Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 230 -> 250 upgrade - can i stage it?

Hi,

It's time for me to either start investing in the L230 in the '67 Camaro or punt for a brand new v8. I like the idea of saving a few thousand and fewer things to turn into a PIA when upgrading the original engine. It's original numbers, I think. I'll validate. I'm just about done with the brake, power steering, suspension upgrades. Complication is the new springs were probably made for the heavier V8, car sits high in front, crud.

The carburetor is pretty much shot. Even after the rebuild last year, there's still a drip of gas down the throat. Choke sticks sometimes too. Blows a lot of black smoke out the back this season (just started getting it on the road this past week). Stalls at idle. But haven't started diagnosis yet, need working brakes first.

I was thinking the thing to do is this fall after the rains begin is to yank the engine, convert it to a 250, put on a nice ported head, a moderate CAM, offy & 4 bbl Holley, Langdon headers. The cost of such an upgrade is getting up there, I was thinking about staging.

The carb is forcing the issue now. It seems another painful step to do the offy intake with the stock exhaust manifold, but that means I don't need to upgrade the exhaust and intake heater right now.

Thoughts on just intake and carb upgrade? How hard is it to put in an exhaust system? I really like the buy new and bolt it in approach (no time to dink around).

What do you think about performance improvements?

1) Stock: 130HP
2) Current: probably <100HP, at least that's how it feels.
3) offy intake, header, carb
4) +lump port head
5) 250 upgrade with moderate CAM?

Thanks,
Mark