I am thinking about rebuilding my engine, its a 305 TBI with about 160,000 miles. Like everyone else I have dreams of dropping a 383 in there and going crazy with it, but for now I'd like to get my hands dirty and save some money by rebuilding the engine on my own. I want to keep the block and heads, but freshen them up, maybe add a little better components. Any suggestions??

 

What are your reasons for rebuilding it?

 

As CHEEEP and PLENTIFUL as cores are, why THAT block and THOSE heads?

Why not get some other motor, and rebuild that, and retain the use of your car in the meantime?

 

I've had the car for 10 years and put 100,000 miles on it, I can't afford to go crazy with a new engine/FI combo, so I want to do what I can to the engine that I have with out having to upgrade everything. Basically just would like to see what I can get out of what I have.

 

A super-cheep / "budget" rebuild will cost $1000-1500. That's machine work to the block, a valve job, pistons, bearings, rings, gaskets, fluids, and so forth.

It's going to take a couple of weeks to do the whole "rebuild" thing; pull the motor, tear it down, take it to the machine shop, wait, reassemble, install, deal with all the "might as well"s (water pump, belts & hoses, tune-up parts, etc. etc. etc.), get it running right, fix any bugs that turn up to get it back reliable again. How many weeks? Do you have another car to drive in the meantime?

A core is like $50.

You can go get that, tear it down, get it machined, reassemble it, be acquiring as many of the "might as well"s you can foresee, and otherwise prepping, WHILE STILL DRIVING YOUR CAR instead of WHILE YOUR CAR IS DISABLED.

For that $50, it could be a 350 instead of a 305. Arguably one of the worst 305s there is, at that.

So, why THAT block and THOSE heads? That's just not a wise decision.

 

Absolutely. Everything is all wrong here - wrong reason for taking it apart, wrong thing to spend money on, wrong thing to put back together.

Save your money for the right things.

(In the interest of full disclosure, there certainly are "wrong" 350's out there as well.)

 

thats why I asked the question. Being that I have never rebuilt an engine these are all helpfull suggestions. I was unaware that a core could be found as cheap as $50. My car is just my toy, I don't really drive it in the winter and have been wanting to do something about the engine ever since I put the t56 in. I'm aware that there are millions of possiblities where to go with a 350, so where should I start?

 

Start with emissions requirements. Do you have to meet any visual or sniffer inspections? If so, that will limit what you can do.

Next, decide on an induction system. Are you going to stick with TBI? Can you convert to carb (that's a Paragraph 1 question). Do you want to stay with EFI? Part of the answer here is what you'll do with the car - Daily driving? (doesn't sound like it) Racing? Pleasure cruising? Show car?

From there, you can do a used engine core rebuild, buy a crate engine, or something in between. What kind of a budget to you anticipate?

But, the first thing is to figure out the first two paragraphs.

 

Well I live in Pa, which has yearly emission inspections, but since I drive the car less than 5000 miles per year, I only have to pass a visual inspection. I'll probably have to have a cat, but I was going to remove the AIR system regardless.

I was hoping to keep the TBI, to keep costs down, maybe just replace the injectors?? I would mostly be using it for crusing, fair weather driving (during the summer its a toss up between the motorcycle and the camaro).

I'd really like to do a rebuild, I've spent the last couple years aquiring tools and working on my garage, and it would be great to get this experience under my belt.

As far as a budget, I was hoping to set my max budget at around 1500 - 2000.

 

I'm with the couch monarch on this one. Go find a 350 core, even a shortblock will be fine. Do your rebuild on it. You can usually find a good rebuildable 350 shortblock easier than you can find a good rebuildable 350 engine with decent heads, so consider buying the heads separately (go ahead and buy a complete 350, such as from a truck or Caprice, but those will have the same head problems as you've got now and you should consider the heads from them only for door stops or boat anchors).

The TBI forum has a lot of good information about putting a 350 under your TBI. The "Budget" sticky will probably be of particular interest to you.

Figure on spending a good piece of money on exhaust. Every piece of what you have is performance robbing junk.

