I was thinking. Thinking long and hard. I had a wacky idea...
I have in my possession a set of Vortec 906s, an Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake, an LT4 standard cam, and a Holley 670cfm with adapter to squarebore... I've had these things for over a year just collecting dust in my room. I've been waiting for some time and money and a place to work on a 350. I have an XE268H cam also, with springs and lifters that I had planned for a 350 swap. Well I don't know how that will pan out, without a place to work. I was thinking... should I modify my L03 with the parts I have now until I get more money to get a 350 and a place to swap it at?

This question has probably been asked a zillion times, but I just can't decide on what to do.

I'm a college student who has very little money other than a savings account for 'emergencies' and thats about it. I've got a job coming to me in two weeks on campus. I don't drive all that much. Do you think it would be worth modifying the L03 until I get a good job and a long vacation to swap a 350? I really don't know.

What would be the estimated horsepower of a 305 with an LT4 standard cam (tiny bit bigger than an LT1) and vortecs with an edelbrock RPM air gap? I'll go search the forum for that now... but thats not my primary question.


ARG decisions.

 

You know what? I am on the same boat as you. I was gonna build up my LO3, i bought an LT1 cam (for like 20 dollars) an edelbrock intake and roller rockers. Ive decided just be real patient (which im not) and just wait to put all those things in until i got a 350. Im doing all suspension right now and chip tuning. I figure, why waste my time and money on a 305 when even a built up one cant handle a rustang. Even with those parts, i dont know if youre looking at 270 hp.
Just be patient, do suspension, and put in a 350 or higher is my advice.

 

Time for the 305 guy. The little 305 has tons of potential but its more cost effective to build a 350 with the way the aftermarket products are geared. With the parts that you have you would have to shave the heads to bring the combustion chambers down to somewhere in the 58cc rage so the 305 can keep its compression up, and the intake, unless its designed for the vortech, will need to have new mounting holes drilled since vortech heads use a different bolt pattern than standard heads. If you're willing to do that work to the parts and put them in the 305 I'd say go for it, properly tuned it will definetly deliver on the hp and overall performance, you will definetely be more than happy with it over the stock L03.

 

yeah the manifold is fitted for vortec heads.
Would the standard chambered heads give me THAT big of a compresison problem?
How much would I lose if I kept them standard size?

The L03s compression is 9.3, correct? Anything above 8.5 is decent, right? Plus if I planned to run nitrous in the future it would be safer... right?

 

Don't shave the heads. Keep them 64cc for the 350 later on. You can use the heads on your 305 and a small head gasket and you shouldn't lose much compression. The difference the heads, cam, and intake make you won't notice the loss of compression.

If the work and extra parts won't cost you all that much I say mod the 305 now and do the 350 later when you have the cash. If you do this though, get into chip tuning as soon as possible and start tuning your stock combo now. You will need lots of tuning for that setup.

 

Id rather someone do it for me :-/

I lack a laptop, etc