Fast355

iTrader: (2)

One of the reasons that I like the 305. Demo Derby guys love them, because they can sometimes win without a radiator.

YouTube - How to Blow Up an Engine

90CamaroTBI

Thats why I dont know why i feel bad when i floor my car.

vipershark11

iTrader: (6)

lets see how my 305 holds up to a weekly 125 shot of juice.

Casey Butt

I have a friend who has an '89 L03 in a full-size van. It has over 400000 miles on it and I don't think he's changed the oil since he got it.

1991CamaroRslow

iTrader: (3)

The only thing that stopped my original L03 was letting it sit, the rear main seal dried out and crapped on me. That motor would NOT DIE!

DLV555

iTrader: (1)

Seriously? That's incredible if it's true, but sorry I gotta say no way. If so, he should have that car sent to a team of engineers and have it extensively studied. I'll buy the 400000 miles, but not the lack of oil changes. It's a Chevy, it would have at least leaked it all out by now!

Casey Butt

When the oil light comes on he adds oil ...that's it. What you believe is your own choice.

ShiftyCapone

iTrader: (7)

I too have heard people do this with their cars as well. I know it is mind blowing to us but I believe him 100%.

Casey Butt

Actually, it's normal around here. Most people I know don't bother with regular oil changes, lube jobs, etc. They just drive until their conscience bothers them or some light comes on. I've always been the one who "babies" his car because I bother with things like oil!

The guy with the van doesn't bother to put his windows up in snow storms, he uses vice-grips for the passenger side door handle, and if his oil light goes out he'll probably run the van until it seizes. He brings it in on fishing trips deep into the woods on roads that most people wouldn't take a 4WD. The beating that the van has taken is incredible.

It's his work van, so he drives it extensively everyday, and has been doing that since '89. A little while ago I asked him how many km were on it and he said "around 650000" (the odometer stopped working at around 450000 ...and that was many years ago). Two summers ago I told him that the van was fuel injected ...he didn't believe me, he said, "Look, you can see the carb right there."

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

One of my first cars was an S-10 blazer that my parents gave me. That thing only got oil changes when it ran out of oil and locked up. Thats no joke. Same thing with coolant. It used to have alot of heater core problems because the service stations wouldnt actually take apart the dash and fix it right. When it would start leaking, my mom wouldnt actually stop. Shed basically keep driving until the motor locked up from over heating, and then shed call saying she had a problem with it. Never changed the ATF, either. When I changed it for the first time in 120,000 miles, there was about a quart of black molasses in the pan and that was it. Thing still kept running, though. Had a 180,000 on it when I dumped it. The exhaust had rotted off, the body was all rusted out, and the frame had rust holes in it, but it still ran.

Fast355

iTrader: (2)

My stock 2.8 S15 GMC Jimmy was a horrible dog, even with 3.73 gears. It could climb a wall in 4wd, but was a slug on the street.

ad356

GM builds incredable, tough products. we had a 83 chevy van with the original 305 had over 180K miles on it, also had original 700R4. ran really well for the millage, ran with a lifter tick for 3 years, and puffed smoke at start-up(valve seals) but never knocked and still had very solid oil pressure. we also had 77 chevy van with over 300K miles on the original in-line 6. i also had a 91 corisca with a 2.2 with over 170K only had a head gasket replaced in the life of the engine, which still isnt over, the guy i sold the car to is a friend of mine. i have a 94 s10 blazer with 130K on the 4.3 and runs like a baby. GM makes some of worlds best engine in my opinion and a major engine plant is in my back yard, GM powertrain located in tonawanda. when i drive past that plant in one of my high millage GM cars, i always say "keep up the good work". whats funny is no one gives GM any credit. people just keep buying hondas and toyotas and screwing what ever is left of our economy. i think its a serous problem with the people in the country, they have no faith in the world class products we still build. i want to see a honda take the abuse that small block took. GM for me,
2.2;2.8;3.1;3.8;4.3;5.0;5.7; all great products need i say more?

