I got a 84 T/A 5.0..with a stock 305... Debating if I should swap a 350 or a LS engine???...

 

350 is quick/easy/cheap. LS takes time/money/effort but yields outstanding power.

 

If this is a "project car" i would jump for the LS.

 

Depends on your budget and your goals...

 

how much money do you have? how comfortable are you with wiring? LS swaps are hard to beat, but they do come at a cost

 

O I see thanks for the advice but knowing 350 I would have to stay with carb engine and that's were I'm debating carb or fuelinject...

 

Well my budget is in the 600 just engine..and I'm wonderinghow to swap my auto trans and make it manual..

 

Well I'm not planing on any drag or racing anything ...but I still want my car to have *****.if any car pull up next to me...I wanna win Haha

 

"Los Angeles, CA". The only legal carb is the type your car came with.

$600 isn't much for an engine, unless you're willing to live with what you find used.

There is a tech article linked from the thirdgen.org homepage about swapping from auto to manual trans.

 

A 350 will drop into the same spot as a 305 as they are the same block and use the same accessories and everything else. But a 350 will need more fuel, adjustments to carb & timing, and some other stuff to work 100%. A carbed 350 with some minor performance parts is going to be in the 275 to 300hp range.

An LS1/2/3 is going to be about 150lbs lighter, give you over 300hp in stock form (with proper tuning & a free flowing exhaust) and is a major upgrade - not talking cutting and welding, but a lot of things have to be changed.

 

good catch. being a Cali car, any engine swap is going to be more costly than most of us have to endure. if you decide to go LS1/2/3, you're going to need to get *all* of the emissions parts off the donor car

 

gotta love emission free states

 

There's no such thing as an "emission-free state". There are states that don't do inspection/testing, but the emissions laws apply to all 50 of the United States.

Except California is allowed to have more stringent requirements than what the Feds impose.

 

Keep the 305. As I said in another thread, it was recently rebuilt and as was the 700r4. Swaps don't come cheap and unless that 305 was shot, I wouldn't recommend a transplant. You have a nice car in great shape considering its age. Keep it that way. Wish I could have kept it.

 

That's not true, I live in TN and we have no emissions in our area. Not sure if the more populated areas have it or not but you should see some of the vehicles driving around near me

 

I lived in TN for MANY years. Probably more than you've been alive.

Yeah, there's some SERIOUS violators there.

Butt in the end, The Law Is The Law. OTOH enforcement (utterly nonexistent at the state level) is about 99% of it. So sure, in some places you can do whatever the hell you want and have pretty damn good odds of not getting caught; doesn't mean the laws don't "apply" or aren't there.

Great way to revive a thread that's been dead for almost 13 years.

 

It absolutely is true.

1965 and down pre California emissions cars and 1967 and down pre Federal emissions cars you can run coal dust injection right on top of your dual quad tunnel ram with 1200 CFM Holley Dominators and ain't shat they can do about it emissions law wise. They might site you for obstruction of vision or too loud of a noise on a drive-by noise test with both 4 barrels WTFO.

1966 and up California emissions cars and 1968 and up Federal emissions cars they can fine you and put you in prison for as little as swapping to an open element breather on you valve cover.

It's called The Federal Clean Air Act and California had their version of it 2 years before the rest of the country did.

If you live in The United States of America then you are subject to Federal & State emissions laws.

Thanks for bringing a 13 year old thread back to life to tell us how wrong we all are.