i just pulled my 305 engine (92 camaro rs) and id like to rebuild it. the thing is im not that experienced and i could use some help. it would probably be cheaper to buy a complete engine and pop it in but then how would i learn. the problem i have is that i wanna buy parts but i dont know what to look for or what brands i should try to get. id like to make it pretty powerful but at a resonable price. so with that said i start with a bare small block....now i have to get a cam and crankshaft,etc....how do i know which ones to get that will increase power more than others and help me reach my goal of making it a pretty bad a** engine?

 

You don't need to replace the crank unless yours is somehow so badly damaged that a machine shop can't fix it. If you do need a new crank, you're better off spending the small amount of extra money it costs to get a used bare 350 block and build that instead of the 305.

Power comes from the heads. After you've chosen your heads you choose the rest of the components in the engine to match, especially the cam.

If it's your first engine build, look for a copy of "How to Rebuild Your Small-Block Chevy" by David Vizard, or better yet "How to Build the Smallblock Chevrolet" by Larry Atherton and Larry Schreib which is also available with an included DVD.

 

i got so many questions and dont know which to ask. like i said im not that experienced. so power comes mostly from the heads..how so? wouldnt keeping the 305 keep the car numbers matching? why get a 350 instead? i dont know what the standard 305's are on horesepower but how far could i take it at a reasonable price?(isnt it something like around 200 horsepower?) dont know if its acceptable to list sites with parts, if it is forgive me but i just really need help.. so u say heads, well summit has combo packages (summit sum-cedl400 and summit sum-cedl402) how can i tell which heads will give me more power, i mean what parts that the heads consist of give the engine more power?

 

Engines make power by burning air, so the rate at which air flows through the heads is the biggest single thing that determines how much power the engine can make. After that there aren't many things you can change that'll make the engine make more power, there are ony things you can change to make it lose less.

Having said that though, 305s have an extra handicap due to their small bore size which puts the rim of the intake valve close to the cylinder wall and obstructs flow, limiting flow through the heads no matter what you do with them. 350s don't have this problem.

How far you can take it at a reasonable price depends too much on what your idea of a reasonable price is. Keeping your 305 would keep the car numbers matching, but the odds of anyone ever caring about that are slim-to-none.

I don't know exactly what parts Summit has put together in their kits, so it's kind of hard to tell what you could expect out of them.

What are your intentions for the car?

 

98% of people on here are gonna say get the 350. Basically the 350, having more cubic inches is going to make more power easier than a 305 can. But I've seen some nice 305s around here. (Isn't some guy running 12.99 with N/A 305?)

Is your car an Automatic or Manual? Is your car TPI or TBI? (TBI = RS right?)

Somethings you can do are K&N filters, a nice exhaust system w/headers + high-flo cat, and 3.42 or 3.73 gears. That alone will make your car feel way different.

 

it is automatic and TBI. but theres 2 things...one, a mechanic told me that the trans flares in 1st and 2nd,i dont know what that means..do you? the second thing is i cracked the the case when removing the engine so im probably gonna get a different trans..someone told me not to get the 700R4's but to look into something different..but like i said i dont know a lot so i dont even know what other trans to look into. how much do you think id end up spending (ballpark figure) to make a descent engine but nothing too crazy or lets just throw out a number...$4000, what could i do with that? And lets say i got my hands on a 350...i live in chicago...you guys now of any places that i could take the engine to get machined or should i not even bother doin that? as for my intensions with the car...well im not gonna race it nor is it gonna be an everyday driver either...i basically wanna build a beast. i dont necessarily want a rocket but something that has quite a bit of power that i could use if the opportunity came up.

 

I've got both books. I rebuilt a Pontiac 400 back in the 90's, so I'm not a complete novice to the engine building scene, but I would highly recommend grabbing both books and reading them cover to cover.

I'd also agree that the Atherton/Schreib book would be the best of the two. David Vizard is incredibly knowledgeable, but I think the other book is very useful for a nice, inexpensive buildup. Further, it is much newer so it has some more up to date info.

 

to that list id like to add

"how to build a smallblock chevy for the street"

awesome book

 

"Flaring" is when the transmission behaves as if it's in neutral briefly between shifts, letting the RPMs rise quickly before they drop down into the next gear. It can be a sign of worn-out clutches or a hydraulic problem in the transmission.

