I'd like to get a idea of a nice camshaft that is pretty big but still street friendly. I'm talking about something that will make power and sound good, but wont drain my pockets going to town and back. Also if you know the hp increase that you get with just the camshaft alone.

Its not worth it to tear apart the engine only to put the stock parts back on it after a camshaft swap. These things need to be done in stages, and a camshaft swap is one of the last stages.

Not to mention putting a big cam into a '91 305 TPI will practically require a custom computer chip.

What other mods have you done first?

My engine is starting to burn oil so I'll be tearing it apart and porting the stock intake and either rebuilding the stock heads or swapping for better ones and installing a cam. I do plan on getting some headers and a 3" catback as well. My question is... is there a cam that can be put in my 305 TPI to boost performance a bit while not having to get a chip burnt?

With the headers, catback, ported stock intake, ported heads, and a mild cam upgrade is it unreasonable to figure ~40hp gain without touching the computer?

If you have a peanut cam, there is a decent amount of power to be had from a cam swap even with stock other parts.

LT1 cam would be good choice if you just want to slap it in and go.

Its not really a big cam though. Just not AS small.

So your saying I can go a little bigger then the LT1 cam with a stock tune and that I should be able to get 40hp easily with what I mentioned?

The more you change the less likely your gonna have a smooth running car without touching the comp. To get the best performance out of your mods you are going to want to retune your comp.

some 305 owners have used vette heads and the gm hot cam...... thats pretty big for a 305

Put those same parts in a 350 block imo. If you find yourself needing a tuned prom for either 305 or 350 build your doing, go to www.tbichips.com , respectivly the address is also www.tpichips.com and tell him the parts your using and info on the car and your set. He will also probably give you recomendations , injector size, swap over changes ect.

nah man do not go to him..... he is the dude that "dyno tuned" my old l98 motor and ended up blowing it up.... he lives in greensboro north carolina and i live in raleigh north carolina.... i drove to his house and then we went to the dyno place....he kept tellin me i need 30+ plus pound injectors for my mild tpi...... he then kept raising the fuel pressure to 60 pounds when my car was on the dyno because it was too lean..... he should have known better than a pressure that high for what i had was callig for trouble..... we did several dynos... the first one was how much i made with my stock tune and the second was how much it would make with my "custom" tune... my stock tune had more horsepower than his "custom chip" did... pissed me off.... luckily he didnt charge me anything after what happened to my engine...when i was building my new engine he kept emailing me giving me information on parts that was way mistmatched for a tpi..... if you want a nice tune go to pcm4less..... they are MUCH MUCH better and more detailed when getting your custom tune... had my tune done by them and wow... much better...

I have some things for you, and some questions. Why would you waste time with a 305 boat anchor? They're junk motors, and have a hard time making over 400 hp N/A, so why waste time with a cam swap? The pistons and bore are too small and don't breathe well, so it hurts the power output.

Get a 350, run 22 lb injectors, run some headers and exhaust, and with no tune, just a 350 EPROM, u'll actually have a car that runs, and has a chance. No offense though, I just wouldn't waste my time with a 305, if you have money, put forth some effort and money, into a motor worth modifying.

Check my car out the way it is now.

www.cardomain.com/ride/471099

Hmm, no wonder he's not giving me direct answers on injector sizing.Did you by chance use accel injecotors during that time? Maybe he learned somthing from that failure... I will give him a chance(30# injectors would call for about 53-60psi fuel at higher rpm since stock is 43.XX (add 10 psi at 24 injectors-30#). When I recieve my reprogramed chip to run 24#'s, I'll get the stuff to take a peek at the prom programming and see if he actually turned on the flag for 24# injectors. I'm not a programer by no means, but I can see myself taking the plung not to far down the road. His prices are good in comparison

no i was using the svo injectors... 30 pounds is too much for a mildy built 355tpi.... i went to pcm4less cause they actually know what they are talking about..... even though that guys prices are cheap i didnt notice a difference in performace at all with him.. he did the chip in like 15 mintues.... when i switch to my afr heads im going down to the pcm4less building near my house and let them custom dyno tune my setup....

Yeah you got my suspicions up. I may have to take a trip like that as well when I get my bird running again.

Huh? Thats entirely wrong if I am reading any of that right.

The 91 TPI cam shouldnt be the peanut and as it stands, not worth replacing before doing other mods. If you get that far, you should be doing the heads as well as the cam.