I have an 84 Camaro w/ the 305HO motor. What do i need to increase dispalcement,what is the maximum displacement i can achieve?

 

There are stroker cranks available for the 305, but by the time you futz around with all that, you could have bought a 350 and rebuilt it cheaper, and ended up with a bigger engine than the stoked 305 to boot.

So, what you need, is a larger motor. The biggest small block I have personally built was a 434, others have built much larger ones than that but the complications increase enormously. A 350 is a very straightforward swap, a 400 a little more involved, and beyond that... don't attempt it unless you have someone around who has some experience with such things to help you out, and a several thousand dollar budget.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

A 400 crank,
A 400 balancer/damper
A 400 flexplate
A new set of shorter pistons

 

Wow RB, 434 is huge for a small block! I'll have to look you up when I get my Camaro finished and start on a monster motor for a truck! Either that, or I'll just get a huge big-block!


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Working on:
'84 Z28 LG4 305 with 200,000 original miles!
Added dual elec fans.
145 MPH IROC Speedo
Building 430 HP 350 (ZZ430)
using primarily GMPP parts.
Short block sitting on a stand.

Starting to look like the Kicker poster child!

ASE Certified Master Tech

 

you will have to turn down the 400s main journals .you'd come out way cheaper if you got a 350 and rebuilt it.that way you could swap the 305 for the 350 with very little downtime.find a pre 86 350 so the flexplates will interchange

 

The cheapest 350 I have found is the GM Goodwrench 350 with a terrible 8.5:1 compression ratio for $1,200. I have heard there is no sense in trying to build power in this engine. So what other alternatives do I have for finding a budgetable 350 to build.

 

You're right JP, 434 is a pretty big small block, for a stock block... it definitely took some careful parts choices and a little extra work to make it, but wasn't anything beyond what any competent racing machine shop could do. All the parts we used were pretty much off-the-shelf things, we didn't even need a small base circle cam. It's not magic by any means.

Still, for a guy just starting out at this game like 84 appears to be, anything that involves exotic parts combinations and special machine work of any kind would be a big risk of alot of money. He's better off getting a regular 350 and building it up, and then maybe a couple more motors down the road when he has some experience and tools and all that, tackling a non-stock engine. I think it's usually better to learn to rebuild motors and make them live before you try to build your own.

84 - probably the easiest way to come up with a good starting point would be just get an old junk 350 at the boneyard. The heads will probably be crap, so you'd need to buy some good ones if you want it to really run good; but a 350 short block is far and away the cheapest and easiest kind to rebuild and to get parts & machine work for.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

[This message has been edited by RB83L69 (edited March 04, 2001).]