Advice for my 1980 Chevy Malibu

I got a real dilemna here. I recently purchased my first SB chevy. A 1980 Chevrolet Malibu with a 4.4 L 267cu. in. engine. Basically it was very unloved, the previous owner only put 4500 miles on it. It is slower than molasses in January. My questions come to this, Can I swap out the intake and 2 barrel carb for a 4 barrel holley 390 cfm? Would that be too much carb for the engine? Should I throw a cam and valves if possible? I do not wish to swap the engine as it was only produced from 1978-82. I realize it isn't a 350 and I'm not expecting low time slips at the track. I'm curious to see what I can do with what I have. Also would it perform better with an olds 350 from an 89 caprice w/feedback Q-jet 4 barrel carb, mated w a 200-R4 transmission?  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

caprice's didn't come with Olds 350's.  And Oldsmobile stopped making the 350 in the late 70's (or very early 80's...can't remember which) and switched to a 307.  So if an 89 Caprice has an Olds 350 in it, its not original...and it's hard to say what kind of performance numbers it has.  However, an Olds 350 in general is a very good performance motor...and judging from when that 267 was made...and the fact that its only 267 cubic inches, I'd say yeah, the Olds will outperform it handily.

Hopefully some of the more diehard Chevy guys can help you with the first question.

Good luck  
68 Olds Cutlass ~ 350 Rocket
85 Delta 88 ~ 425 Rocket
02 Silverado 4X4 ~ 5.3L

Well with the feedback carburetor on the olds 350, what limits would I be looking at when tuning?  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

ok, when people say a good motor for a boat ancor, this is what they mean, not the 305. If I think its what your asking, you mean you want to know weather to build the 267 or drop in the 350?  

I have kind of the same situation. I have an olds with a 260 V8 and I asked the same thing.how can I make HP, should I put in money in the engine or get me a 350, . The vote to the swap was unanimous. I was suggested to drop in an olds or chevy 350 or even a 403. I might even get crazy and drop a 455. But until my 78 cutlass is exempt here in L.A. I will get serious about it.  
1969 Mercury Cougar.
2007 Dodge Charger
Lookin' 4 a 1952 Chevy

Seriously, if you replace the 260 with an olds 350  or 403 and keep the cam overlap(HC) and compression(NOx) to a reasonable level, the Smog guys will never never know it's not the 260. Providing you keep the EGR, Smog Pump and Cat Converter in place. With an updated mild Cam and good tune it'll probably have lower emissions and better fuel mileage.

Spend the money now on a good bottom end and you can go bolt on (heads, intake, exhaust, new cam) crazy later. (i.e. have fun now, and more fun later while distributing the cost over a few years)

Fun Fun Fun  

As for the current thread, same applies, if your engine is a Small block Chevy then  what I said still applies just change Olds to Chevy and 350/403 to your choice of SBC.  
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

Ok like I said, I'm not trying to go HP crazy. Just enough to where punk teenagers and their coffee can exhuast systems can't pass me on the freeway. I have 2 jobs and no equipment or time to swap out an engine. Personally I know i could get a cam and valve train combo for around 800 bucks from summit. I want to know if I can put a 4 barrel carb on it and and intake. No performance books have shown me parts for that. I mean carbs can cover a variety of engines, but i need one that will balance with a smaller V-8 pretty well.  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

Also can anyone tell me what my rearend ratio is by anychance? I mean the car is all original and as a little help I'll list the shift points. 1st 0mph til about 45-50mph, 2nd from 50mph til about 75-80mph range, Drive from 80mph-up. Since the speedo pegs at 85mph and my speedo is off by about 8.3%, I don't know myvehicles top speed. I know that when my speedo reads 55mph, my actual speed is closer 60mph. 700R4.com says that the factory were 3.08 w/TH350 trans, but I don't even think mine is a TH350. I think I got some junky trasmission that couldn't perform to save your life. I'm positive the car is all original, though.  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

FieroGT1980:
Ok like I said, I'm not trying to go HP crazy. Just enough to where punk teenagers and their coffee can exhuast systems can't pass me on the freeway. I have 2 jobs and no equipment or time to swap out an engine. Personally I know i could get a cam and valve train combo for around 800 bucks from summit. I want to know if I can put a 4 barrel carb on it and and intake. No performance books have shown me parts for that. I mean carbs can cover a variety of engines, but i need one that will balance with a smaller V-8 pretty well.

