I have a 1984 camaro. i recently put on headers and a new 3" exhaust on it. I am replacing the fuel pump, and this summer when i get the money i am having it bored out to .60 over. I want your guys personal opinion on what else i should buy for this car. I need ideas for what would be a good idea on buying and what was not worth it.

If you're going to the trouble of boring an engine (requires new pistons at the very least) you might as well get yourself a 350 block for a few more $$, bore that and throw in a 383 stroker kit while you're in there. For the top end, get an intake, cam and heads... nice 350-400 hp build would be fairly easy.

The bottom end wouldn't cost too much more over boring the 305 and it'd be well worth the gains.... the top end work could add $1500-$2500 depending.

this is exactly what im planning, so i endorse this plan! (shooting for 400 RWHP, 500 RWTQ)

I dont have the money to buy a 350 and then do the stuff. I think i would rather stay with a smaller engine for two reasons A. i want to be able to drive to school and not get 8 mpg. lol and B i think i would prob have to buy new carb and other stuff like that. unless i took of the 305

i would say you need to leave the car bone stock and dont touch it.

otherwise, get a stock 350 with low-ish miles and spend all the rest of your money on heads/intake/carb/cam. dont do it backwards like most people.... (dont build a 383 and then stick some stock 305 heads on it)

With the right gearing, you can get decent mileage from some pretty nice engines. I had a 460 Big block in a '74 camaro a couple years ago, with 3.08 gears and a three speed auto. I got 16 MPG highway and 13 MPG city on a 400 Hp build in a 3800 lb car. If you get to 8 MPG with a small block you're doing something wrong. A mild 383 could get you over 20 MPG highway.



But seriously... for the amount you'd spend on boring the 305 you could drop in a stock 350 and see much better gains. (exhaust bolts right up and the quadrajet would work fine with a 350)

60 over makes the walls too thin for another rebuild, & weaker. I wouldn't go past 30 over, unless a gouge required more.

Ye I would like to do that but I guess i would prefer to just stay with my 305 I dont really like buying engines from people. They say yea it only has 5k miles on it.(they power washed all the grease off and cleaned it, and in reality it has 100k miles on it.) and anything from the internet is hardly under 2k for and engine thats not even turn key. This is always the problem i run into. What are some performance parts for a 305.? and i cant find cold air intake anywhere. you gotta do it custom.WTF

My L98 was $200. came with the computer, serp setup, and a bunch of other goodies too. basically a turn key motor.

was it in good cond? how many miles.

166k miles, but it was in amazing condition. i changed the timing chain and threw it back together without touching a single thing. Guy must have changed the oil weekly for it to be as nice as it was

i think cars that were driven a good distance to work or whatever everyday makes a big difference on how clean they are inside. short trip cars seem to gum up and make sludge.
i just tore down and rebuilt a 130k mile LT1 a couple months back and all the bearings still looked practically brand new.

If you are concentrating on finding a cold air intake for you car you might want to rethink building an engine all together for a while.

The machine work you will be doing to the 305 will be close to the price of a used short block 350. Check out the classifieds or check out a local car site in your area that has a classified section. You would be amazed on some of the deals that are you there.

Kevin

here's what i'd do:

do supporting mods to the 305 that will easily work with the 350. you don't have to do heads and cam to go decently quick. look into a quality torque converter and get the trans rebuilt with a beast sunshell, good bands/clutches, and a transgo shift kit. look at what it'll take to get some good gears in the car (3.73's work really well for most street natured cars with 700r4's)

everything you do to the 305 will require tweeking of the carb and timing to get it to work well, so get used to tuning, otherwise you'll never get the car down the road under optimal power.

IF you have to rebuild the bottom end of the 305, then go ahead and budget an extra $150 to buy a 350 block. they're not expensive, and you'd be suprised that even if it's got gunk outside and in, they'll clean up and be rebuildable with just a trip to the machine shop to have them hottanked. and going .060" over isn't going to gain all that much hp. maybe a solid 1.5%, that's negligable.

i'm with these guys though, if you are having trouble just getting the 305 tuned and running correctly, how do you expect to make one work really well with super high performance mods and the stock carb? you need to do much more research on the subject before you crack into the engine.

for the record, i have a sbc in my camaro that only gets about 8mpg, but it's setup with a 4100stall converter, th350 w/ reverse manual valve body, 4.56 gears, 29" tall tires and runs 12.3x's on motor. (oh yeah, it's just a 305 too). i had a 350 in it with a 700r4, lockup converter, 4.10's and 28" tall tires a while back and it got 22+mpg on the highway...all with a holley 650 double pumper (both combos)

Not sure where you live, but if you want to do a swap, craigslist.org can be a good place to find a used motor. There are plenty of SBCs for sale in my area, and I'd imagine that's probably true anywhere. I got a killer deal, paid $400 for a performance-built motor that had basically been driven home from the shop and then pulled. It was an unfortunate circumstance for the seller, and a long story, but a very good price.

My find is rare, but I see good used 350s on there for around $500 all the time. mw66nova is right on the money about getting an axle with different gears or swapping gears. Well worth the money!