I own an 88 with a 305. Unfortuneatly for me, it is only an lo3 and has 2.73's. 170 HP and 255 ft/lbs. is simply not cutting it for me. I was looking into all different types of performance parts for my car and nothing is cheap. Would it just be more affordable in the long run to swap motor's or should I be looking for heads, cam, and intake? My dad tells me all the time "you will never get anything back from your car, quit pissing your money away" and even though I pay for everything he still legally owns the car. He could take it away from me pretty easily so everything I do is sorta without him knowing. If I did a motor swap I would want to keep the TBI setup in order to keep my dad happy and perhaps be a little bit less expensive than a fuel injected motor. I remember hearing that 305's and 350's are all the same dimensions so it should fit in my car no problem right ? If I bought a completely new motor what will I need to go with it? A new fuel pump, stronger transmission than a 700R4, or anything at all? I read a post where someone was talking about putting in a 400HP 350 TBI motor, does anyone know where to find one for sale or have any info ? Anyone know some prices or ballpark figures? Just want to say thanks for any help in advance. Anything at all will be helpful.

 

yeah man, I put a 355 in my car which originally had a 305 TBI in it. you could put in heads, cam, headers, etc. and get a lot more umph out of the car, but the 350 WILL be more power oriented. It will also fit in with all of the parts that are in your car currently. There are a few differences with going with a 350 though that you'll have to keep in mind. The 700r4 will be good up till a point, I'm running about 340 hp with my setup and haven't had problems, but at 400 hp it may be necessary to upgrade. you could buy a GMPP engine, or one out of Summit that's set for performance. An engine connection truck motor should even make a strong foundation, but it'll need certain upgrades from the performance ones. When you upgrade to a 350, its a good idea to upgrade the injectors (the chip must follow), the knock sensor, and then the knock module.

Sorry I don't have prices for the stuff though,
Tell me if I can help,
Mike

 

there are 2 ways to go about it really. a lot of guys like to get a crate motor and throw it in. especially teh vortech 350ho, 330hp for about $2000. i went the other way, i picked up heads and parts that i coudl swap onto a 350 when ever i get one.
both ways can work out really well if you pick the right parts. it is just a matter of if you like to work with a platform to fidn the way around it or if you are more anxious to get more power right away.

later
tim

 

Hey Tim,
Aren't you running the World Products 305 heads? Are you saying you could swap those to a 350 if you wanted to? Wouldn't the combustion chambers be a little small for a 350? It seems like it would burn up. Who knows? That's just what I've always thought So how could it be done?

Thanks

 

He's using the performer edelbrock heads, not the worlds.
A 350 is a good thing. I see a lot of guys say, nah, stick with the 305, too many people have 350's now, try and be unique. Then I just say, well how many fast 350's are still running with GM TBI? There are ways to be different but sacrificing performance just to be unique is like using some dinky 1" primary headers because they're "different."
Anyways, to keep the TBI on a 350 you'll need to do a bunch of things. Depending on the cam you'll need larger injectors, adjusted fuel pressure accordingly AND a custom eprom.
The best platform is the Lo5 eprom if you do keep the TBI and swap in a 350. At least that eprom was designed for a 350 in a car. Be warned though, the torque converter tables are crap in the ANLU (cop car Lo5 eprom). If you can, don't just get the ANLU eprom, get somebody to change the torque converter settings back to the f-body standard. It's a measurable difference in how the car shifts.

 

I really appreciate that reply's, thanks. I have tons of summit and Jeg's catalog's but I don't really know what I'm looking for. If I did a motor swap I would want to be able to keep the 700R4 ( I heard it is good up to 400HP, anyone know if that is true?) and I knew I would have to do some little things. Can anyone give me a guess on the price of an eprom? Anyone have a guess on the price of a 350 TBI if I could find a nice one in a junk yard or would everything I find probably be crap and not much of an increase in power anyways? I'm not looking to lose an arm and a leg over this but I know it's not going to be cheap. Less than 3k for the entire project would be nice. It'll take some time to get the money saved up but it would be worth it. Can anyone give me some realistic numbers on HP increases with a new cam, heads, headers, intake or anything I am forgetting. Is it possible to get a naturally aspirated TBI 305 into the low 14's or even mid 13's ? If I keep the 305 I would be looking into nitrous and 3.73's first. The fuel pump I have now isn't the greatest but it works so if I got a new motor I would get a new fuel pump, filter, regulator, and injectors then. Can anyone tell me about how much to expect to spend on a mechanic to put the motor in and down time? I can't have it at the shop long at all because of the whole problem with my dad, I could make something up for a few days but after that he would get suspicious. Anyone have any help for me? Thanks to everyone who has replied so far. Sorry this is so long, just tryin to learn.


And what the hell is this thing? :lala:

 

It's a guy dancing around singing "La la la la"

It's to indicate that you're happy with some mod you've done, or that you are really bored.

AJ

 

As I like to say on NEThirdgen.org:

 

LOL at that!!!!!

AJ did you mean a guy or a gay????

 

if you are looking for a TBI unit for your 350 Holley makes a 670cfm throttle body for the 350, it has 2"bores for better flow as well. some where around 40% larger than stock, look into it.