The problem with that motor is it only has a 3.5" bore.  Now there are plenty of people who hate the 4" bore rule...but 3.5 is awfully small.  Think of it this way...for a 350, performance valves are 2.02" and 1.6".  Thats bigger than your bore...even with the smaller 1.94" intake valve its still bigger than your bore.  The problem with the motor is simply flow.  Since you cant put modern cylinder heads with multiple valves on it, you really cant even make decent power with that motor...not with valves that small.  That $800 will be a complete waste of money because you still won't be able to put enough air into the cylinders.

I know that renting a cherry picker is usually around $70 for 24 hours.  If you get it on a Saturday late enough, you usually get Sunday for free and have to return it by Monday morning.  That gives you a weekend, and $70 for equipment.  Since its a SBC, swapping will be incredibly easy.  Unbolt it from the trans, unbolt the motor mounts, unbolt the exhaust manifolds, unhook all the hoses and pull it out.  Then you drop the bigger motor right back in place, bolt it to the trans, bolt it to the motor mounts, and bolt up your exhaust.  

I personally don't think its possible to get any kind of performance out of that motor.  Restrictive heads with extremely small valves simply will not build power no matter what cam or carb you use.  And just to make it clear, I'm not talking about building 500 HP...I'm not even talking about building 400 HP.  I seriously doubt that thing will get to 300 HP.  Chevy 305's struggle to make 300 HP and they have a quarter inch more bore than you do.  Its your car, and your money, but I think you'd be better off to just purchase a basic crate motor and swap it in.  Even if its just the 260 HP base crate motor offered from GMPP.

My 2 cents.  
68 Olds Cutlass ~ 350 Rocket
85 Delta 88 ~ 425 Rocket
02 Silverado 4X4 ~ 5.3L

I doubt my engine can get to 300 HP with natural aspiration, the mild cam and valves probably wouldn't get me around 185- 200 range. This boat anchor however is kinda rare and I want to keep it. I read an article on a Vortec 4.3 reaching 447 HP or something close to that, and it is only a  V-6. As far as 305 chevy's, there are three reasons they struggle with 300 HP. 1. 3.75in. bore diameter really limits flow. 2. They have a longer stroke. 3. They have gear to gear timing which hampers your maximum RPM by ALOT. My fiero had an Iron Duke 2.5L I4. They are also a long stroke, gear timed engine. Thing redlined at 5000RPM and generated only 91 HP at 4200 RPM. Even 305 H.O. engines produced a mere 190 HP for these very reasons. Although you are probably right I may not get the results I'm looking for, but I have an engine with only 52000 original miles on it to tinker with.  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

Yeah I have first hand experience with how lame 305's are...wasted a lot of money trying to prove people wrong.

Not sure what you mean by gear to gear timing.  The cam timing is done with sprockets and chain just like pretty much any other SBC (or pretty much any engine for that matter)...and the ignition timing is done with a gear on the cam that turns a gear on the distributor...just like any motor with a distributor.  Neither of those will hamper RPM, so perhaps I'm missing something...  
68 Olds Cutlass ~ 350 Rocket
85 Delta 88 ~ 425 Rocket
02 Silverado 4X4 ~ 5.3L

The Chevy 4.3 V-6 is more like the 350 than 305 or 260, just two cylinders short. Good flowing intake, headsand wide enough bore not to shroud the valves. Forced inductions would be the only way to get power out of a 260. Which leads to.... buy a big enough turbo or supercharger for a 350+ cubed engine, bolt it to the 260, and when/if the 260 goes you are set for a whole lot of power with a full sized SBC or keep getting those free 305 and pressurize them run them until they blow and drop another in    
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The Silver Buick- '77 Skylark coupe w/455&TKO-600, '72 Centurion Conv't - 455w/TH400, '67 T-bird 4Dr (suicide) w/428&C6. Needing to replace a '69 Firebird 400.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/index.php?topic=6189.0

