I have a 305TPI engine with the mighty peanut cam. Yeah I know.

I am planning on a motor swap. But it will take me about a year to save up the cash for it plus it will take me awhile to do some other things to the car like headers, gears and SFC's before I do the swap.

Would it be worth it to get rid of that damned peanut cam and replace it with an LT1 cam? I know they will work in the 305. What increase would I get? Do I need to do anything special to get this to work? Is it just like a regular cam install? I see LT1 cams on Ebay all the time for $20-25 bux. The parts super cheap and if I did the work myself it would only cost me 25$ and the time to install it.

I just want to beef up the 305 a little bit to tide me over until I do the engine swap. What do you guys think?

 

Bump.

 

not if your planning a swap in a year...........

 

Plus gaskets, plus a timing set, plus coolant and oil, sealant, antiseize, etc.

The installation is no different than any other roller cam installation. You could install it now with a decent timing set, and if you build in a year, use the same set with a new chain, losing only the wear of the chain. There have been several people who have had good improvements with the LT1 cam swap, but be careful about the cam you get. There were no less than five cam grinds for the LT1 family of engines - all from the factory. There are innumerable aftermarket LT1 cams.

 

I may hold off and that and just stick to headers and bolt ons until I get ready to do the actual engine swap.