Hi,

I bought a Camaro IROC-Z28 1987 with the stock 305, I wanna do a classic 350 swap but only the block, I know that you can use almost every part of the 305 except maybe injectors, knock sensors, chip, but anyway, I saw someone selling a short block on the internet but he named it "350 -357 chevy short block" What's a 357?
can I do the swap from a 305 to a 357 just as easy as a 305-350 swap?

I found an example on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevy...spagenameZWDVW

If I buy this one, can I still use some of my 305 parts? Thank you for reading!

 

A 357 is a 350 block bored .040" over.

 

Thank you for answering so quickly, this forum is impressive...
So, basicaly, I can swap peacefully without any kind of "omg it doesn't fit" surprise, just like a normal 305-350 right?

 

It's a normal small block just like any other.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

Wow, a 395 HP short block... Crazy how a block with no heads can make so much power
What heads do you have planned? Upgrading the cam in the package? Get full info on what cam is going in, "police cam" is BS, ask for a specs sheet.
But yes, it's a roller short block, so that's about as easy as it gets

 

What do you mean by "heads"? piston heads? (sorry I'm french, and france is not a really good country for the "camaro tech vocabulary") and what is "BS" when you talk about the Police cam? I'll mail them to have the spec sheets. By the way I asked them the same first question about the swap and this is what they said:

"The 357 is a bored over 350, everything that will bolt up to a standard 350 will bolt up to this. I would not recommend 305 heads on a 350 though as they do not flow properly and tend to burn up valves."


Thank you.

 

Yes, I guess you could call it the piston heads. It's the part that bolts up to the block, above the pistons.
BS - crap. It has no information, "Police cam" doesn't really mean much. Getting the duration @.050" and lift would be helpful, or even a part number.

That again, is more BS (crap). They need some porting to flow very well, but depending on what you're comparing them to, they can flow better than a lot of 350 heads. And the burning up valves is an outright lie.
If you were planning on buying aftermarket heads, ok, if not, then you can use your 305 heads, but i'd recommend you port them for max results.
I'm using 305 heads on my 350.

 

Here's the answer of this ebay seller about the "police" cam: 410/427 271/280, how's about it? good? bad?

What would be the best choice then? Ported 305 head? or 350 heads? Another noob question: How do you "port" heads? what's the point? new cc size?

 

Sounds like some one of the stock cams :barf:

A good thing to do, would be to ask what the up-charge would be to put in the cam of your choice.

But the cam is just a tiny blip on the far-away range of the radar..... start out with the IMPORTANT stuff that you CAN'T change yourself.

Are the pistons cast? forged? hypereutectic? coated?

Dished? flat-top? domed?

What brand?

Did they change out the rod bolts and re-condition the rods? since rod bolts are the part most likely to just up and break all on its own, as far as just raw parts breakage in a short block is concerned.

What's the deck clearance (how far "down in the hole") at TDC? Keeping in mind that stock ones are about .025" below the deck, but "rebuilder" pistons (the kind you'd expect to find in a low-bid short block like that) are usually about .020" MORE below the deck? To put the importance into perspective, the CR of a 350 with 64cc heads, flat-top pistons with 6cc valve reliefs (pretty typical for 4-notch pistons) and .039" head gaskets, is about 10.3:1; but with all the rest of that the same and adding the .045" of deck clearance, the CR is about 9.3:1. BIG BIG difference.

What kind of machine work was done? Torque plate bore & hone? Index bore; or did they just bore it out "on the wear", like cheeep rebuilds are done, to avoid having to scrap the block because the cylinders aren't all in 2 straight lines pointed straight at the crank in 2 rows exactly 90° apart?

What rings? plain cast-iron? moly? chrome? plasma-deposited moly? file-fit? What's the end-gap? do they even KNOW? or did they just jam in some out-of-the-box "pre-fit" rebuilder rings (the most likely, at the low-bid price)?

How did they balance it? how close did they get the crank to the bob weight on each crank journal? do they even know? (again, not likely that they'd even know, let alone set it to some arbitrarily small tolerance, on a low-bid rebuild) Or, did they just scrape up 8 rods out of the bin and a crank off the shelf and some pistons out of their boxes and just jam them together?

etc. etc. etc.

With an engine build, you get, AT BEST, what you pay for. Meaning, you pay the least, you get .... well, you figure it out. Paying more is no guarantee that it will be better, but making your decision based on the low bid pretty much guarantees that EVERY corner that can possibly be cut, WILL be.

Which is not to say that it isn't a "good" motor, or that you "should" or "shouldn't" buy it; only, that you're getting a cheep fleet style rebuilt motor like the phone company would buy in bulk to fix a dead van, NOT a high-performance "blueprinted" racing motor.

 

whoa well said

 

if your gonna buy that particular short block, its a heck of a deal, i bought one from the same guy in may/june of 2006 and its a quality short block. havent had any problems and i drive it everyday (its in a 88 k1500 truck) it may not be high performance blah blah, but with a set of L98 heads, shorty headers, a better cam, and the holley projection intake and 670 cfm TBI throttle body, it runs awesome in my truck. they sell a 383 sbc for 1700 too.