Howdy! I'm BUd from Ausitn TX.
I found an absolutely gorgeous 83 Z28 very recently.
2nd owner, 49k orig miles on only the seconde set of tires this car has ever had.
I'm going to freshen it up and run it. Belts, hoses, fluids, you know the typical stuff.
BUT
THis is the newest car I have ever had to work on. My last car was a 70 Chevy Caprice, factory 454, bored, balanced, blueprinted :-)


I'm sure I willl have some really simple questions and instead of panning and scanning the forums I thought it's be easier to start a new thread.

Firstly, the valve cover gaskets need to be replaced.
I plan on changing all the seals and gaskets that I can get to withouth pulling the motor for now.

How tedious is it to change the valve cover gaskets on the 305?

 

being thats prolly a carbed engine... theres no huge feul injection plenum in the way so you have alot of room in there to get to all the bolts it should be pretty easy... work of advise dont be cheap with the gaskets. get the premim ones or you will be replacing them again...

 

Of course, only the best for the new baby.
I'm going to keep an eye after I change the VC gaskets to see if any others need to be changed out. If you have specific brand recommendation, please give them.
Is it possible (and not too terribly difficult) to drop the oil pan?
I want to keep this "find" original but I will be looking for ways to make it run better, more efficiently. I believe in driving cars but I think I will want a little more than 150hp. It handles like a dream I just want some more oomph someday.

 

it will be hard to change oil pan gasket in car.

 

The oil pan gasket can be done without removing the engine, but its quite a bit more difficult that way. If you can unbolt the engine mounts and lift the motor up at least a few inches, then you can drop the pan low enough to scrape the old gasket off the block, and should be able to do the same to the pan. **Be careful moving around the oil pan, you dont want to bash the oil pump pickup around.**

If you do change the oil pan gasket, I would HIGHLY reccomend using the good (but expensive) rubber Fel-Pro "reusable" 1-peice gasket set, as it does a MUCH better job of sealing and will not dry out and crack like a cork set will.

Valve cover gaskets are not particularly hard on these cars, but can be time consuming if all the OE smog control equipment is still there - at least on the passenger side anyway. Again, I'd highly reccomend the Fel-Pro 'reuseable' rubber/steel core valve cover gaskets. They cost more, but they work so much better, and can be reused if you take the valve cover off again later for some reason.

When you change the valve cover gasket, if its got the stock steel valve covers, check the area around the bolt holes on the covers and make sure the area is flat, and straighten it if they aren't. People have a habit of overtightening the 4 valve cover bolts, which bends the mounting flange of the cover and causes leaks. Just need to tap it back flat if its not straight though, not a big deal.