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

It had a 4.3L with CPI. Surprisingly, it wasnt half-bad. Could even do doughnuts and burnouts when I first got it.

DLV555

iTrader: (1)

I had that motor in my old Blazer. Some people don't like them, but I loved that motor. It ran great and needed very little work all the way up to 180k miles when I finally traded it in.

Jason E

I'm spending about $1,400 to completely redo my interior, and $650 to repaint the front bumper and have the entire paint job carefully wet sanded, buffed and polished (last guy had a not-so-perfect respray done to it) so that the whole car looks like new. Anything worn has already been replaced.

My co-workers ask me why I'm spending so much on the car before rebuilding the engine. I said "its a 305...so long as I change the oil, it will never need rebuilding..."

A RUSSH

My 90 IROC 305 has 120 thousand miles and the only thing I've done to the motor is change the oil every 3000 miles or 3 months whichever came first.
Still runs strong although not as strong as when it was new.

My 87 IROC 350 was chomping oil by the time it had
30 thousand and GM wasn't going to pay for a ring job
so I dumped it.

brodyscamaro

On not spending money on a 305

Casey Butt

I've spent, literally, thousands on mine.

85blackberlinet

i picked up an lg4 car that smoked like a ***** it had 210000 very bad miles and i smoked donuts in front of his house

A RUSSH

what did you do?

Jason E

Oh, but I will with time Something tells me it won't be for many years, but when it finally does croak, it'll be pulled and rebuilt with Vortec heads and something like an LT1 cam...enough oomph to make it more fun, without sacrificing MPG or drivability.

If I want to go fast, I already have one that can do that And something tells me that in 3-4 years, I'll have a brand new one that'll be even faster

Casey Butt

You mean me? ...the thousands spent on the 305?

If so, I'll write it up tomorrow ...just spent 7 hours hand-sanding the underbody for primer tomorrow. I've been scrubing and sanding the underbody, rear axle and brackets everyday for two weeks now and I'm exhausted ...gone through 4 packs of those steel-wire "tooth" brushes and a ****load of sandpaper, cleaner, etc.

Anyway, the only thing that's left stock in or on the block are the lifters and distributer (which will be changed eventually also), everything else has been "upgraded" -- cam, heads, manifolds, TBI, crank, rods, pistons, etc.

91ChevyRS

Whoa, that's pretty impressive.

The more I think about it, the more I want to buy the tuning software for my car.And as of last night, I decided it was a neccessity. I am buying an Lt1 cam off my friend within a few weeks,I'll be ordering some newthingsto go along with that cam like new timing chain, new valvesprings, maybe some new rockers as well.

THe only question remains, is if I should get headers before I do the cam swap, or cam it and then headers.I need more top end...it sucks.

My car is worth it to make it go fast...I can'twait until I get my tuningstuff in though so I can work with the minor mods I have on there now...

Casey Butt

I think the 305 has somewhat of a disadvantage because of its small size ("only" 5 liters), but that's the only valid reason that it's normally not considered a "wise" choice for a high performance build. The valve shrouding arguments and what-not are irrelevant ...305 heads can flow plenty for what the 305 is best suited to doing ...and that's producing torque and power below ~6000 rpm. In that rpm range the 305 is a fine performance platform ...keeping in mind its size and its rpm range. If you want a higher rpm motor then you'd be better off with a bigger bore/shorter stroke motor, but for street use the 305 is very well designed.

Anyway, its obvious that I believe in the 305's bore/stroke combination for a 5.0 liter street motor, so I didn't mind sinking the money into it. Sure, I could have built a 383 for a couple of hundred bucks more (the cost of a block), but I've had my 305 since 1988 and in that time it hasn't given me one mentionable problem (I've had to replace the thermostat and the coolant temp sensor in those 18 years). It was my first car and many of the formative years of my life were spent in that car, so to say that I have a sentimental attachment to it would be an understatement. Also, I don't like the idea of bastardizing a perfectly good car. Why put a motor in a car that doesn't belong in it when it has a perfectly good motor already? I'm currently building a 355 (maybe a 383 yet), so I wanted to do something different ...So for many reasons I decided to sink money into the 305.