Sticking with a 700R4 is by far the easiest thing to do. Your car already has one, so you know it has everything you need to just bolt another one right in. Compared to something like a TH350, a well-built 700R4 may not be the cheapest in the short-term, but with the overdrive you'll save on gas in the long-term.

It depends what you want from the car ultimately.

Machining is done to correct problems. If the cylinders are out-of-round, or worn out-of-spec it needs to be bored. If the mains aren't straight it needs to be align honed. If the decks aren't flat it needs to be decked. If the crank journals are scratched or worn they need to be turned. etc.

That shouldn't be a problem, it's easy to make streetable power. Part of that should involve upgrading things that support the engine, like a new exhaust with headers. Are you going to keep the TBI?

It hasn't come up yet, but if you did decide to get a 350 block and the rotating assembly on it needed to be replaced, you can spend the same money and build a 383 for almost no effort as well. Just as a 350 is better than a 305, a 383 is better than a 350.

 

I don't know that one from experience, but if it's like most of the similarly-titled books, it'd probably be good.

Engine building books are divided into two general categories.

There's the broad theory books, that try to give you a broad idea of what sorts of things you can do with an engine, what types of parts are on the market, etc. They all tend to have pretty much the same information in them, so there's not much point reading more than a couple of good ones.

Second there's the hands-on, nuts and bolts, step-by-step instruction manuals, like the Vizard and the Atherton/Schreib books above. Again, they all have pretty similar content, which makes sense since they're about rebuilding the same engine. Sometimes one will have little techniques or suggestions that the other doesn't though, so it still makes sense to read more than one. For a performance build though, stay away from the more "generic" manuals like the Haynes and Chiltons. They're fine for basic rebuilding of the engine on grandpa's old farm truck so he can squeeze another few hundred thousand miles out of it, but they won't tell you much about building a high-performance engine.

 

"How to Build the Smallblock Chevrolet" book...should i get the one printed in 1993 or the revised one that came out in 2004? will this book give me info on what parts work and dont work..for example..engine is bored to 4.030 and i get pistons and connecting rods with a stroke of 3.750 and rod length of 6.000 is that gonna work...or is there some way that that wont work..like can the rod be too long and in pushes the piston too far up in the cylinder? bare with me if the answers to these questions come easy to you guys..like i said im a novice.

 

I don't see any reason not to get the revised one. Try to get the version with the DVD.

Not really, but it'll tell you how to put together the parts that you have. The piston size has to match the bore size obviously. The rod length, stroke and piston wring height all have to agree with each other or else you'll end up with a piston that's down the hole or sticks up out of the cylinder at TDC, just as you say.

 

i guess lets start with pistons..obviously i'll look into getting a 350 block like you guys said and get it machined and bored .030 over. my question would be what am i looking for with brands...other than the obvious that one may cost more than the other...but sometimes cheaper parts(not in quality but in price) can end up being better than more expensive ones... im currently just checking out prices on the web...i looked around on the summit racing site at pistons and they've got these brands..(Mahle/Wiseco/Speed Pro/TRW Automotive)how i know which ones to go with...and they got different piston styles..(flat/dish/dome) out of these styles how do i know which ones are better or what the different styles do...like is flat better than dish or dome,etc?

 

get an entire rotating assembly kit.....somethin from like scat or so......

 

what exactly is a rotating assembly kit..whats it consist of?

 

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...1&autoview=sku

this is a GM 350 shortblock, if you arent that familiar with rebuilding engines and arent seeking redicilous power, this is the answer. $1500 plus shipping.
heads/cam/intake/accessories and drop it in.

 

well lets say i buy a used 350 sbc...would it be cheaper to take the block to a machine shop and have it cleaned and machined and whatever else id need to do to get it in top shape or take the suggestion that "IMPALED" made and consider buying the gm 350 shortblock. hey "IMPALED", what would the size of the cylinder opening in that shortblock be?

 

i sugest u find a local machine shop and go to them and tell them how much power u want and ask for a quote...i know at my local shop i can pick up a shortblock like that for about 700 bucks......
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http://www.sdparts.com/product/12499...ateEngine.aspx

that too is a decent option its what i got an i like it so far. u can always swap heads and cam later and bump up the power.....