Not all 305's were chain driven timing between cam and crank. Just like the Pontiac 151 *** 2.5L "Iron Duke", some had gear to gear driven camshafts. These 305's redlined at 5000RPM. I had a friend who drove nothing but 305's, and they took off the line great. They just didn't do much after that. He drove nothing but Camaro's from the mid eighties. The gears in those engine are made out of a composite material this is why you couldn't run them hard. It just chewed up the timing gears. By the way, the 2.5 had a 4" diameter bore, and the Quad-4 H.O. offered in the same Grand Am's as the 2.5, had double the H.P. 190 to be exeact. The 2.5 had 91 HP @ 4400 RPM to correct an earlier post, and 132 lbs-ft of Torque at 2800 RPM. 305's had similar performance with around 190 HP in the H.O. and around 240-250 lbs-ft of torque. Those engine weren't designed with power in mind.  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

FieroGT1980:
Ok like I said, I'm not trying to go HP crazy. Just enough to where punk teenagers and their coffee can exhuast systems can't pass me on the freeway. I have 2 jobs and no equipment or time to swap out an engine. Personally I know i could get a cam and valve train combo for around 800 bucks from summit. I want to know if I can put a 4 barrel carb on it and and intake. No performance books have shown me parts for that. I mean carbs can cover a variety of engines, but i need one that will balance with a smaller V-8 pretty well.

:
The problem with that motor is it only has a 3.5" bore.  Now there are plenty of people who hate the 4" bore rule...but 3.5 is awfully small.  Think of it this way...for a 350, performance valves are 2.02" and 1.6".  Thats bigger than your bore...even with the smaller 1.94" intake valve its still bigger than your bore.  The problem with the motor is simply flow.  Since you cant put modern cylinder heads with multiple valves on it, you really cant even make decent power with that motor...not with valves that small.  That $800 will be a complete waste of money because you still won't be able to put enough air into the cylinders.

I know that renting a cherry picker is usually around $70 for 24 hours.  If you get it on a Saturday late enough, you usually get Sunday for free and have to return it by Monday morning.  That gives you a weekend, and $70 for equipment.  Since its a SBC, swapping will be incredibly easy.  Unbolt it from the trans, unbolt the motor mounts, unbolt the exhaust manifolds, unhook all the hoses and pull it out.  Then you drop the bigger motor right back in place, bolt it to the trans, bolt it to the motor mounts, and bolt up your exhaust.  

I personally don't think its possible to get any kind of performance out of that motor.  Restrictive heads with extremely small valves simply will not build power no matter what cam or carb you use.  And just to make it clear, I'm not talking about building 500 HP...I'm not even talking about building 400 HP.  I seriously doubt that thing will get to 300 HP.  Chevy 305's struggle to make 300 HP and they have a quarter inch more bore than you do.  Its your car, and your money, but I think you'd be better off to just purchase a basic crate motor and swap it in.  Even if its just the 260 HP base crate motor offered from GMPP.

My 2 cents.

Speaking of the 4" Bore rule, have you heard of the EB110 Bugatti? It is an exotic supercar with a 3.5 L V-12. I highly doubt that it has a 4" bore. Granted the there are 5 valves per cylinder, 4 japenese IHI turbochargers and DOHC, it redlines at 8900 RPM. The power is 567 HP at 8800RPM. I'm using this as an example that a well designed and balanced engine can generate power without a huge bore. I doubt anyone is gonna argue that a chevy SB is a poorly designed engine. I mean they have been in production since 1955! So with the right parts and a decent amount of money I can probably get a moderate amount of power out of it. Like I said I'm not goin for 12's at the track. Just enough to let dumb teenagers know that 4 cylinders will NEVER cut it against a V-8.  
Guzzling gas and hauling ass, the true American way.

Everyone except mopar man is going to disagree that the small block chevy is a poorly designed engine.  There aren't too many better.  They're over exposed...but a great engine no less.  
68 Olds Cutlass ~ 350 Rocket
85 Delta 88 ~ 425 Rocket
02 Silverado 4X4 ~ 5.3L