Better Performance

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[Car'n'Guitars]

Originally Posted by Firebirdjones

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.

Yeah I would love to do that but being in high school and everything that kinda money just doesn't come around often. That's why I'm looking into bolt-ons that can be transfer onto a 350 later on once enough is saved. I'm not going to completely rebuild I'm just going to run it until it dies then find a 350 to completely rebuild and put the bolt-ons on.

[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