How can you get the full power from your 350 Chevy engine?

Answer 1

"Full power" is a relative term.

You can certainly get MORE power from an engine by making a few modifications, but some of the modifications are not practical:

* Aspiration - (breathing) If you can get more air into the engine it will be able to produce more power, but you'll need to change the way you deliver fuel to it. If it's currently injected, that won't work any more. You can get more air into the engine using a supercharger or a turbocharger. * Compression - factory engines are deliberately run at a lower compression ratio to reduce some of the emissions. You can certainly get more power by rebuilding the engine with high compression pistons and by milling the heads, but be prepared to pay a lot for the fuel that will work with that engine. * Valve Setup - Factory engines are equipped with camshafts that deliberately limit power and reduce emissions. When you're rebuilding the engine with those high compression pistons, add a modified camshaft. If you get TOO aggressive with the camshaft you'll have trouble getting the engine to idle. * Ignition - You can squeeze a little extra power out of an engine by adding a high energy ignition, and you can get heads that take TWO spark-plugs per cylinder. That can add a little extra power. * Exhaust - Low backpressure exhaust systems can also increase power, but many of the newer GM engines already use an efficient exhaust. Larger bore exhaust and "turbo" mufflers can help a little by "extracting" the burned gas from the cylinders. "Tuned" exhaust headers can often improve power. Understand that all ofthese "improvements" also have an associated liability. If the vehicle is injected, most of these improvements will not work with the stock electronics.

If you live at a high altitude you can raise the compression a little without too much problem with the computer, you might even be able to get by with a MILD "RV" cam, large bore exhaust and headers but much more than that and you'll need to put a lot of money into it.

Detroit is trying to get as much power as it can out of our engines and still keep them running well while making them last as long as possible. Most of the nonsense that's advertised in magazines is just a way to separate people from their money.