I have a 1992 Camaro RS 25th anniversary ED. sitting on its factory 305.

Symptomatic of sitting for four years previous to my purchase, and a lack of proper oil changes, the lower bearings went out of it.

Here are my questions.

1. How benificial would it be to rebuild the numbers matching motor?

I don't see myself selling this car anytime soon and i do not believe the value is supremely effected in this situation, correct me if Im wrong

2. How much computer related details would i have to go through to switch to a 350 small, or 454 big?

3. 350 small block or 454 big block, recommendations/pros & cons?

This is no daily driver car, its a toy. I wouldn't mind putting the 454 in but i am very unsure of the full amount of hassle involved.

 

If you're going to get into the engine, I'd say replace the 305. As far as 350 v.s. 454, I'm going to recommend the 350 for the simple fact that the 454 wasn't designed to fit the 3rd Gen cars, however they do fit in the engine compartment. Big Blocks are about as cool as it gets, but in the 3rd Gen Camaro/Firebirds they tend to make the car nose heavy from what I've heard from people who have put them in a 3rd Gen. So, I'm definitely going to recommend staying with the Small Block.

 

So to be clear, theres really no value diffrence parting with the numbers matching block?

And any ideas as far as a 350 rebuild of the 305? Potentially taking it into 400+ cubic inches?

 

Right now there is not going to be a huge affect in the value of the car if you change to a 350, 400, 454, etc... Now, if we were talking a 1st Gen with an original 396/375 horse engine, and all of the SS goodies then I'd say yeah keep it all original, but on the 3rd Gen cars, it's not really that big of an issue at the moment. Personally I am keeping my 305 just for this reason, along with all of the parts that I don't need with my 355.

As far as which one to go with it all comes down to what you want to do with the car. Personally I didn't want a car that was only going to be good on the track, so I didn't get too wild with my rebuild (mild cam, 625 cfm carb, and factory heads). Mainly it's all up to as far as how crazy you want to get.

 

Honestly, I am building this as a fair weather car for my sister, but shes got a bit of a speed demon in her. Id say my ideals for this car are along of the lines of beefing up the horsepower without going so far as to having to change a lot of the car to suit, IE rear-end overhauls and tranny swaps are things id like to avoid, even though older trannys are definitely prone to fail under fresh motors.

I am back and forth on this cause her and i are both gearheads, but we definitly dont need to end up with an 800hp motor. Also, if we could be as cost effective as possible? I am doing the motorwork myself and if its an internal rebuild ( which i would love to do, as i have never had the pleasure) i will do that to save a penny.

 

I gotcha. That's sounds about like what I've done. In that case I'd do I mild cam (Comp is a really good company to get a cam spec'd from), I'd probably say go with a carburetor because you're going to spend about the same money either way to stay fuel injected. My goal for my build was to get a pretty good performance car without having to worry about ripping out my WC T-5 and rear end, although my rear end has been worked and upgraded to a 4.10 gear with full posi-trac unit, and on top of that I've got a T-Top car, so I didn't want to mess up anything with that.

 

Im thinking bout buying an orielly 305 crate motor and calling it a day. Small question, Numbers matching means the original block that shipped with the car right? Or does it mean the orig. Model year of block?

 

It's a 92 RS. There's little or no collector value to speak of, nor will there likely ever be any. I would not let that be a deciding factor in your engine buying decision. There are a lot of guys on this forum that have swapped 350s in place of their 305 TBI motors. It's a well documented swap and one that should be very easy for you to follow if you spend a little time reading about it. Likewise, the 305 TBI to 350 TPI swap is well documented, as is the 305 TBI to 350 carb swap. Unless you want the simplicity of a direct in & out swap, I'd certainly recommend the 350 swap.

If you really want to up the ante, there's always the 350 TBI to LSx swap.

 

I don't recommend a 454 Bbc if ya plan on running a T5, lol....been there tried that. I went back to the lo5, roller set up TBI with W/C T5, hangin in there, but the bearing in the case kept oblonging, had to press fit larger custom sleeve and bearing into case.Problem solved

 

There is only one "numbers matching" block for your car - the one that came in it.

O'Reilly will give you a block of the same type. May be a different year, may be a different model. But, it will fit.

 

Yeah matching numbers means the block that the car came with, which on the 3rd Gens ain't that big of a deal. If you're gonna do a crate engine go ahead and step up to a 350, its gonna cost about the same, and if you do any mods to it, you'll get a better bang for your buck. You'll have to change a few things, but it's not a huge deal.