Why's everybody hatin' on the 305?

[68c10owner]

Originally Posted by slotard

Why can you make a 4x3 Ford engine work well in a truck (they were in LOTS of them) but not a 4x3 Chevy engine?

Stroke is far less important than heads/cam, and Chevy 302s tend to have big heads/cam resulting in minimal bottom end. People don't tend to bild them for grunt either, as they tend to go bigger in that case, but they can be.

First of all, look at the engines you are trying to compare. The Ford 302 is a shorter deck, shorter rod engine and the cylinder heads have the smallest runners. Sure, they work in a Ford truck but GM decided to get rid of the 3.0 stroke back in 1969 for a reason. They brought it back in the mid 90s for the baby LT1 but never in a truck. I kinda think there is a reason for that.

And the 302 engine engines came stock with the same 165cc heads as all the other sbc engines such with at least 300hp. They were nothing special by any means. And they have big cams because you have to review the crap out of them to make the power because the short stroke lacks low end power. Given the same heads, cam and compression my money is on the 305 for more low end power.

And stroke is every bit as important as the rest of the combo. Any problems builder will tell you that ALL parts need to work with each other.