hey my dad just got done buying a new truck so he gave me his old dailey driver pick up truck for free. the body has gone to hell but the truck still runs decent at 180,xxx miles on it.
my question is do u guys think it would be worth takign the engine and tranny out of that truck and getting them rebuilt and instead of tbi throw my intake off of my 305 consisting of whehin stealth intake, carter afb competition series carb, hooker competition series headers, on the engine instead of yousing the crappu tbi intake.
what are the good and teh bad about these engines is this a 350 that i would want to put money into or should i pass it by also what are the heads liek on these would i be better off yousing the heads on my 83 305 engine in my car that i have now or reuse the ones on the engine right now.
also stock from the factory what did these engines put out
its an 88 5.7 TBi out of a truck

 

If its stock, dont count on more than 200hp.

 

A 350 block is a 350 block. The blocks all have close to the same potential. But the heads may not flow worth a damn and may need work. Or you would probably want newer heads anyway. Definatley trash the TBI. Keep your carb setup. You can build that up if you wish.

I don't know the economics of the whole thing. But if you got it for free I think you can re-use it.

 

The 5.7L TBI in my 89 Blazer was rated at 210HP. I rebuilt a similar engine for the Camaro, and with the stock heads and TBI I've got just over 300HP. The heads are far from the greatest, but they're certainly useable. If I had a complete carb setup, I'd be tempted to stick with it instead of FI.

 

i planed on using my old carb set up off of my 305 consisting of

Carter AFB Competition series carb
whehin Stealth intake
Hooker Competition headers
Hei upgrade kit (brand new)

i plan on using this on the 350 also i know an engine builder that said he would port the heads for me for free also i planed on getting 10.1 pistons for it cause stock is liek 8.1 and also i was goign to get a high lift cam for it and that ould be it what kind of hp should i see out of this engine if i do this with what i have listed.
i can eather use teh heads on my 83 305 or the ones on the 88 350 wich ever ones are better from the factory i will have ported.

so over all with :

Carter AFB Competition series carb
whehin Stealth intake
Hooker Competition headers
Hei upgrade kit (brand new)
10.1 pistons (forged)
ported heads
high lift cam

what kind of hp should i see out of this engine???

 

do it,when you rebuild it get a bigger cam... with the 305 tbi we use lt1 cams. with a 350 who knows how big you can go. the lt1 will be mild in a 350 maybe the lt4 hot kit.. but you arent roller so you cant use it...

remember your engine is non roller.

Shawn

 

but still what kind of hp should i see by doing this to this engine.will it be close to 300 atleast or maybe even more???

 

Everything I've ever heard about those motors rated them at 185 hp stock.

 

dont expect much in stock form... modfiy the motor..
shawn

 

L05's were 210hp and 300tq. Pretty sad for a truck motor. Would have expected more torque.

 

Save the short block and throw out the heads. Look around and get a pair of Vortec 350 heads. You will be much happier.

 

do u think that the heads on my 83 305 lg4 would flow better then the ones on the 88 350 LO5 motor im getting.

 

do you know the casting number on the 350 heads? if you want to raise compression and flow good then port the crap outa the 305 heads, get bigger valves and springs installed, and get a 3 angle valve grind and they should flow really good.

 

thanx for the info i will look into that

 

you should search my posts because i am planning on doin this very soon because i have a 79 truck 350 w/edelbrock carb, my 305 intake, and headers. you may need a 160* thermo too, i was havin tons of trouble with it over heating and i put that in there and it runs where it should now. but i searched for along time on porting 305 heads and there are a bunch of porting kits you can buy so you can port it yourself, and you will have like 400 bucks in the heads and they will flow just as good as most aftermarket heads. also check out sitting bull's post, tons of info https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=117410

 

also i wouldnt go w/ the vortecs just because iv heard that they need some work done to them before they flow very good. so you will be dumping more money than you need into them. i have a post about vortec heads too.

 

IIRC those were rated at 210 HP. Pretty freaking lame considering that some 305s are "rated" at the same or more.

The TBI heads suck. Get rid of them. Nothing else matters, as long as those stupid "sworl-port" restrictors are in there. They are a massive lump of metal stuck in the intake port right around the valve guide, to make the intake charge "swirl", for low-end torque and gas mileage mostly. It acts as a restriction to high-RPM flow, so they're no good for horsepower.

It won't matter what intake, carb, cam, exhaut, etc. you put on there, as long as those heads are there. You'll get to the flow limit of the heads, and past that point, none of the rest of that stuff will do anything at all except slow it down from reducing its efficiency at lower RPMs.

 

Yes, if you can have a set of heads ported for free, I would have the 305 heads ported and have a nice set of 1.94 and 1.5 valves in them. They will also raise your compression signifigantly since they are only 58 cc chambers and the motor likely has ~72 cc chambers now. I would just make sure to calculate your compression with whichever heads you end up using when you buy pistons. It has also been reccomended that when you have the valve job done to have the valves 30 degrees back cut. This will help improve flow. I have a set on my 350 off of a 85 LG4 that have been ported, but still have the stock valves in them. I can outrun an almost stock(few small mods) 5.7 IROC. I already have the larger valves and screw in studs for the heads. I think that with the larger valves that the heads should be doing pretty good. I however am getting a set of sportsman II heads, so these heads will be going on my brothers 350.

Ben

 

Yes the LG4 heads will outflow the L05 heads by a lot. The LG4 heads also have more potential when porting and polishing.