Hey everyone. my buddy and I bought a 1983 Olds Cutlass 305 4BBL for $250.00 for our go fast cheap project. Basically we will be gutting the whole car, taking the body off and strengthening the frame, doing a cheap build up of the 305 (Intake, Cam, Head porting, Headers).... It is strictly going to be a drag car. I will be dedicating a part of my website to the project, and put pictures of it as we progress. Should be fun... first project like this I've done.

Any hints on 305 Build-up would be appreciated. Basically we are trying to get the most flow in and out of the engine. The local college may port the heads for free The rest I have founf stuff cheap... like Edelbrock Torker2 Intake for 16bux USD.... decent

 

Re-ring the bottom end if you can...

High rise single plane....

Solid lifter cam.....

600 dbl pumper.....

Get a good high stall converter.....

REV THAT BIATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!

That 305 is gonna be torqueless, just rev it & try & make decent power out of it.

 

Thats pretty much what we have planned... i was thinking of rings last night when i was going to sleep... we're going to have the engine apart anyway, so it would be smart to do it.

 

Can you stroke it?

Just curious but why not invest in a 350 and rebuild that? SBC's can be picked up dirt cheap. Or are you trying to build up the 305 as a proof of concept kinda thing?

 

I think irocker makes a good point, if you have to re-ring your 305 anyway it's not a bad idea to find an older 350 and use that (those early 80's 305's had lousy heads)
Another idea for fast cheap is keep an eye on e-bay for a used plate type nitrous system, I have seen them go fairly cheap, it's awfully tough to beat the fun to dollar ratio for N20.
One other thing to consider is that car's stock rearend (assuming it's not limeted slip) it won't take very much more power then stock for that to start being an issue. The nice thing about the vehicle you have chosen is that there were a ton of them made(along with malibu's,monte carlo's and grand prix's) so factory limeted slip's should be available in wrecking yard's fairly cheap.
Sound's like a fun project, keep us updated
SR

 

A drag-only car with a 305??? Isn't that a bit of an oxymoron?

Either way- I would suggest getting a set of 86-up heads and matching aftermarket intake (which you can then use on a 350 later if you want) and use the biggest cam that will work for your combo (don't forget to upgrade the valvesprings). You can keep the Q-Jet- a bonus is it should be just a plain emissions-unit, not a CCC setup. Drop in a set of headers and have the local muffler shop run a set of pipes out the back (don't need cats or mufflers for this, right?).

Also, I would think a good stall converter and rear gears would be worth the investment for a 'drag only' vehicle. Unfortunately the 1600 stall and typical 2.41-2.73 rear gears in early-mid 80s Cutlass's aren't going to do alot for you in the 1/4 mile.

 

Any reason the body is comming off the car? Rust repair? Those cars have full frames, and are pretty stong as is, if they are in good shape. Alot of them have problems with frame rot behind the rear wheels. Just seems like a lot of extra work for a cheapy project if it doesn't need any fixing.

Sounds like it should be fun. The G-bodies share the 7.5 rear end as the f-body (same guts at least). Gears should be up high on the list as needed parts. If you could find a rear end out of a Monte Carlo SS, you might be set. Most of them had posi and 3.73s from the factory.

 

Thanx guys... a lot of good pointers.. my buddy and I have thought of all these things mentioned. The engine doesn't burn much oil, and runs decent. Here's how we are looking at it. Take the engine apart.. bring the heads into the local college and get the guys in the Motive Power Technician program to custom port the "pea shooter" ports.. LOL... that'll be free labour, just gotta pay for any matl's or parts. We're waiting to come across a decent low profile single plane intake, a cam set and headers. I agree with you guys on building a 350 up.... but, we have a good 305, everything that we put on it (except the heads) will work on a 350. I'd like to see what we can get out of the crappy 305.

As for exhaust.... we aren't even going to have it all the way to the back... just pipes (with an x-pipe) exiting right before the rear wheel, no cats or mufflers.

The frame rails are toast as usual... found a mint Monte Carlo at the wreckers today with solid frame rails... 50bux a side... we're going for that. I am a good welder, so we can get the fixed easy. Just need a trunk floor. Its not crucial.. but it'll add some strength

 

one word and 3 numbers:


OLDS 455

 

Good luck then...I'm hearing this is simply a mission to see what a 305 is capable of then. Interesting project...I guess as long as you have fun doing it then that's the important part!

 

oh yeah... we're gonna have fun... but like i said.. when we are done with the 305.. we can take off the stuff we put on it and put it on the next small block chev (350 most likely)

 

Well.... here are some pictures of the project car. You'll see why we paid $250 for it







As you can see the frame rails are totally done. We found a mint pair at the wreckers for 50bux each. I am good at welding, so it should be good to go. Probably get a trunk floor, or just make our own. It doesn't have to look pretty. The interior is nice, but its going.. and that engine just screams power.. LOL

If you want to keep track of the progress... visit us at http://home.cogeco.ca/~project-cutlass

 

Not bad for $250. I think it need a coat of paint!

 

Naw Chris.... Paint costs money, and weight... hehe... the car is gonna look like crap.. only built to go fast for cheap