Ive got a 91 camaro RS conv with a 305 5.0L V8. which i believe to be the stock original motor it needs a new oil pump and it smokes when i start it and when im sitting at a light until it warms up (valves need to be redone i think).

Should i rebuild the 305 engine? or swap it with a brand new crate engine. Im not really looking for speed due to it being a vert so i dont really need to have a 350 or some crazy engine in it. i was just wondering which would be better.

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

Why do you think it needs a new oil pump? Have you verified the oil pressure with a mechanical gage, or are you relying on the stock dash gage?

You don't need to rebuild the engine to fix the smoke at start up. The valve stem seals can be replaced with the heads on the engine. A of the Tech/General Engine forum will find you plenty of threads about how to do that.

Most likely you have a couple of relatively inexpensive and relatively simple things to fix.

 

the stock oil gauge is all over the place at idle and then stays put at 50ish PSI only when i hit the gas but only for a bit....the the gauge goes crazy again....

if i rebuild the heads wont it mess with the engine itself? new valves and such but everything else is old. plus i have a rear seal leak and its quite annoying

 

personally if i could find a rs vert... and if i had the time/$, id just junk the 305 and do an LSx swap.

 

yea but i dont see the point in making it fast...in order to race it id have to put a roll bar on it which looks horrible on the verts

 

Those are classic oil pressure sending unit failure symptoms.

No, it wouldn't mess with the engine. Really makes you wonder how these stories get started.

Do a compression check, if that's good, then just fix what's wrong - valve stem seals and rear main seal.

 

how would i go about doing the rear main seal? or a link to a explaination would be great..thanks for your help

 

Either the engine or the transmission has to come out, one or the other. The seal is behind the flexplate.

One-piece rear main seals rarely leak. I'd check for another source before I'd start down that path. Valve covers, intake manifold, oil pan, or oil pressure sending unit are about 100 times more likely.

 

yea its a leak coming from the back of the oil pan in between trans and engine but im going to rebuild the heads ive decided so when thats being done ill find out exactly where the leak is coming from