ok, first of all... it's a carbeurated LG4. I don't want anybody telling me its a bad motor because the mechanic that owned the car before me rebuilt the motor 16k ago, so we're sticking with it.

I want to know some opinions of what you think the motor could handle cam wise if i had the Peformer RPM manifold and some free flowing exhaust? I've seen all kinds of durations on some internet articles and none of them match up. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated

 

If you don't change out the manifolds, all else is a waste. Those ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO GO in order to uncork the motor. Even with the original "peanut" cam those came with, it's severely constipated.

So, when you say "free flowing exhaust", it needs to include headers. DO NOT buy anything that will bolt up to LG4!!! If you do, you will preserve the system's bottleneck; which is the drinking-straw sized Y-pipe and cat inlet. Get a complete exhaust system for something like a 88 350 TPI, from the heads, all the way to the street; including a high-flow cat such as a Catco. Don't bother with "universal fit" stuff, you'll spend more on it at the muffler shop just trying to graunch it onto your car, than you'll save in the purchase price. For the easiest bolt-in, a set of Edelbrock TES (which I'd suggest either sending out to get coated, or buy it straight from Jet-Hot already coated), a Catco direct-fit cat, and a cat-back exhaust of your choice from Hooker, Blowmaster, Dynomax, Edelbrock, etc. etc. etc.

That said, once you get a decent exhaust on it, a good cam would be the Comp XE262. With the heads that are on it, and especially if it's an automatic with the stock torque converter, that's about as far as you want to go, no matter what intake you use. If you take a stock LG4 and put that cam and that exhaust on it, it will feel like you've added 100 cubic inches, and 1500 RPM or more.

I'd suggest a ZZ4 intake, which you can pick up off ebay for dirt cheap, rather than the RPM. It's a whole lot less trouble and hacking. It's as near a direct bolt-in as anything can possibly be, and still be different. And it will feed a 305 about all it can handle, especially with stock heads.

 

wow... that explained everything man! You just reassured me bigtime about the cam i was looking at. It's always good to know you're not screwing up lol. I'm taking you're advice about the exhaust, and this weekend i'm going junkyard browsing for the late 80s like you said. And thanks for the ZZ4 intake idea. i had never thought of that.

 

With the ZZ4 manifold, I had a minor issue with the throttle cable bracket (don't even remember the details, hit something IIRC, was simple enough to solve). It has both the EGR valve mount boss and hot air choke boss - you'll need to block off the latter (if the manifold is a true ZZ4 take-off, it'll have that plate already).

The carb will be about 1/2 inch higher above the engine than it was before. The tube that goes from the valve cover to the air cleaner will be a tad short, but if you find one from an old 2bbl car from the 70's, that will fix it.

You've got to get rid of that single snorkel air cleaner, too. Either find a factory dual snorkel (getting harder to find), or fabricate one (tech article linked on the thirdgen.org homepage).

The ol' 305 runs pretty good, but when you get right down to it, there's just something about size that does matter...

 

i know "there is no replacement for displacement", but this motor is basically brand new and i dont see any reason why not to use and still have some fun, right?

 

I was speaking for my own intents, not making a recommendation for your project.

Without a doubt, there's no practical limitations of the current set-up. But, you know the old saying: How much power is enough? Just a little bit more!

By all means, enjoy what you've got.

 

As long as the shortblock is good go ahead and run it. Go to the racing board and look at Muggsyjack's posts, he ran a 305 shortblock in his drag car till he put a 350 together, now there's a problem with the 350, so he dug the 305 out of the scrap pile, re ringed and re bearing'd it, and put it back in. It may never die.