Well this morning my 305 took a **** on me. I think it spun a rod bearing and it sounds like a rod may even be broken completely and slapping around in there. So im pulling it out this week and swapping in a 350. Should I keep it TBI or carb it? How should I go about building one? I prefer a torquey ride but keep in mind this is driven on the road and sometimes even daily driven. Suggestions?

Buy a crate engine and drop it it. It will be a lot easier and cheaper.

Should have thrown in that fact of a high school student budget. About 1500 MAX.

Same thing happened to me not too long ago it was a rod bearing and that noise is just that rod slappin against the crank.... at least thats how it was with mine... but it is really loud I know lol

Everything else is your own opinion idk about TBI as much as I do TPI but I know they are similar and TPI is great for low end torque which is how I built mine with my TPI setup

My motor is just about ready to drop in and with the 1200$ I put in the motor is underestimated to make 350hp at 5000rpms and 490ft-lbs at 3000rpms which is plenty power for my car for now =D and great for the price!

If you decide to go with a low end torque or even a high end hp motor or anything between make sure you get all your parts for the same purpose so that its an effective build and ask questions about more specifics like what cam for low end torque or what not

I would beg to differ considering that crate engines get rediculously expensive for anything truely powerful and the only difference in ease is you dont have to find the parts yourself thats it...

Building your own motor not only allows you to make it run how you want it to but ensures you that its being done right and it doesnt take long at all

and cost wise like I said above 1200$ and I have a very powerful motor which if you take into account the 270$ I spent on a cam because I wanted it new and the slightly unnecessary machine work I had done anyway (hot tanking etc) it was practically an 700$ build. It takes some hunting to find deals on parts you need and yeah that extra time to decide everything you want but it is well worth it in the end

In my honest opinion crate motors are for people with money to burn

What kind of power do you want? I was on a broke college kid budget lol check out my post above =P

aweTastic,

Whats all done to your motor?

Also, one of my buddies has a motor he'd sell me for under 100 bucks. Its a 2-bolt main 350 that he THINKS spun a bearing. He rebuilt it last year to run in his regular cab truck. I when for a ride in it once and it was impressive especially for being in a fullsize. I'm tearing into it tomorrow to see what it needs. Its ported and polished and has a 3-angle valve job. New pistions, rods, and cam. It also would come with a new crank which it needs. The only thing i dont like about it is that it's .060. He got it bored before he rebuilt it.

What do you guys think?

I want it to throw you back in your seat. I want to grab 3rd and 4th and still be pulling fairly hard.

a breakdown:
My motor is an 87 2 bolt main seal OE roller block
2 bolt cuz TPI chokes at 5500rpms so 4 bolt isnt necessary would have been nice but I got it for a great deal

It is a stock 4.00" bore
I wanted higher compression and it was a budget build

stock 3.48" stroke
thought about goin bigger but decided against it because it would have caused too much torque and a slight drop in my top end performance (which is limited to highway lol)

Comp cam
.480"/.495" @ .050
212/218 @ .050
212 LSA

Im using my 305 081 heads for higher compression
They are fully ported polished and machined to handle .550 lift they breath amazingly

New springs retainers locks and full roller rocker arms

New rods and pistons
6" rods and flat top pistons

New standard flow oil pump
High volume was too much flow for my usage

1989 Stock Tpi manifold and plenum and runners
This is my largest downfall but it has been fully ported polished and year does matter in this part lol

Hooker Headers w.out A.I.R.
cant remember the part number off the top of my head

Custom exhaust from the headers back
no cats and a super highflow muffler

Everything is port matched and I have some minor things like smog delete and A/C delete and etc

all other money went to a new hone and other tools and cleaning supplies and a few small things like bearings and gaskets and other necessary rebuild parts.

Working on getting all my pics on my cardomain

As far as that motor goes Im not sure if its exactly what you want because if its a truck motor its probably not a roller block (i.e. roller cam and lifters) which I would recommend. As far as his heads being ported and polished you should still get some casting numbers and ask around if they are good heads for what you want... I would recommend trying to increase your compression a bit yeah it costs more for fuel (and head gaskets lol) but it adds power. Also find out what the cam specs are because the cam in the motor might be the exact opposite of what you want. Get some more info on your friends motor but to be honest 100$ for a motor is great Id buy it and the parts you dont use can be sold and will probably pay for the motor itself plus some.

My plan was to build a low end torque motor using my TPI setup and do it for under 1000$ but I went over because I didnt want to rely on someone I dont know to send me the cam they think they have so I splurged on a new one. Sounds like you have the initiative just remember to ask questions and have what you want planned

Oh and there is nothing wrong with the motor being punched over more cubic inches = more power I just couldnt afford the machine work and the pistons pratically cost the same so you can easily make a larger bore have the same compression as a smaller one

I would read Fast's sticky on the Budget TBI build. The heads, cam, and intake suck on TBI motors. I didn't beleive they were that bad until I physically looked at them.

The heads are 305 heads and the cam is a truck cam of some sort. I'll ask him today and i should be tearing it apart today.

That motor was junk.

Found a 4 bolt 350, .030 rebuilt by a mechanic.

Its out of a 79 pickup so its not going to be a screamer.

I'm going to get some heads because these will probably flow horrible. Also I'm getting a cam and intake. Any suggestions on which way to go? I will be running a carb. I would like to make most of my power down low.

If your TBI runs good leave it alone for now. You will have to keep a cam with 114 LSA or so with TBI. Some of the factory roller cams are not bad. Build or buy a basic 350 and you can upgrade later as money becomes avalable.