[Morgsie]

I have a 305 I'm my Impala, it had unknown mileage when I got it, but I'm going to assume it's between 220-240km. Anyway, the guy gave me his word it was a quiet motor. Before putting it in my car, I replaced rear main seal, oil pan gasket, new timing chain (had the original composite gear in still), put a speedy sleeve on the balancer, resealed the intake and rebuilt the carb. It fired right up but to my dismay there was ticking. I should have put a new cam when I had everything apart but hindsight is 20/20 plus I didn't have that much cash at the time.

A year later I finally had the cash and the time to change the cam. The cam was pretty much pooched. After I removed the intake I turned the motor over by hand. The lifters were barely moving. Removed the cam and sure enough, more than half the lobes were rounded. Replaced the cam and new lifters. Make sure you sock your lifters in motor oil (totally submerged) for ~15 minutes, or at least until bubbles stop comming out. I've heard of guys that don't do that and they lifters never build up oil. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. I also replaced my almost non existent valve stem seals, spent a day removing valve springs and cleaning the visible part of the valve stem with steel wool and varsol. This was to prevent dirt and sh*t going through and doing damage to the valve guides. I also washed the valve spring, retainer, keepers and rocker arms for good measure (same process). I haven't driven the car yet (waiting for window seals), but the ticking is gone, no more blue smoke on startup, it has a much nicer exhaust note to it and hopefully it'll burn less oil. As brak said they are a misunderstood motor. IMO, they are an excellent daily driver motor (for a V8 anyway), which is why I put it in my Impala. You can also do different gearing and whatnot to waken them up a bit as well. I put a new torque converter and 3.36 posi in my car this time around, I can't wait to drive it again!

BTW, the cam I put in was a 300HP 327 cam (stock). I paid around $150-$175 CDN for the cam which came with lifters and all the required gaskets. Guess I'll see in the next couple of weeks if it was a good selection or not.