I have oil leaking into the combustion chambers, leaks from the intake manifold that drips along the sides of the block, and another leak coming from the bottom end, maybe the balancer. It's running like crap at idle and has no low end torque. The oil looks like a starbucks frappuccino and the car needs a paint job anyway. So what do I do?

Sell it?

Junk it?

Rebuild 305?

New 350?

Please give me your suggestions.

how many miles does ure engine have

Oil that colour means you've got coolant in it!!!

Odds are the IROC will have its on share of problems since it will be over 10 years old. Could be ragged out worse than yours. The LT4 cam could go in a nice Scoggin Dickey L98 short block for $1200 and buy some decent heads and your car would toast many of the irocs and the new engine should be good for at least another 100k. Sometimes the junker you own is better than the junker you look at. If you had the V6 car then that might be a different story. But the change from 305 to 350 is such an easy one then why not.

You didn't say what other problems you may have with your car that may warrant the abandon and go different.

BAD Paint
Worse Interior
Miserable transmission
Nasty stock exhaust
No suspension mods

All must be considered as well. How much is it going to cost to make the car the way you want it? I have a small fortune tied up in my car but I like the thirdgen body and the fact that it is a convertible which they didn't make that many of. So I put more money in it than I will ever get back out because of the car.

Yeah I know there's coolant in the oil. The paint sucks has chips galore and is faded to charcoal (was black). If I get a 350 I'll get a hotter cam than the lt4 (its not the LT4 "hot"cam).

Is it legal to swap motors in california?

I know of a guy that has an 83 Camaro Z-28 and he replaced his beat up 305 for a crate 350 from Kragen. It is registered and driving it to work on an everyday basis.

Go to the DMV website, maybe you can scrape up some info on it.

Good Luck!

350 physically looks just like the 305. If the 350 is well tuned it should pass CA smog with no troubles.