Where to begin? Got this car in high school (my first car), original owner babied it, body is in great shape. Completely stock 305 TBI...it stayed that way until the summer of my Junior/Senior year college. It ran like a top, 95,000 miles, but I decided it was time to do my first build. I had the crazy ambition of getting it done before I had to go back to school. So in about 3 months time I ripped the 305 out and had the 383 in and running the day before I had to get back to college. It was far from done after that summer, but over the next year or so all the loose ends got tied up. HUGE shout out to all the thirdgen guys, there were numerous times when I was stuck and thirgen came through every time, thanks!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

3020 John Deere comes in handy

 

Rear end out, stock 2.73 gears. Was rebuilt with 3.42. Stock 700r4 was built as well.

 

 

Patch panels welded in drivers side fender well, then light sanding over engine bay and repaint...Eastwood underhood black. Kept telling myself it wasn't going to be a garage queen and powering through!

 

383 stroker, 010 block, roller rockers, roller cam, edelbrock rpm 60899 heads, edelbrock performer air gap intake.

 

Clearance for ypipe....gone.

 

See you later ECU. Overall build goal: simple and powerful. No ECM, carbureted, AC delete, etc.


Mallory 4309, worked great with my TBI pump....pump was replaced when 305 was still in so it was fresh and luckily would work with carb.

 

Fuel regulator set-up

Also went with Dyno don headers, bow-tie overdrives TV cable system, holley 670 street avenger carb. Ask any ?s I'm sure I'm leaving lots out!

 

Before/After, not done, more upgrades in next pics


It was in for awhile...back out for oil pan swap

 

Canton 15-244, pretty much my only option for running dyno don y pipe. I was impressed with this pan.

 

 

Y pipe routing. Tight, but it fits nicely. The 2 2.5" pipes join to 3" magnaflow cat-back system

 

 

Y pipe, awesome clearance

 

Guys doing this swap feel free to ask any questions I'll be glad to help out! Video to come...

 

Video, open y pipe at the time

 

Well documented, great job. Lots of work done on that restification. Those L03's leave a lot to be desired don't they. I have a 400 sbc that needs to go in. Is the 350 a night & day difference? At 0:08 Revving. "Really?" LOL

 

Great build. Thanks for sharing all of the pictures.
You def did this right, especially with reconditioning all of those front end components.

Looks awesome! How does the engine perform?

 

Thanks guys! Ya the 383 is a huge difference over the 305. Now I need some decent tires to actually hook up haha! The engine performs nicely, the throttle response is great. That video was taken a couple weeks ago in January, it started right up, electric choke is nice. I plan on getting it dynoed to get the tune just right, or at least take it to speed shop. I'm sure I could get close, but this is my first build and all.

Also have a 750 holley that could go on, and of course have to get rid of the stocker serpentine ugliness eventually. Definitely learned a lot throughout this project though and am glad I jumped into it.