396 cubic inch / 325 horsepower motor wanted

[Keith Tedford]

The main problem with the L35 engines is the mild cam that won't let them breathe. It really chokes them up and they aren't making any real power past 4500. I had a '66 Beaumont with the L34 and L78 cam. Sure woke that engine up. Our L78 with headers would be lucky to run much better than mid 13s. It needs a lot more cam to take advangate of the big ports. It wouldn't take much to make the L34-L35 engines run mid 13s. The oval port engines seem to be better on gas at the same time. There is an article around about 3 Harrell tuned 1968 Chevy IIs. The stock L78 ran mid 14s. The Tuned one ran mid 13s. The L72 ran low 12s. My experience was roughly the same. The rectangular port heads need a lot of air flow and unshrouded valves (bigger bore)to be effective. In fact, with a little work and some good bolt on parts, the 350 could be running mid 13s as well. Although we have one, I've never been overly impressed by the power output of the "factory stock" L78. As far as driveability on the street, ours is fine. Just some of my experiences over the years.