So far, it has:

- 0.030" overbore
- 3.75" Scat cast-steel aero crank (so, techincally, it's a 334 not a 305 anymore)
- 4340 Scat 5.7" rods
- Keith Black hypereutectic stroker pistons
- 4-bolt splayed main caps
- Milodon "Diamond Stripper" windage tray, crank scraper and rear pan baffle
- lifter valley ported and oil holes re-worked (main caps and block re-worked also)
- heavily ported and polished 601 heads - 1.94"/1.6" Ferrea undercut valves (studs pinned)
- custom ground cam with 110* LCA and a few more degrees exhaust duration to better suit the stroker and make up for any exhaust valve shrouding
- True roller timing chain (I forget the brand)
- Professional Products polished "Typhoon" intake manifold (similar to a Performer RPM)
- SLP 1.75" stainless steel ceramic-coated shorty headers
- Flowmaster 3" no-cat exhaust with cut-out
- CFM Tech TBI which I further ported and polished myself
- 90 lb injectors
- block filled 1/3rd with Hard Blok filler
- polyurethane mounts (transmission also)

And, oddly enough, the car is still, technically, matching numbers. And I'm sure I forgot some stuff... The motor's in the process of being rebuilt now, so only some of these mods were actually running before the latest bout of upgrades. Before I took it out and had it overbored I was running a Comp Cams 206*/212* 0.480"/0.488" hyd. roller cam with the ported 601s and stock valves. It had 1.5" Flowtech headers and a Professional Products "Cyclone" intake manifold along with the CFM Tech TBI and 90 lb injectors (overkill ...but I had an eye on future mods). The cam didn't require much tuning. I was very happy with the car's performance but never had it dynoed, so I can only guess at the numbers. I also put a posi rear, 3.42 gears (which ruins the matching numbers ), aluminum driveshaft and TransGo performance shift kit in ...which really made the car "wake up".

Anyway, here are some pics of the block just after it was bored 0.030" over ...for those of you who've never seen a naked 305 block. Yes, it is just like any other Chevy small block and every bit as deserving of respect.

Casey Butt

Here are some pics of the job I'm doing on the underbody (she's up in the front because the motor and trans are out) ...finally got some primer on. It's going to rain tonight and ruin my newspapers and tape job.

Casey Butt

...the underbody...

Casey Butt

Oh... and I can't leave out the rear-end that I toiled over. ...before and after (if you look close you'll see the welded axle tubes). I polished the brake lines with a brush and coated them in Tremclad lacquer so they won't tarnish or rust.

91ChevyRS

My 305 has seen holy hell from its previous owner...he tried to kill the car on many occasions, and he was a bored driver too, andwhat I mean by that is that he tends to get the most out of what he could.

He was also very lazy when it came to maintaining that car, the only thing he maintained was the transmission, and I believe May of last year, he had to install a brand new radiator into the car.

It went about two months on a broken *** radiator, which was caused by a plastic bag being sucked into the underbody. When, he finally took it to the shop to get it everything checked out, this included compression tests, a/c test, they tested pretty much the entire motor, and the results were all negative, not a single damned thing blew, cracked, exploded, imploded, died, shattered, kaput, everything was still intact in the motor.

It was then I realized that I had to buy the car lol, I don't regret it one bit, for a car that hasn't been maintainedin about five years, it lived up and held its own ground. It may be slow, but I certainly dont think the engine is weak at all.

I couldn't believe what I heard, so I had taken the car stupidly to some shops around town and they said virtually the same thing, all it really needed during the time I bought it was new brakes, new tires. That was pretty much it.

I love my car alot, and I would love even more to mod the crap out of it, but I just keep pondering on whether or not it will all be worth it. I sound like a typical fool I know. My original goal with this car was mid 14 second in the quarter mile, but since then, the cost of getting an lt1/ls1 f-body have steadily decreased, but then I look at both cars insurance rates and compare it to the RS and its like amazing. The 305 gets about as good as gas mileage as the LS1 does if not near, which is still impressive considering the age of the engine.

