I have the L69. Burning oil, some piston rings are shot. I think it's time for a rebuild. I'm not interested in going for a big horsepower number, and I know a lot of people will say to go a 350 rebuild. But if you were truly trying to go for the most inexpensive rebuild possible, would it cost the less to rebuild the L69 or get a 350? The only thing I may change is the intake manifold, cam, and maybe do a little porting on the heads, I want to buy as little new parts as possible to save money.

So what am I looking to spend to rebuild this? Compared to what is the cheapest rebuild of a 350?

 

Oh, and also, I ordered some books that show you how to rebuild engines, and I know several older guys who have also built SBC, so I plan on doing as much of the work on my own as possible.

 

The price of a rebuild on either your 305 or a 350 would be almost exatcly the same, since most parts on a 305/350 are univeral between the two engines, but there are 2 sides to this:

1. The 305 will be alot easier to install again after its been rebuilt because it is the engine that is meant to work with whats there, and will still be a fairly strong engine.

2. The 350 will take more work to install into the car because some important things (ie. dipstick location) may be different and will either need a bunch of work to get to work right or require new parts. But a 350 is much easier to modify and get lots of power out of if you should ever decide to hot-rod the engine.

There is one other thing you could do is do a little of both. Instead of going .030" over on your 305 block, bore it out to a full 4" and then you would have a real 350. Also, there would be none of the problems with having a different engine that i listed above, and you could probably just use a generic 350 rebuild kit on the engine (not 100% sure though. I think this could be really cool... i was going to do this with my 305 when it started to go on me, but i lacked the know-how of rebuilding an engine, so i just put in a 350, although i did have a bunch of problems getting everything to fit properly (like the dipstick and starter).

It's really up to you, but i suggest turning your 305 into a 350 by boring it to a full 4" since you already have a 350 crank in your engine (3.48" stroke).

 

Have to chime in here.

You can't bore a 305 to 4". You might be thinking of the older 302 engine, it was 4" stock. A 305 cannot be made into a 350.

As I recall, the 305 has a 3.76" bore, and the maximum it can be bored is .060 over. Biggest I've heard a 305 was able to get to was 335 ci, with a larger stroke.

 

Yeah, I know most parts are universal between the two, but would the L69's heads and cam even be worth anything on a 350?

 

Both the heads and cam can be re used in a 350 but why? I can maybe understand the heads, they'll offer more compression but they probably aren't the greatest, even ported. The cam I wouldn't reuse at all. For only $150 you can get a goodaftermarket cam that'll make alot more power than the stock cam. (Whether you use the 305, or go for a 350) I would HIGHLY suggest that you get a different cam, as for the heads you could rebuild them but I would recomend getting a different set also.
Now you claim to be on a budget but yet you want to port the heads? Just get an aftermarket set that don't need to be ported to make decent power. You can catch some great deals on E-bay...

 

Ported 305 heads can be made to flow better than vortechs. There's a guy on here that has a pair that outflowed some lightly ported Brodix heads I believe. They are also good for bumping up the CR because of the 58cc chambers. It's not hard to port the heads at all (I'm working on a set myself). Do a search about porting 305 heads by Sitting Bull, it'll tell you everything about porting them (bunch of pics). As for the cam, if you're doing a rebuild, it needs replaced anyways because the lobes are worn down (unless it's a roller cam) besides, the cam is kinda on the small side. Like said above, you can get a good aftermarket cam and lifters for less than $150 (assuming it's a flat tappet cam).

 

Well I didn't know how much a porting job cost. I guess if I did do a 350 I could just use the heads from the 305 until I could afford a new set, but I know the cam is definitely gonna go.

 

A professional port job can get expensive, thousands if extensive porting is done, but with the porting you do to the 305 heads, I'd say probably more like $800 or so. You can do this yourself for much much less. All you need is a die grinder, the standard abrasives porting kit (although not absolutely necessary, it has everything you need to polish them with), which is $40, some carbide cutters (there's 3 or 4 that you will need, about $15 a piece), and some free time. Add that all up and you're looking at about $85 for you to port them, plus whatever it costs for a rebuild (valve job, new valves, hot tank, etc.), I'm guessing about $2-300 for a budget rebuild. If you figure that all up, it comes to at most $385 for a set of heads that will outflow vorechs.

 

You can go ---->here<---- and look at the cost of getting a reman. compared to a self-rebuild. Plus you can compare the cost of a rebuilt 305 vs. 350 vs. rebuilding the block/heads you have.

More than likely, the cost as well as less down-time is going to be better with a rebuilt 350. They're crawling out of drainage ditches all over the world because there are so many of them.

You can also call that place and they can put in a more agressive cam, or better heads, or whatever you want, albeit more money.

AJ

 

305 block can't be bored to 4"? well... learn something new everyday i guess. I thought all sbc blocks were the same except for the deck height. Oh well, thanks for the correction