First of all, I'd like to say that the folks here have offered a great deal of help to me without knowing it. There's some great info here. I have an 88 SC with a 305 TBI and a 5 speed/3.08 rear. I'm getting parts together, including an LT1 cam, TES headers, ZZ4 intake and adaptor (probably home made), gaskets, timing set, springs,poly bushings, steel to box suspension pieces, posi and 3.42's. The car already has the Hooker cat back. My hangup is the heads. Are the L03 heads OK when ported, or are they going to make the rest of the combo a waste?. I really don't want to pop for new heads for a 305. What will this combo do HP wise? do you see any problems or conflicts here? The car is mostly for driving to work, but it's just too slow for my taste.

 

The mods you just listed will make a huge difference. I'm glad to see gears and posi on the list. I'm also kind of interested in how the zz4 take-off intake will work for ya. It's like the performer and definatly an upgrade! The Lt1 cam is also a nice touch. With the 5 speed and those mods you'll be very happy. The LO3 heads do leave a lot to be desired but all in all the 305 in general has a lot of cons compared to it's cousin the 350. Somebody just posted good shots of the combustion chamber on the LO3 heads, it's definatly not the worst head ever made although the intake runners leave a LOT to be desired. I have yet to hear of anybody on this board with a ported set of stock heads. If you could remove a majority of the swirl in the runners, especially around the valve, then there is probably a lot of flow there. I'd make some phone calls or do a search on porting of stock heads. Just make sure you get some flow numbers from the swirl port style heads (LO3 and LO5). If you can afford it, I'd try and get some vette aluminum L98 heads. They've got the smaller combustion chamber so you wouldn't loose compression. You'd also have heads that would easily swap over to any 350 short block if you ever do decide to scrap the 305. I'm partial to the vortec heads but since you've already got the intake that scraps that plan. If you hadn't had the intake already I would have tried to find a pair of stock L31 heads and get them worked over. The design is like a crossbreed between a gen II (LT1) and gen III (LS1) ontop of a gen I block . If money wasn't an issue I'd hold off with the heads and save for the suposed new versions of the fastburns. I'd then swap them onto your 69 zz4 and take those aluminum L98 heads off the zz4 and slap them on your 305 . I'm full of ideas, just don't have any money

 

Thanks for the ideas. I heard the ZZ4 made more power with the Vortec heads and thought about dropping a pair in the 69, but I didn't think they could handle more than .480 lift, compared to the hot cam's .525, without a lot of work. Maybe a pair of AFR's for the 69 down the road. People say I'm nuts for wasteing money on the L03 instead of my LT1, but I like a challenge. I guess I'll have to see what kind of shape the L03 heads are in before I go grinding. They have 80K on them.