Hey guys I was looking to swapping out my old 305 motor because it has over 200k miles and has begun to burn oil a little. I was looking to swap in a 5.7 l vortec motor from an early gm truck because you can easily find these in a junkyard for no more than $400 and that is with the wiring harness and everything. I was wondering if you guys had any advice for the swap?

 

Well you should keep the TPI and it's wiring, so you won't need the vortec stuff. Get the Vortec base for the TPI, or get a whole TPI setup from these guys already made for the Vortec:

https://firstfuelinjection.com/

Your biggest expense is going to be changing out the throttle base or going the First intake, and the tuning. You are right that Vortec's are cheap (actually bought mine fully dressed with intake gasket failure for $200 and they pulled/loaded it for me) - but they had intake manifold gasket problems and the TPI was a better system so you want to keep that.

Best thing to do is get the engine, install new rings (don't hone it), new gaskets and seals, new timing set along with a cam that's not made for a truck. I will let others suggest which cam to go with.

Remember the engines may be cheap but they are all 20 years old and will need gone through to insure a seamless transition. You can just drop it in, but like as not you will be in the same situation you are now - leaky, tired, oil burning engine. Just with 50 more cubes and a cam not suited to a sports car.

GD