well here is goes.

a guy i know is willing to sell me the WP S/R torquer 305 heads really cheap.they only have a few runs on them and are halfway ported and polished. along with that he will sell me hardned pushrods, and 1.6 rocker arms. he also suggested a decent cam he used to have and an air gap manifold.

he had this setup atop a stock 305 L69 and ran 12.1's and 12.2's with 4.30 gears. in a monte carlo

by the time i shell out all this dough am i better off just getting an entire crate motor from chevy. then there are the age old issues of the exploding t-5...and f-bod traction problems.

the car has 83,000 miles on it now....its a daily driver and i just want to build it up for some weekend fun at the track.

any opinions? any suggestions?

 

And buying a "crate" engine as opposed to upgrading the L69 would solve those other problems..... how???

There's advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Surely you can swap heads for alot les than you can buy a whole brand-new motor that's actually better than a L69 (the cheapo "Goodwrench 350" for instance would be a step backwards); on the other hand, if your 305 is already totally used up and needs the short block rebuilt, there's little sense in putting heads on it.

Budget, condition of your existing motor, your goals, the time frame you have to do this in, all would be things to consider.

 

If he is selling the stuff cheap to you than I would buy it. 83,000 is not that many miles at all to start modding. Some guys have gone into the hundreds before they modded. Are you sure he ran low 12's with a 305? Was the car striped down and equipt with a bit juice system. Anyways, what I am getting at is that I don't want you to get your hopes up by his numbers.

 

Air Gap & computer controls doesn't sound like a marriage made in heaven.

A T5 should live longer behind a 305 that makes the same HP as a 350 because the 305 will have less torque and have to rev higher to make that same HP. But, that also means it has to rev higher to get the car moving, which means high-RPM clutch-dumps, which is the real cause of T5 death.

Where is that free lunch, anyway?

 

See that's the problem with any new found power whether it be from a 305 or 350. We as f-body owners have no self control when it comes to taking it easy on the loud pedal and abusing our car's from stop and go or clutch drops with power shifting. So the T5 is dead from the get go.

 

Goals: daily driver first. weekend racer second

Time frame: none. there is a backup truck i can drive if my car is not drivable

Motor condintion: stock with 83,000...

 

his monte is a full out race car. roll cage, tubbed rear, built trans, some fiberglass body parts,

the motor was the last thing he changed.

 

That is still very impressive for a 305! Imagine what he would have run with a 350 or bigger.