Better Performance

[Car'n'Guitars]

Okay so what can you do to a 305 bolt-on wise that will get better performance? I don't replies like just get a 350 because I can't afford that at the current time. Because with these bolt-ons once I do get a 350 I can just transfer them over to it. I am also wondering when putting a bigger cam in wht all needs to be changed?

[THE "10" SILVERADO]

Probably the best bolt on would be headers.

Other than that, carb rebuild, new ignition system, etc.

[3r!c84]

did long tube headers on my 305. didnt realy notice anything change besides sound . like you said they transfer over when you go bigger. like me they are on my 400sbc now.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by 3r!c84

did long tube headers on my 305. didnt realy notice anything change besides sound . like you said they transfer over when you go bigger. like me they are on my 400sbc now.

Exactly but what type of things did you replace? With heads I've heard there are certain ones you want to stay away from with the 305?

[3r!c84]

Originally Posted by Car'n'Guitars

Exactly but what type of things did you replace? With heads I've heard there are certain ones you want to stay away from with the 305?

well you cant change to bigger heads on a 305. no other heads will fit on them because of the small bore size. only put headers on mine. and cleaned and rebuild the q jet. thats about all the performance your going to get out of it. save your money and build a 350 or what have you. hate to say it but 305s are a dog

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by 3r!c84

well you cant change to bigger heads on a 305. no other heads will fit on them because of the small bore size. only put headers on mine. and cleaned and rebuild the q jet. thats about all the performance your going to get out of it. save your money and build a 350 or what have you. hate to say it but 305s are a dog

Yeah I know, what about cams on a 305?

[68Timber]

A cam, intake and carb would wake it up. No need to go big. You could reuse your carb to save some money. An Edelbrock Performer cam and intake would be a very good upgrade over stock.

[bnoon]

Originally Posted by 3r!c84

well you cant change to bigger heads on a 305. no other heads will fit on them because of the small bore size. only put headers on mine. and cleaned and rebuild the q jet. thats about all the performance your going to get out of it. save your money and build a 350 or what have you. hate to say it but 305s are a dog

Not true. There are plenty of better flowing 305 heads out there. World Products even made Bowtie style ports for the 58cc heads that outflowed many 2.02/1.94 heads on the market, not to mention Vortec style heads, Corvette TPI heads (they're 58cc chambers and aluminum version of the IROC/TA TPI heads) and many others. You can also cut down many 64cc chamber heads with better port designs than the stock truck heads, then there's other 305 heads such as the 416 casting 305 H.O. and early TPI heads. There have also been several people to update to LS1 style stock valves that have worked very well in the 416 casting heads, not to mention there are MANY circle track classes that run 305 engines and the engine shops around here know how to make those little forgotten about mice scream.

I've done bolt-ons to many 305's over the years and cam/intake/headers are all well worth the effort. If you plan on pulling the engine it's easiest to spend the extra cash to build up a core 350 block and start with the better foundation, but if you never plan to pull it (or at least don't want to pull it for a long while) go ahead and build it up with the bolt-ons. I've had a Summit brand cam only update result in a 50 HP increase on a 305 TPI before and would imagine truck cam improvements would even be more due to the low lift/duration on stock truck cams.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by bnoon

Not true. There are plenty of better flowing 305 heads out there. World Products even made Bowtie style ports for the 58cc heads that outflowed many 2.02/1.94 heads on the market, not to mention Vortec style heads, Corvette TPI heads (they're 58cc chambers and aluminum version of the IROC/TA TPI heads) and many others. You can also cut down many 64cc chamber heads with better port designs than the stock truck heads, then there's other 305 heads such as the 416 casting 305 H.O. and early TPI heads. There have also been several people to update to LS1 style stock valves that have worked very well in the 416 casting heads, not to mention there are MANY circle track classes that run 305 engines and the engine shops around here know how to make those little forgotten about mice scream.

I've done bolt-ons to many 305's over the years and cam/intake/headers are all well worth the effort. If you plan on pulling the engine it's easiest to spend the extra cash to build up a core 350 block and start with the better foundation, but if you never plan to pull it (or at least don't want to pull it for a long while) go ahead and build it up with the bolt-ons. I've had a Summit brand cam only update result in a 50 HP increase on a 305 TPI before and would imagine truck cam improvements would even be more due to the low lift/duration on stock truck cams.

Okay thanks, I do plan to pull the engine to do the work, and also like I stated before I'm not going to switch to a 350 right now because I don't have all that extra cash. That's why I'm going with bolt-on so when I do get a 350 I can just transfer the parts over.

[Car'n'Guitars]

How about this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Edelbrock-21...763#vi-content

[Car'n'Guitars]

Yeah that's what I figured, thanks for the consideration.

[N2TRUX]

Talk to Gchemist. He built a pretty stout 305 and ran the snot out of it forever.

[deth_1970]

in my experience, I have seen 305's with small valves, 1.84, so increasing them to 1.94 or 2.02's would help, better intake and carb, cam, plus headers would be the best way to go, bolt on wise, you do want to make sure you stay with 305 heads, because of the smaller combustion chamber, putting 76 cc heads on a 305 will change the compression ratio for the bad, from 8.5 or so to 6-7

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by deth_1970

in my experience, I have seen 305's with small valves, 1.84, so increasing them to 1.94 or 2.02's would help, better intake and carb, cam, plus headers would be the best way to go, bolt on wise, you do want to make sure you stay with 305 heads, because of the smaller combustion chamber, putting 76 cc heads on a 305 will change the compression ratio for the bad, from 8.5 or so to 6-7

Okay so I should just keep the heads and just get them cleaned up?

