Hi i'm 16 years old and last year i picked up a 1987 chevy k20. Even though it is an 87 it doesnt have the throttle body injection it has a edelbrock 4 barrel carb. All it has is that carb a set of headers and dual straight pipe exhaust. Can anyone tell me about how much hp and torque i should be putting out as is? Also if theres any other ways i can increase power without breaking the bank. Its going to be a daily driver that i wanna be able to have a little fun with in the fields and in the mud, and hill climbs and so forth. Also i will be using it to haul trailer loads of scrap. Any suggestions?
As is, if the parts were replaced correctly, about 225 horse power. For one thing, Seems like the modifications were intended more to make the truck loud instead of more powerful. Loud does not always equal powerful. Did the installer simply slap on a few random parts or did they take the time to tune the engine and jet the carburetor? If the installer failed to jet the carburetor with these changes the engine could have actually lost about 15% power and fuel economy. Let's face it. Horsepower costs money. At least if you want to make any serious power. The biggest restriction on the Gen 1 SBC was not the mufflers or the intake, it was the cylinder heads. You can't make any serious power on a smogger SBC with the factory stock heads no matter what cam, intake, carb, or headers you use. But the problem is that a decent set of aftermarket heads cost big bucks. A decent set will set you back a couple of grand. But all in not lost if you are mechanically inclined and got the guts. You can port and polish your own heads to make them flow better. If you are a little mechanically inclined this is not out of the question. While you are at it you can do some port matching. The link below is a link to a video that will help get you started. If you get good at it, think of the possibilities. You could do head work on your friends engines and make a little money. You can use this money to buy more go fast parts for your truck.
The carb won't add any power. If it's got an edelbrock perfomer intake on it that might gain you 8 HP The headers and exhaust will get you about 20-30 HP gain The biggest gain comes from the heads. A good mod for added powe, perfomance and fuel mileage is a vortec head swap. Used 1996-00 chevy truck, van SUV L31 350 vortec heads. Casting # 062 or 906. These are the best flowing production gen 1 sbc heads and in fact they flow better than some aftermarket heads. You can pick a used set up for $200-400, then you will need an aftermarket vortec styled intake for 4bbl carn. New these run around $150 for the summit racing house brand, or pro products brand, around $200 for edelbrock Then you can sell yours used on craigslist for $50 and recoupe some of the money back. Then a $65 set of fel pro MS90000T intake gaskets, $40 set of fel pro 1094 4.100 x .015 head gaskets The vortec heads are 62cc chamber and the stock head gaskets is .028 thick so these two will bump up your compression alittle as well. Doing the above will gain you about 50 HP for $550 If you wanted to, at time of head swap would be pefect for a cam swap. Put in a 204/214@.050 cam with a 112LSA With the vortec heads, intake, cam, head gaskets, your headers and pipes you should have an easy 310 HP engine
