Making a 350 Engine as Low Profile As Possible.

As the subject states, I'm trying to make a carbureted 350ci engine as low profile as possible to fit under my hood. Does anyone have any advice on specific low rise manifolds, carburetors? Also heard that it might be best to convert it to fuel injected?? I'm new to domestic V8's. Thank you.

If you are staying with a carb the factory intake manifolds are pretty much the lowes rise you are gonna get for an intake. A rochester carb will sit lower than a Holley does and you can get some pretty low profile breathers too. Proform makes a triangle shaped one with a foam element that is pretty low profile, some of the cake pan ones they have available are pretty short too

You could section a stock oil pan till its even with the bottom of your trans, you will have to mod the pickup and possibly widen the pan or add an oil cooler to regain you stock oil volume.

the best bet is what maz said, modify the oil pan, or buy a new oil pan already modded. moroso has good ones, as do milodon and many others.

the intake/carb your best bet is edelbrock dual plane intake. http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/manifolds/chevy/performer-sb.shtml

thats about the lowest intake your going to find, add a new carb and it looks good, sits low. the air-cleaner is where you're going to gain height back, but what i would do is add a carb hat, (some call it a supercharger hat) and add some tubing and place the air filter ina different location. http://www.smreperformance.com/procharger-low-profile-carb-hat.html

you can make a 350 sit lower than a 22r motor, you really should have no worries about that fitting under the hood of anything.

give me a call if you need more info/part numbers -ive been doing motor stuff for long long time

Weber makes a side draft carb kit that will bolt to a 4-bolt standard carb intake. With a low profile intake and that carb setup, that would be about the lowest top end you could get, other then that you'd probably need to go the LS route or even the old LT engines are flat on top and bolt up the same as the standard small blocks, the LT's are even crank fire so you don't have the distributor sticking up.

ive been told by the guys at my local machine shop a chevy nova oil pan is the smallest profile oil pan you can get for the small block v8s. should make it easier for u to get your motor mounted lower.
Edelbrock makes a triangle shaped air cleaner thats really low profile and they sell em at advance auto parts on the shelf for under 15 bucks. Theres also some really nice flat distributors out there from msd that will sit lower than your carb or throttle body.You shoudnt have any problem getting it under a stock hood, i have an 89 yota static dropped with a sbc under a stock hood and ive had a pretty easy time getting a 350 under the stock hood in my bodied isuzu pup.

An LS with the corvette pan and intake is only 22 inches tall.

Edited: 3/17/2011 11:50:07 AM by AON-4PumpedCL

Wow. 22" is really small! I just need it to be about 24.5" tall or less to fit under the hood of my hardbody (cut to the doors). I appreciate all the great info. Side drafts would sure look nice too.

An LS1 is very wide though, like a big block. An LT1 will fit under the hood no prob. I don't thick there is a shot at fitting a carbed 350. The oil pan height doesn't matter all that much because the transmission hangs down pretty low.

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AON-4PumpedCL said:

Edited: 3/17/2011 11:50:07 AM by AON-4PumpedCL

Wow. 22" is really small! I just need it to be about 24.5" tall or less to fit under the hood of my hardbody (cut to the doors). I appreciate all the great info. Side drafts would sure look nice too.

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Your going to have a hard time keeping that motor under the stock hood of a doored Nissan. My Nissan is true rocker, I cut the bracing off the hood directly over the air cleaner, and my oil pan (5 qt) is around a .500" off the ground when laid out. I cut about an inch off the air cleaner base as it is and I still have some minor rub marks on the bottom of my hood. I think it could be possible but it'll be tough. Even with a EFI motor the problem will be the slope on the front of the hood. Here's a pic of mine: