I've got a stock 305 in my 84 trans am an I'm wondering what kind of mechanicly minor things i can do to squeeze out some HP out of her without tearing into the belly of the engine.

 

1. Exhaust - headers, y-pipe, cat, and cat-back.
2. Air cleaner - go with a dual snorkel air cleaner.

that's really all you can do without "tearing into the engine".

you could also swap in a new set of final drive gears...depending on what trans you have, you could have anything from 3.23's to 3.73's. LG4 autos got 3.23's, while manuals could have 3.23's or 3.73's. L69 autos got 3.42's or 3.73's, while manuals got 3.73's.

 

anything you can do to improve breathing, exhaust, cam, heads, induction. all could be done without tearing into the "belly" of the engine

 

Carburetor tuning on the secondary side. Edelbrock intake.


Nitrous, Baby Roots Supercharger

Car Craft built a 325 HP 305 a while back. They took an 84 camaro LG4. Stock on the dyno with headers, stock cast iorn intake, stock Q-jet, Stock HEI and a true dual 3" exhaust into flowmasters it made 197 HP @ 4,600 and 261 ft/lbs @ 3,100. They added an edelbrock performer and gained 20 HP up to 217 HP @ 4,200 RPM and 285 ft/lbs @ 3,300. If you can sacrifice the EGR a performer RPM spreadbore intake under the Q-jet gave 230 HP @ 4,800 and 285 ft/lbs @ 3,300. The next phase was a cam swap which I know you don't want to do. The cam swap to a Comp XE 262 brought the totals to 270 HP @ 3,100 and 291 ft/lbs @ 3,900.

Other changes to that engine included vortec heads for 325 HP, and World Products 305 Torquers for 300 HP.

 

thanks for those replys , i've got a .30 305 that i might "designate" for a 305 stroker kit. Would be a niece little project engine.

 

you should not replace the lid of your aircleaner if it is a 84 TA with ram air. If you dont have the ram air setup you can add it on to your 84 TA hood. It just opens up the top aircleaner to suck outside air in. Make sure yours works (hotwre the solenoid to check it)

 

Headers and exhaust first off... biggest gains (for a bolt on) are there. After that, a better air cleaner, then tune the engine to take advantage of the better breathing... tune the carb with HO hangers and rods, tweak ignition timing, etc...