Hi , do most engine rebuilders / sellers take a 305 core if i buy a 350 or at least give me some kind of credit ?







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I seriously doubt that even a local builder would give you partial credit. 305s are easy to come by & rarely do people even want them, compared to 350 builds.

 

Can't hurt to ask. They just may take it.

 

Some do some do not. Depends on the place. Like said never hurts to ask. I know of a few places that used to give some credit. They would even take multiple cores up to 3 for one engine purchase depending on what it was. No idea if they are still doing that though.

 

I thought that the 305 and 350 where the same thing except bore size and different heads , i figured they could bore out my 305 to fit 350 pistons and sell it as a 350

 

The cylinder walls are way to thin to bore a 305 out to a 350 size. You'd be in the water jackets. Best you can do with a 305 is drop in the 400 crank & build a 334.

 

i doubt it. i asked the same question when i was thinking about putting in a 350 instead of building a 383. the core charge was like 300 dollars or something like. i asked the manager where i work and he said the best we could do was send it in and see if they would give us credit it on the core. if they did i would be able to get my money back. for the most part i believe it has to be apples for apples.

 

Yeah you are going to have to ask who ever you are trying to get your engine built by. A 305 and 350 are identical EXTERNALLY. The bore size of a 350 is 4.000 inch and a 305 is 3.736 inch. The most an engine builder will usually overbore a stock small block is .060 inch. anything beyond this is generally unsafe for a street small block. So 3.736 + .060 is 3.796. Not even close to the 4.000 inch of a 350.

The cylinder heads, rotating assembly, and camshaft will interchange but the difference in piston size cannot be made up. You can clearance the block for a 400 sbc 3.75 inch stroke crank and that will yield a 339 cubic inch motor. But this is more trouble than it is generally worth unless you are racing in a class that restricts displacement.

You just have to ask the local engine shops in your area.

 

If nothing else, they'll probably take if off your hands.

My advice when swapping from a 305 to a 350 with a core charge is to add the core charge to the cost of the project.

Last time I hauled to the scrap yard they paid me $85/ton for engine parts. A 305 weighs about 500 lbs, so figure on it being worth somewhere between $10 & $20 as scrap iron/aluminum.

 

I told Napa that i only had a 305 for a core and the guy said no problem , just bring that in

 

Why would a counter jockey care? You trade one in, they make a sell. When they send your 305 in, they'll discover it isn't a 350, not give you the core charge & they got a free 305 block to rebuild!

 

There was a time not too long ago when rebuilt 305's listed for more than rebuilt 350's for the same year model.

The counter jockey is going to take the core and refund the core charge. If his rebuilder doesn't accept the 305 core, it's the store that's out the core charge, not the customer (unless they have you sign something to the effect that you will be refunded the core charge after the core is verified to be rebuildable).

 

Agreed. My brother bought a turned crank from a auto parts store and he gave them his cracked crank as a core and never heard a word about it.


Mark.