My 84 TA originally came with the L69 305 HO. Unfortunately that engine blew up and the heads were destroyed. (I kept the block and cam for future rebuild though). Anyway to the heart of the matter. We got a 87 Chevy Caprice with a H code 305 4 bbl. Because we needed to swap it into the TA we decided to swap everything we could without going into the internals.
The result was this. An 87 305 with the following from the L69 305 HO:

Air cleaner with the hood scoop and the TA's intake system
Carburetor
Exhaust Manifolds
Fuel pump
Electric Fan
305 HO exhaust system (possible catback in the back, Dad mentioned something about having to replace the back of it)
305 HO water pump because of keeping the electric fan
305 HO HEI distributor (Caprice had a very primitive version of HEI if it had it at all)

In short we used all the L69 305HO parts that came originally with the car. The only thing left of the Caprice motor is the internals, the block, the Heads and the intake manifold. (We couldn't swap the manifold because they changed the heads in 87 thus couldn't get it to bolt in.)

The 87 Caprice baseline was 170 HP and 250 ft lbs of Torque before we did all those part swaps. What kind of HP and torque am I looking at having in this car now? From what I have read there are two camshafts that were used in the 87. 8.6:1 and 9.5:1 they both have the same VIN of H so I don't know which one we have. Horsepower and torque guesses for both cams would be nice. I've heard numbers of 170 to 250 HP. I am guessing the 250 HP is not realistic so I am guessing somewhere around 200.

I started this discussion in History and Restoration on another thread but thought I would move it here because of the nature of the discussion.

THANKS!

 

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I dug around in the library. It is an 8.6:1 Compression Ratio. I accidentally posted this thread twice so disregard the other one.

 

8.6:1 and 9.5:1 are compression ratios, not the cam. For '87, it should be 9.3:1.

In earlier years, the VIN H (LG4) engines had 8.6:1 CR and the HO and TPI engines had 9.5:1, but by '87 all 305's had 9.3:1.

For a given year model, all VIN H engines got the same cam. It wasn't quite as good as the HO cam, even though an '87 should be roller lifter.

The HO exhaust is better than the LG4 exhaust, so you'll have a little improvement there.

175/250 is a reasonable guess. I don't imagine it's a barn burner.

 

I ment the compression with those numbers. hahaha. So they are 9.3:1 compression? I have Motor and Chilton Repair manuals telling me 8.6:1. There is also another code for the 4 barrel carb motor, Two were for the caprice. LG4 and LV2. Whats the difference? As long as I am back up near the original HP figure I really don't mind. If I was building a barnburner I would have built a stroker. I am guessing based on what others have said that I am probably gaining at least 15 HP over the 170 rating. Maybe a stopwatch acceleration test is in order.....

Another question that came up is the fact that it is not starting. I have it cranking but it won't catch. I've diagnosed it to be the timing and the tuneup specs in Motor Repair manuals confirmed my marks are off. However, there are different timing numbers for the 84 and the 87. The 84 states that should be 6 degrees BTDC. Whereas the 87 states should be TDC. Which ignition timing should I be using considering it is an 87 block, internals and heads, but 84 ignition and everything else?