Alrighty then! Hello TGO and good day to all you already riding in your 3rd gens! So as it says I'm a first timer wrencher/engine swapper. Started learning and working on cars about 2 months ago.

Quick wrap up of current car and condition.

1984 camaro z28. 305 HO L69. rochester Q-jet. 90k miles. auto trans.
I've rebuilt most of front end. New centerlink, idler arm, tie rods, ball joints, sway bar bushings, stock height springs, koni yellows front and rear. Umi control arms and panhard in the rear. SFC, wonder bar and strut tower are future upgrades to chassis.

Now I know the engine probably needs at least a valve job and an intake manifold gasket replaced. But I know these 305s are not going to be a 350-400hp motor without considerable costs( equivalent to a better motor swapped in), so I'd rather just get this motor running and save over this coming holiday season to put in something better.

Budget is ~$3500 for motor and trans ( preferably manual but a strong auto would be fine too).. Is this even possible? If so what would you guys consider? Goal is to have a nice handling street car with a little gusto for driving around on some twisty back roads. Already have a reliable daily so this would be a weekend or going to the gym car.

I've read lots of the ls1 threads, but I'm not necessarily sold on the lsx family being my only option. Help a brother out!

 

Build a newer trans (88-92) spend about 1500-2k on that.
Get a 350 vortec truck longblock, nice cam, intake and headers/exhaust

 

^What he said^

Honestly if you wanted to save a little money you could just have the 700R4 you have now rebuilt.

 

Alright I'll do a little research on the 350 vortec.. If its from a truck I know the oil pan will need to be changed right? Does a 2 bolt or 4 bolt make a difference?..

I know the current trans probably needs a rebuild if I were to keep it because if I womp on it it'll slip some. Know a decent cost for a rebuild?

I guess also if anyone has any good references or links to places I could learn a little more detail about inner engine workings and such that'd be great too.

 

Find some Chilton manuals, they are a great resource.

4-bolt is a stronger block and preferred if you plan to make over 300 hp. The oil pan will need to be changed if it doesn't come from another F-body.

Check yellow pages for local transmission shops, no clue on the prices for that.

 

The truck pan is pretty much the same as the f-body but it also has a windage tray on the main studs.
4 bolt mains are not really needed unless you are 600plus hp and 7,000rpm all day.
The reason I say go with a newer trans is the OPs car most likely has a 27 spline converter. 84 or 85 up have a 30 spline and the trans became better around 88-89.

 

With 3500 budgetbherebis how I would do it, I've had a l69 car but mine was a t5, witch was fun but swapping t5's all the time sucks, go to your local Gm dealer and car meets/race track, find a trans guy who builds them on the side, buy your own kit and pay him to do it, be in it around 1g maybe less. Rebuild and modify that Q-Jet, amazing carbs if done right, do some reading on here and other places on hipo q-jets. Put headers and exhaust on the car of your choice, long tubes make nice torque down low, that would be my choice, a custom 3in off road y and a free flowing 3in cat back either custom or off shelf, stay away from flowmasters or other chambered mufflers or turbo mufflers as they restrict flow over straight threw style mufflers. Get you some good ignition parts and even better a non computer hei distributor and a truck q-jet for it to mod instead of the stocker. Play with advance springs and weights and your initial timing till you feel the butt dyno is impressed, you could pull your stock heads and have them milled to bump up your compression and do a home clean up port and polish job on them and your intake manifold. At that point check you timing chain and replace if needed and the spend the rest on wheels tires and suspension goodies. Those cars pulled .84g's on the skid pad stock so it won't take much to make it impress. **** some nice 17's and aggressive low pros would make that car a corner eater. I think you'll like what you have and even if there's still money left do a small cam on a like 110 lsa and that'll wake her up as well. Just my .02 cents

 

Much detail! Thanks for that input. Unfortunately I found out the car I have has a twisted frame , a frame crack, and some rust repairs needed in floor pan... so I've kinda just put it at a halt. stripped it of some things and have started saving up to buy something in better working condition and build it up from that point.

 

Anything you wanna sell of that car? If so send me pics on my pm and we will talk. Glad you liked the advice.

 

If youre looking for good bang for the buck and don't want to do a lot of internal work on the motor, then get a vortec truck engine swap the manifold to a carb base and add your carb of choice. Go with the newer 700r4 style trans, making sure you get a 2wd and not a 4wd version, and go to town.

I picked up a 75k 5.7 out of a '98 tahoe for $450 and put on a vortec tpi base for $350 and added my factory tpi stuff back on. So for $800 I went from a 305 with a hole in the block to a vortec 350 and all it took was a little time.