[Firebirdjones]

How far are you planning to dig into this 305? How many miles are on it?

You've mentioned pulling the engine to do the work, and pulling heads to work on them? That's alot of work and effort just to stick that 305 back in there.

If you are really set on keeping that 305 for now, I'd stick to the simple stuff like headers, performer intake, MAYBE a tiny camshaft like the performer camshaft, and a timing chain while you're in there if it's still the plastic gear OEM piece.

Otherwise I'd leave well enough alone and keep the expenditures down in the $500 range and only spend time and money on things that will transfer to a better foundation later on. Those stock cylinder heads aren't one of them so I wouldn't waste my time with them. They won't do you any favors on a 350.

For the money and time spent, it really becomes more cost effective to get a simple 350 GM goodwrench engine (Jegs has them for $1400) and I've seen them as low as $1200 if you fish around.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but 350's are so darn cheap it's hard to justify too much time and money spent on a 305,,,,with how many miles??

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by Firebirdjones

How far are you planning to dig into this 305? How many miles are on it?

You've mentioned pulling the engine to do the work, and pulling heads to work on them? That's alot of work and effort just to stick that 305 back in there.

If you are really set on keeping that 305 for now, I'd stick to the simple stuff like headers, performer intake, MAYBE a tiny camshaft like the performer camshaft, and a timing chain while you're in there if it's still the plastic gear OEM piece.

Otherwise I'd leave well enough alone and keep the expenditures down in the $500 range and only spend time and money on things that will transfer to a better foundation later on. Those stock cylinder heads aren't one of them so I wouldn't waste my time with them. They won't do you any favors on a 350.

For the money and time spent, it really becomes more cost effective to get a simple 350 GM goodwrench engine (Jegs has them for $1400) and I've seen them as low as $1200 if you fish around.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but 350's are so darn cheap it's hard to justify too much time and money spent on a 305,,,,with how many miles??

Yeah that's why I'm not too worried about changing the cylinder heads maybe just cleaning them up for now. All the 350's I have looked at lately on Craigslist have been really expensive and have been sitting for a while. The cheapest I seen was $1800. And most of them are built race engines because there is a lot of circle track racing around here. And I know the 350's are way better than the 305's but I don't have the extra $1400 for a new engine.

[Firebirdjones]

Originally Posted by Car'n'Guitars

Yeah that's why I'm not too worried about changing the cylinder heads maybe just cleaning them up for now. All the 350's I have looked at lately on Craigslist have been really expensive and have been sitting for a while. The cheapest I seen was $1800. And most of them are built race engines because there is a lot of circle track racing around here. And I know the 350's are way better than the 305's but I don't have the extra $1400 for a new engine.

I can understand that. I can't speak for what your plans might be for your truck but those little $1400 GM crate engines are a great bang for the buck with many trouble free miles. It's just hard to justify spending money on a 305 with 170k miles.

Like I said, simple bolt ons wouldn't hurt and would transfer to another sbc later,,,,,but I certainly wouldn't be pulling heads on there (unless it's time for guide work, and with 170k I'd say it's due). At that point it's going to be money spent on heads that won't benefit you on a 350 later. That's what makes me start looking at 350 crate engines ready to go.

[Firebirdjones]

Ha, I see you mentioned 170k miles,,,,yikes. Are you planning to rebuild the entire engine?

Frankly I wouldn't even crack that engine open, stick to simple outside bolt ons and leave it alone. I'd suspect it's had a timing chain done it's lifetime already, if not it's good insurance. But an engine with that mileage I wouldn't spend much time on.

[riz]

Personally, I would just stick with the heads and put the money to other add ons. It's best to leave the 305 heads intact unless you really wanted to dump a ton of money into it just to keep the 305. headers and a paired Eddelbrock intake / cam set up would suit you better.

RIZ

[spencer_41188]

things that will benifit you later would be; k&n air filter only gata buy it once, diffrent exhaust all togeather headers and seeing you live in indiana loose the cats and put a h pipe or x pipe in and some trush welded mufflers there cheap and they flow sound good too, and dont even think dobble hump heads vortec heads flow better theres not much you can do other then blower, turbo, or nitris and even that cost lots of money

if you wana cheap 350 theres a junk yard here in fort wayne its called take-a-part www.takeapart.biz they have a price list on there web site my experence that would be for a long block but it comes with a 30 day if it dosent work bring it back and pull another one yourself lol

its a hard choice to save money and buy used or save your money and buy new

buying used your money can go farther but it could come with costly repairs

buying new its less for more but it comes with pice of mind it should last as long if not more then they say if not its replaced

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by spencer_41188

things that will benifit you later would be; k&n air filter only gata buy it once, diffrent exhaust all togeather headers and seeing you live in indiana loose the cats and put a h pipe or x pipe in and some trush welded mufflers there cheap and they flow sound good too, and dont even think dobble hump heads vortec heads flow better theres not much you can do other then blower, turbo, or nitris and even that cost lots of money

if you wana cheap 350 theres a junk yard here in fort wayne its called take-a-part www.takeapart.biz they have a price list on there web site my experence that would be for a long block but it comes with a 30 day if it dosent work bring it back and pull another one yourself lol

its a hard choice to save money and buy used or save your money and buy new

buying used your money can go farther but it could come with costly repairs

buying new its less for more but it comes with pice of mind it should last as long if not more then they say if not its replaced

Yeah thanks for the info, my truck is running stock manifolds with glasspacks on it right now. Also you were looking for a propane set-up right? There is one on the South Bend craigslist but it says it's in Fort Wayne.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Would this be good to buy with the Edelbrock Performer cam?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Edelbrock-78...sories&vxp=mtr