 

what do you mean by "cylinder opening" ? if bore its 4.000" just like every other 350.

when buying a block it can be a crapshoot. you would need to have it rebored and honed, decked, etc. and have some of that done before and realize that there is a small crack in the block. and its all scrap metal.

IIRC the gm block is fully assembeled, all you would have to worry about is top end, valve train, and accessories.

or for a little more you could get the long block $2700
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...1&autoview=sku

and you would just need to drop it in. they also both have warranties.

 

"how to build a small block chevy for the street" i guess would be inbetween those categories. it tells you step by step how to put the engine together, but also gives you some of those tips like how to pick out a block, what carb to pick, and stuff like that. its definately a good book.

 

For what you're looking for you don't need anything exotic. Relatively inexpensive hypereuctectic pistons would be fine.

Flat/dish/dome refers to the shape of the piston face. You choose the type based on what compression ratio you want to achieve with your displacement and your heads.
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If that happens to anyone its their own fault for not having the block checked for cracks before putting a bunch of work into it. Even still though, not every crack is fatal.

 

i was considering getting this..can someone tell me what they think..does it look like a good investment..(http://www.sdparts.com/product/12605...BoltMains.aspx) and can someone recommend some heads that are already assembled that i can consider getting that would work and compliment this block nicely..at a reasonable price...id like to thank everyone thats helped me so far..its been a real big help..

 

the only difference between that being the (12605117) as you linked to and the (12556121) the link that i initailly posted is that the .PN..121 has a one piece rear main seal whereas the PN...117 has a two piece rear main seal.

i believe that the 1 piece RMS was stock on 86 and newer 350 blocks. i dont know which would be better, somebody else will chime in on that, everything i have had is 85 or older (my current block is from the 70's).

 

as far as topend components and heads, "reasonable price" has to be a little bit more precisely defined.

if it were me, i would go for some AFR 195cc eliminators (~$1500). they are excellently engineered heads, and alot of people have had great results with them.

if you want some thing more "complete" summit has a few topend kits that would be a little more recommended (i have heard to stay away from edelbrock for top end kits...) Here are two dart kits that would probably work well for you.


$1900 Dart Pro 1 Top End Kit (Aluminum)

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...&rsview=sku&Ns=


or

$1600 for Dart Iron Eagle Top End Kik (Iron)

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...&rsview=sku&Ns=


both of those kits are fairly complete and require minimum other parts.

 

Yeah IMPALED i was kind out of it yesterday...i guess i can get the block you suggested..the question i have is if i buy it will it fit right into my 92 camaro or do i have to do anything with the placement of the mounts? the second thing is i was thinking of keeping the engine fuel injected like the 305 was...is that the right thing to do or should i change it to Carbureted? then ill need a cam shaft...how do i decide on that then? lets say i go with the block you suggest..would this work with it as well....(http://store.summitracing.com/partde...2&autoview=sku)

 

the mounts are identical, easy drop in.

the fuel injection for the 305 would be very insufficent without major upgrades and prom burning. (TPI/TBI is where my expertise fades...) so i would talk to other members on the board.

[[the following is my opinion]]

i would go carbed. carbueretors are easy to adjust and tune. say if you were to go fuel injected you would need to burn a prom after any major change, or you will have problems. with a carb, you get it dialed in instantly.

per say you decide to run a dump right after the headers, significantly changing exhaust airflow while at the track. the air flow will be higher, so you will need more fuel, step up a jet size or two.

with a carb you can tune trackside with little to no issues, and see instant results and experiment without having the hassles of computers and burning proms.

that is just my thought though. i like simplicity and hate proms and the prom burning process.

 

but the link i posted from summit..does it look like something that would work? do you think the included cam is decent or would u consider getting a different cam? its setup for a carberetor...so then how does that work with the computer thats in the car...i mean the electrical system?

 

i give that a solid no. stay away from edelbrock heads. they do not flow well. plus the dart iron eagle kit i referenced was only <$100 more. Dart is definitely one of the more respected companies in the industry.

 

yeah but how do you know that the heads are edelbrock as well doesnt that only pertain to the intake manifold?the only reason i posted that link is because the kit comes with the cam,lifters and push rods.