The original mods I planned to do, were longtube headers Hooker 2210s I believe were the ones I wanted, along with an Edelbrock catback system, some 3.42 posi rear end, and an LT1 cam along with some fine tuning.

Im kind of in a major dilemma.

Casey Butt

I think it's all in what you want from the car and what you want the car to be. I have strong nostalgic ties to my entire car, so I try to keep her as authentic as possible while also making her as strong as possible. I don't mind spending the money to do that. However, if I simply wanted a good-looking, fast car I don't think I'd stick with a 305 when it's much easier to find torque and horsepower with a larger motor (though at the sacrifice of fuel economy).

To be honest, I don't like the idea of putting a different motor in a V-8 Camaro. The Camaro is an American icon and I don't like hacking it apart and making a "sports car" out of a car that was a "sports car" in the first place. I'd rather restore the car and make it more of what it was originally intended to be ...the same, only better. I guess I'm talking from the perspective of somebody who "builds the car" instead of focusing simply on power and track times ...at least when it comes to cars with nostalgic ties (though I have built cars in the past that were simply Frankensteins).

So, my advice to you is to decide how much power you want, what you want the car to be, how much importance you place on keeping your car "authentic", and decide what's the cheapest way to reach your goal. Remember the design weaknesses of third gens and the expense it will cost to overcome these (keeping in mind that fourth gens have many of the same weaknesses). If you want 300-350 hp, then the 305 is probably your cheapest bet. If you want 400 hp, it can still be done with a 305, but would be easier (and probably more "street friendly") with a larger motor, although there are several members on here that have built 400 hp daily-driven 305s fairly cheaply. If you want more than 400 hp then you'll definitely have to consider a bigger engine, and you'll probably also want a bigger rear-end (entire assembly) - then things are getting expensive.

91ChevyRS

I don't have much done to the car as of now. Just an exhaust cutout and an open element air filter. As well as a bullet muffler.

Im thinking of dumping that bullet and cutout in favor of an edelbrock system with a cutout, but the issue being is that i don't see any gains over what was done to it now.


I really intended for the car to be as fast as a stock lt1 car. I guess you could say i want a noticeably quick street car.

Im still contemplating on whether or not I should get that catback. The i-pipes are stock but i slapped a cutout in place.


I am so dumb and lost when it comes to modding cars.

Jtufts

i work for my current DWP crew of troy , and we have an old 80's ford ranger thats a little 4 banger and we had the truck sence the 80's and i have the records to show we havnt changed the oil sence 1995 , and it turns over one key and runs fine with just gas oil dip stick still shows theres black as all hell oil in there

it has a good 300k+ miles on it we use it to move stupidly heavy **** around the yard i busts ***** and still fun to drive

superGMman

impressive.

Jason E

I'm going through a similar dilemna right now with mine. I'm also like one of the above posters in that I'm more of a preservationist and restorer than a modifier. My mantra with my Z28 has always been "if I can't take it off in under 1 hour, it isn't going in it." However, an M6 LT1 with a few bolt ons is fast as hell...a 305 TBI certainly is not.

I'll be spending an easy $1,500 on the inside to make it mint, and another $700 or so outside to clean it up...and I've thought about throwing Vortec heads, an LT1 cam and an Edelbrock TBI intake on it to spice it up to 220-230hp or so, and burn my own chip...

Then I ask, why? Whereas I can look at the inside and the outside of the car and see wear that I want to fix, the engine simply purrs. The T-5 can be shifted as hard as I like, without an issue. It grinds a little going into reverse, but what T-5 doesn't need the old 1st to reverse trick?

Sure, I'm in the process of doing chassis stiffeners like an STB and SFCs, and I just picked up from Auto Zone a sweet Edelbrock Elite open element air cleaner...but digging too far deep in a great running car could just be asking for trouble...

Casey Butt

If you add headers and a good exhaust you should be doing better than that, more like 275hp.

...the finished underbody (it didn't rain)...