 

thanks for the input, I will do some research tonight. I might be able to get my hands on an engine out of a 76 corvette, would that be a good canidate?

 

No better or worse than the engine out of anything else. It's the condition of the engine that matters most, not the vehicle it came out of.

 

What are the wrong 350s? The caprice/truck 350s?

 

Not necessarily.... their heads are crap, but the odds of finding a 350 with good heads already on it, for a core price, are mighty slim...

You can pick those up for little or nothing, so all you gotta do is find one with the short block in good condition, get a good set of heads (Vortec / the good 305 castings / aftermarket), and you're in business.

Probably the WORST short blocks, are ANY from about 73 to 79. Those will ALL have dished pistons. A 76 Vette 350 is a great example of one to avoid: one of the 180 HP wonders with 8¼:1 compression, 882 or 624 heads, and a 929 cam. Identical to a 350 2-barrel in an Impala. At least the L05 will have what people call "flat tops" these days, which aren't exactly flat, but at least they're a whole lot flatter than those old turds out of the 70s.

 

why do u all bust on him because he has a 305?? i have one and to tell u the truth theres nothing wrong with having a 305 in the first place? everyone out there is like 350 350 350 350 who cares man hes got a 305 let him rebuild it... theres alot of 305 s out there that i know which would woop on a 350

besides the point....if your not gonna race your car its sometimes not worth trying to run around finding a decent 350 motor and for cheap price.

 

Not necessarily the truth as the HD 3/4 ton and 1 ton trucks had 18cc dished pistons. I had to put 305 heads on mine to get decent compression.

 

how much?

 

so if I have acess to a free engine out of a 76 vette, I'm better off finding another engine somewhere else to rebuild? Whats the difference if I am going to replace most of the internals? Should I just go to a junk yard and pull the engine out of something??

 

If you're replacing all the internals, and you're only interested in the bare block itself, there's no difference, as long as the block itself is in good shape.

 

We're not. It's what he said he was planning on doing. The justification just wasn't there.

Which we already explained.

Since the originator mentioned a 383, obviously he's going to have to find a 350 block somewhere along the line. Unless he buys an already built crate. But, then there wouldn't be any reason to "practice" on the 305.

Even if you don't "race", it still makes more sense to build a 350 than it does to rebuild a 305. My "built" (not rebuilt) 305 ran well, but the 350 I've got now gets as good of fuel economy as the 305 did (and I keep track of every fill-up), while running circles around the 305. And, being better-mannered as well.

 

Another :

If this is about the 90 RS in your bio, don't forget that's a
roller cam/1-piece rear main seal block. When faced with
the same choice for my project, I opted for the same 350
style starter block. Just more confident that all the original
parts (like oil pan, flywheel/flex-plate, etc.) would be
re-usable. Plus the roller lifters are also re-usable with
any new-cam upgrade. I used the 305 internals (crank &
con-rod's). Machine & parts (including new cam) was on
the low side of 2 grand. Then you have a solid platform
for whatever direction you want to go. Five7's paragraph
questions are dead-on.

Good luck,
kk

 

How much for the block typically?

 

Depending on the local market, you can get rebuildable cores for anywhere from $50 and up.

 

How much of a power increase are you looking for with that 1500-2000 bucks? If the answer is not much, then just buy one of the long blocks from autozone with the aluminum L-98 heads. That way you get to pick your induction system or re-use the old one. Cheaper, faster and a lot less hassle when it comes to finding a core. As a bonus you'll still have a roller cam. If you want a little more power, spring the 249 bucks to order a hotter cam from summit or jegs. The aluminum heads can support an aftermarket cam. If you don't want a lot of problems from the ecm, then choose a cam that won't require a new prom. This is the cheapest route. 50 dollar cores are usually of the flat tappet breed, which in my opinion is inferior to the roller cam design. After all, if flat tappet was the way to go, then G.M. would've never changed the design in the first place. If you just want to get your hands dirty, tear the 305 apart after you pulled it and put it back together for grins and get your motor done faster and with a warranty by buying it from autozone. The best of both worlds. And if you want, you can freshen the 305 up later and shove it in an S-10.