the switch to EFI (I did think for a few minutes about putting a carb on the L92).
EFI would help, escpecially if it were port EFI. Tuning a carb with a big cam is no fun - fairly easy to get it right at WOT for the drag strip; very difficult to get part throttle cruise right for the street. There are not a lot of people left out there that really know how to tune a carb. I fought mine the whole time I had the blower on the car. It's one of the reasons I made the switch to EFI (I did think for a few minutes about putting a carb on the L92).
06-24-2013, 08:17 AM
#5
Yea I kind of figured those 2 dont go hand in hand. I posted this same topic on Camaros.net and got some good replies from guys doing similar/almost the same built. I think I might go with the next size smaller cam XR282 230/236 dur with .510/.520 lift but with the 1.6rr bumping the lift to .544/.555. The RHS heads are good to .600 lift so I think this would work great. The 288 cam with 1.6rr has .555/.576 lift and Im afraid that will be overkill.