 

EDL-60999
Cylinder Head, Performer RPM, Aluminum, Assembled, 64cc Chamber, 170cc Intake Runner, Chevy, 302/327/350/400

its under the "contents" tab.

i highly recommend talking to one of the cam companies or the head company you decide to go with. they are very knowledgable and friendly. for cam selection, i would call Comp Cams (or fill out their online form).

 

ill do that..thanks..appreciate your help...

 

so far i'm thinking of going with this setup..
350 / L31 4-Bolt Main 350 Short Block Assembly (http://www.sdparts.com/product/12556...kAssembly.aspx)
Dart Iron Eagle Top-End Engine Kits for Chevy
(http://store.summitracing.com/partde...&autoview=sku)
Compcams Magnum,270H Cam and lifters
(http://www.compperformancegroupstore..._Code=HFTCLKIT)
Can you guys tell me what you think...does this seem like a sensible setup so far? Oh and IMPALED i took your suggestion and called Compcams and spoke with a tech....the cam i listed above is what he suggested..but he also told me to change to a 373 rear end gear ratio and also switch up the stall converter with a 2000. id like to hear what you guys think...good idea/bad idea...and i guess ill cross over to a carburetor so i guess an intake manifold is next...i'm welcome to suggestions...

 

one more thing...is any one around here from illinois?(around chicago). i was looking for a descent and well trusted machine shop to call and ask about the price of boring the engine .030 over.

 

i was curious...how do i decide which heads to choose for my block, what specs should i look at...by that i mean why go with a 215cc instead of a 200cc..or why is 230cc way to big,and id be better off with a 200cc or smaller...what id like to know is how do i take the specs and calculate/crunch the numbers to make a flawless choice? and i was also curious once i have selected a head...how do i match it up to a cam? like what numbers do i have to calculate/crunch from the specs in order to match them together perfectly?

 

The head flow numbers give an idea how much power a head will support. Pick the head with the smallest runners that have enough flow to give the power you want. Then you can estimate how many RPMs an engine of your intended displacement needs to turn to make that power, and then you can pick a cam to match.

 

you think you can maybe break that down just a little bit more for me..so lets say i pick a head with smaller runner numbers...shouldnt my choice of head be the one that decides how much power i achieve...or better yet..without me telling you the power i want, isnt it possible to look at the block with the rotating assembly and pick any random head..and say, ohh with that combination you will get between 350-375 horsepower. lets say i give you a number...400 horsepower. how do you decide based on that number what specs the head should have. what do you mean by..Then you can estimate how many RPMs an engine of your intended displacement needs to turn to make that power, and then you can pick a cam to match.

 

can some one break it down for me in cold hard facts and not just opinions..how do i choose heads and a cam to match it based on the specs...if i take a 350 and wanna get heads...how do i calculate..depending on the heads im looking at what i am to expect out of the engine...power wise...and also getting the right cam.(taking the cam specs while looking at the head specs and calculating which cam id be better off getting).

 

There are some rule-of-thumb equations that can help you estimate how much power a head is capable of making, based on the port flow. It's not an exact science, though.

There are also more complete simulation tools you can use that will estimate the horsepower and torque of an engine based on various parameters. DeskTop Dyno is a popular entry-level choice.

 

as Aperion pointed out there are programs like Desktop dyno, but for the best results, get in contact with the head and cam companies and drill them for their recommendations and keep asking questions back when you dont understand things. and if the salesmen/techs arent answering your questions, ask for somebody higher up.

after that seek non-affiliated opinions, call summit and ask questions, or check out the forums, or call around to local shops or all three or more.

alot of it as well is experimentation of type. messing with tuning on carb, or ignition timing, or maybe figuring out that you dont have the "perfect" cam (which perfect never exists, hence quotes it just gets closer and closer).

 

i made a phone call and they suggested the afr 65cc heads (AFR-1034) XR282HR cam(08-432-8 or 12-432-8 [10]) or 280h cam (08-430-8)..said 3.73 gears sound good...and a 2300-2500 stall converter non-lockup...also i think the edelbrock performer rpm air gap mainfold..they also suggested trick flow...but im kinda leaning towards afr..and i asked them about switching to carbureted...they said i would have to see if i could do that, based on emissions..or the regulations in my area...or something like that...anyone want to chime in and offer an opinion on the setup that they suggested...good/bad?