I have the early 1983 carbed LG4 just before the 305 got a little bit better, meaning it is the 145hp motor with wimpy heads (casting # 14022601)

Will these work and would it be an upgrade? see link below

And when I go to look at them, what would be a few things to look for when shopping used heads? sorry, not an expert on heads! ;-)

http://nashville.craigslist.org/pts/4999472688.html

 

No. MAJOR step backwards.

The problems with the LG4 aren't the heads. The ones you have are pretty much about as good as it gets for a 305. In order, they are: the exhaust, every piece from the heads to the bumper; the compression (pistons); the cam; the gears; and the air cleaner. Then after you get those cleaned up, the radiator fan, the torque converter, and the ECM programming (tough to do very much about that one but there are some upgrade paths).

Heads aren't even on the list, because even after ALL THAT, they're still not The Bottleneck. Valve size IS; but you can install bigger intake valves in the heads you have, port them appropriately (NOT a Billy Bob & Cletus "hog em all the way out" sodomy job), and thereby fix that. On the priority-based list given above, intake valves and head work are about neck-and-neck with a cam.

Neither is the intake manifold, or the carb, for that matter.

 

Sofakingdom, just the man I was hoping to get a response from. I appreciate your knowledge more than you know. You have helped me do quite a bit without even knowing thanks to google and thread searches here. Everything from positive crank case ventilation set up to tuning the Holley Thank you for your Holley tuning sticky, as Im going through the steps now.

Basically, im cleaning up a mess left for me when i bought it a couple months ago.
Everything is stock. Engine, 700r4 tranny and weak rear end to go with it. They upgraded these quite a bit from one year to the next. I should have done my homework before buying, but alas I bought it thinking it was going to be the same 1984 HO tire melting machine I had back in the day some 25 years ago. Same old story, sold it when the wife was carrying our first child. 5 children and 25 years later I decided to buy another to drive the wife around in and hit car shows etc. I missed my old car is what it amounted to!...lol

So what I was looking at when I bought it was a 305 running straight pipes, stock manifolds with every smog piece removed along with the A/C and the wiring harness cut back to the firewall!
It was also nice of the PO to install a Performer Intake and then mount the original q-jet back on top of it, but not before he removed the electric choke and all the linkage to the secondaries :-)
Needless to say it ran like a 3-legged dog and damn near killed me just transporting it home, because to go along with all of that mess there was no PVC system in place and only two big ugly oil soaked valve cover breathers stuffed in both valve covers with smoke billowing out of both of them and entering the cabin and suffocating me on a rainy day where rolling down the windows was not an option...lol
He also left the original distributer in there as well which was not offering any advance at all as you could imagine because of all of the rest of the harnesses removed it was no doubt running in limp home mode. I was told that it was looking this way because it was a 350 swap and just needed a new carb. Its not a 350 (ran the casting numbers) Nice guy huh?
Im not disappointed however as I got it for fairly cheap (2500) and its sitting on a fresh set of tires with reconditioned iroc wheels and a well done paint and body job. Came with new looking leather seats from a 4th gen and new carpet. Great looking car by all means with no rust. I have a great running 350 tbi from my 95 chevy farm truck to swap in a couple years down the road. So I dont want to tear down the 305 and get into an expensive project as I have already spent a couple of grand just in a new dash and headliner kit, holley carb amongst some missing trim pieces etc. So Im about 4500 all in already and getting close to a decent running car to match the appearance. Soon as I finish tuning the carb as per your sticky, its off to the body shop to get the frame rail welded up where it cracked under the steering box that I didnt notice until now. I went ahead and got the sub frame connectors and also a wonder bar to help the issue. Then its off to the exhaust shop to install the new headers and SOME sort of muffler. I will probably keep the cat deleted or delete the muffler and go cat back. Havent decided. Either way, we dont have emissions testing and I threw an antique tag on good for life anyway. After all of that, I am going to try and figure a way to install all of the A/C components I have bought that are stacked in my garage. Dont know where to start with that one. Going to be a pain just figuring out the wiring I imagine. The brackets to mount it all up I lucked up and found newley chromed and on ebay. The rest is all new equipment. I did find an original complete engine wiring harness which should be delivered in a few days for 50 bucks that should help me get it wired back up. So anyways, at least now you have a picture painting of the puzzled up mess ive been in lately...lol
I was just wondering if an upgraded set of heads were available, and if those were it. Thanks for your help!