Well i just got a 84 camaro with a 305 thats burning oil im pretty sure that its the piston rings so i bought a whole new motor for 100 bucks which was a deal i couldnt pass up even if i were to use the motor for a go kart or somthing. I know that the motor is a l69 which from my understanding its a decent motor. But i was wonder what i could do to the motor to get the most power out of it but keeping smog in mind. The more specific you could get on details the better because im new to building motors but in no way am i new to fixing cars i was just always more into body work and paint. Any information would be great thanks. Also i dont want to hear get a 350 because i already bought the other 5.0 and i dont believe its smog legal here in cali.

 

SMog-legal headers FOR THE L69 (NOT for LG4) would be the first and foremost. Along with, get rid of the rest of the LG4 exhaust all the way from the heads to the street; and replace with the L69 stuff.

Yes I had a L69 car when I lived in So Cal.

 

thanks for the reply but im not to worried about the exhaust at the moment because i have the other motor all in pieces right now trying to figure out what to do with it all and getting it all cleaned up. And im pretty sure that the motor in the car is also a l69 but i dont know for sure but by going off the Vin it should be. But did the two motors have a different exhaust?

 

Yes the L69 exhaust is QUITE A BIT DIFFERENT from the low-perf LG4. EVERY PIECE is different; bigger, more free-flowing.

Which motor did the car come with? (8th digit of VIN, will be either H or G)

How do you "know" that this other motor is a L69?

 

On the vin its a g and on the casting on the motor it says 5.0 g so i assumed it was a l69

 

VIN G = L69 so that's what your car came with.

The G on the block tells nothing, there's no casting mark for which motor it is.

You might be able to tell by the stamping codes on the block deck in front of the pass side head; not too sure what those would be though. Shouldn't be too hard to find out.

The LG4 and L69 used the same block (probably 201 casting), same heads (usually 416 casting), same intakes. Very very difficult to tell when outside the car.

Differences are the pistons in the earlier years, cam, carb, exhaust, programming (ECM), gears, cooling fan.

LG4 came with dished pistons up to 85 I think, L69 was always flat-tops.

You can swap the cam and put a MUCH better one in than any of the factory ones with no emissions inspection problems.

Toughest thing to change to upgrade a LG4 to match L69 performance is the compression. Gotta change the pistons or it will be forever weak.

It is CRITICAL that you know what you REALLY have, without any trace of doubt, before buying any parts; otherwise you risk ending up with a mismatched pile of garbage that either won't even assemble at all, or if it does, is nothing but a huge disappointment and far short of your expectations.

Don't "assume" anything about a junk motor you just bought. (break the word "assume" down into its component parts to understand fully: 3 letters, 1 letter, 2 letters... fill in the blanks: "make an" ____ out of "_" and "__") If it can't be verified independently and unambiguously with your own eyes (not, previous owner monkey-spank, or used-car-parts-salesman BS) then it doesn't exist.

 

After some time looking on the net to figure out what difference between those two piston types looked like all i came back with was one has like a ridge around the piston and i might be wrong but those are the dished pistons and after looking at my motor it doesnt have the ridges so im pretty sure that they are the flat top but once again i might be wrong...i think i might have bit off a little more then i can chew at the moment...but i guess we all have to start some where

 

Right: the dished piston has the center sort of scooped out, which leaves what looks like a ridge around the edge.

SHould be pretty easy to look right in a spark plug hole and see one.

 

i already have the head off and it looks to me like it has the flat top piston but what cam would you suggest to put in it would a COMP XE268H work with the stock heads or would i have to get new right now to make it work?

 

That's WAY too much cam for a CA smog 305.

The XE262 is absolutely as far as you'd want to go, and I'd question the wisdom even of that, unless your tuning skills are pretty good.

When I lived out there I had a XR264HR in mine but that of course is a roller and unless you are willing to bite off on $$$retrofit roller lifters$$$, probably not going to happen.

The XE256 will run considerably better than any stock cam, pass emissions without arousing too much suspicion on the part of the inspector, and require minimal other prep work.

If you're getting head work done anyway, get that cam & lifter kit http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-CL12-234-2/, a set of the valve springs Comp recommends for it (981) with the retainers & keepers that go with them; have the guides cut to .530" OD and put the Comp Teflon valve stem seals http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-503-16/ on them; these rockers http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-1416-16/;and have the springs set up at 1.700". Use the Comp 3100 timing set. Pay close attention to cam break-in instructions.

Then when you put the car together, BE SURE you use L69 exhaust parts.

 

im not too worried about the inspector knowing what i have in it its more of a getting the numbers to pass because where im at they pretty much just put the sniffer in and stop there my bro got his camaro to pass with a huge hole in the exhaust and the guy was like wow your car runs even cleaner then a brand new car lol so the xe268 is way out of the question and is there a rough guess on how much power the xe262 would give me?