Well, I'm diggin in now and I'm getting ready to tear into this thing and
beef it up a bit. Here's the rundown...

Pretty much a '74 stock 350 with original dist (points etc) and stock
intake.   I have a mechanic buddy who's helping and advising a bit but he
hasn't done any mod work in a long time so he's not too up on what's out
there with regards to numbers/specs etc.     I did put a Holley 650 cfm
with elec. choke on about a month ago on his recommendation and it
definitely helps out alot.

The intake has a small leak (nothing major) and needs to be taken off and
re-gasketed.   Since I'm gonna have it off anyway, I thought I'd look into
replacing it with something beefier that won't require a new hood.   He
tells me that if I'm going to swap the intake I may as well throw an HEI
distributor on as well and it might even be a good idea to look into
replacing the cam to get what I'm looking for.

I'm not looking to build a race ready engine, I just would like to liven it up
some and get some more juice happening.   Right now, it's pretty
sluggish and I'd love to have the low-end power to jump on it and have it
toss me back into the seat a bit more.      Off the line quickness and
decent torque for just driving around town.    I rarely get it over 4000
-5000 rpm so a huge top-end boost doesn't seem to be needed. Am I
right?

I've been reading as much as I can but am not sure about which parts I
should look into.    The cam info I've read makes sense but I don't want to
buy one and go to the trouble of putting it in only to find it doesn't help
deliver what I'm looking for.    I'm browsing thru catalogs but it's all abit
overwhelming for a newbie!    

Can anyone give some recommendations for a more powerful set-up?   
Which cam would I be best off with and which combination of intake, cam
and HEI distributor would work best together?   He tells me they all have
to work together for optimum performance so I'd like to get a package
together of parts that will be compatible.

If I do all this is there anything else I should swap as well? (lifters, etc?) I
have the time and luckily some cash to play with so I'm not afraid of
spending it to get the desired result.   I don't want to go crazy but a few
hundred bucks and my time would be a nice price to pay.

Anybody want to point me toward a place to find some more concrete
answers?   Thanks for the help.....



Pat

I am no expert, but one bit of advice from the Lingenfelter book is "an engine with good heads and a mild cam will always outperform poor heads and a hot cam."  The heads are the base for everything else.  I don't know what your current setup is, but if you have low performing heads and/or low compression, you may get less gain than you hope for from cam and intake upgrades.  A cam change is more than just an evening project, so I would look into options to also get the best heads on there that you can afford.  Just one man's opinion...

If you want a new intake and keep the original hood, you're pretty limited to choices. The Edelbrock Performer is a good choice. Check into Weiand and Holley as well, but I don't know for sure if they will work without clearance problems.