O.K., already some of you are saying to yourself "Oh no, not another person trying to dump money into the red headed step child of the GM engine family"... To that, I post the following...

Reason #1: This is a temporary engine. I'm using it as a test mule to make certain that I will not blow up the more expensive engine down the line by having problems with one of the swapped or fabricated parts I'm going to be putting on. I got the '86 305 long block for free. STD bore, STD sized bearings that hold 45 PSI of oil warm, and most importantly, I know it's history throughout the last 5 years as a swapped engine from a friend's S-10 project that was his baby.

Reason #2: I scored a STD bore/STD crank 4 bolt 400 Chevy for only $100 delivered, complete from carb to pan from a 72,000 mile Chevy two wheel drive pickup. I'm not taking any chances blowing this one up. Not only from any mechanical problems I may have with the LT1 swap, but I'm still on a learning curve with burning chips. I've made changes to the factory programming for a long duration cam that I have in my bird's factory TPI 305, but nothing as large as I will need to do for a 400 LT1 swap... Anyone that has tried to source a STD/STD 400 four bolt knows how good of a find this one is... start small...

Reason #3: The LT1 intake parts are practically being given away if you wait long enough. Every once in a while, the intakes go for less than $100 complete!

Now, as far as what the '86 305 will have done to it...

LT1 intake $50 shipped for the manifold, $35 shipped for the rails/FPR/injectors

1.94/1.50 under cut stem valves $64 shipped

Full P&P heads with epoxied/reshaped intake ports (friend owns a machine shop with flow bench... works for beer for friends ) Chambers will be cut to 54-55 CC. Probably cost a 12 pack, shipped

Headman shorty headers and custom made Y-pipe (will go with long tube headers for next engine) $65 shipped for the headers, about $60 in parts for the Y-pipe. Welding by me, armed with a MIG.

Cam (roller) is undecided yet. Watching Ebay every day for changes... Roller lifters will be retrofitted using the factory '87+ spider, hold downs, and 3.1L/2.2L roller lifters. Block modifications are pretty limited for this modification. Ebay = cheap!!! $45 spent so far on the spider/lifter plates/cam button... still need to find the correct lifters. Time to hit the parts stores a bit harder...

Stall converter will be swapped in favor of a 2,600-ish stall with lock up clutch. Again, probably used/cheap from Ebay. $100-$200 used for a good one, or a cheap one brand new...

Gears will have to remain 2.77 initially because of local lack of availability reasons of anything else with a 9 bolt... Will go with 3.45-3.73's down the line if anything pops up for under $200 for the carrier with gears. 3rd gen 10 bolt swap if no modifications are needed from an iron caliper disc 9 bolt to disc 10 bolt swap.

That's about it for now... questions/thoughts are welcome.

 

i'd save the # from the retro lifters and put it into the other engine.

i'm building up my 305, but not buying anything over $200 for it, besides the cam and intake. all parts i have will be able to swap into a larger motor to make it a decent runner.

i'm all for hopping up the 305, but i'm not going to spend crazy money on it.

as for the rear, i'm looking at a 4th gen rear. it'll help with my wheels, give me posi and decent gearing, for less than $400. might be an option for you as well.

 

I'd go with reason/scenario #2 and start there. Let the machine shop assemble the bottom end, you bolt on everything else.

Your quote:

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Now, as far as what the '86 305 will have done to it...

LT1 intake $50 shipped for the manifold, $35 shipped for the rails/FPR/injectors

1.94/1.50 under cut stem valves $64 shipped

Full P&P heads with epoxied/reshaped intake ports (friend owns a machine shop with flow bench... works for beer for friends ) Chambers will be cut to 54-55 CC. Probably cost a 12 pack, shipped
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You have a buddy who owns a machine shop, if he's good, have him do the short block and get on with it.





Spend your money and time wisely, and only once.

 

Everything being done on this engine is a test and only a test. Had this been an actual engine emergency, the sound you just heard would have been followed by specific 400 Chevy building instructions...

The 400 is in wait until the LT1 305 runs and runs well. I'm not chancing blowing up a 4 bolt virgin 400 block when all that I could find under $5-600+ were .030 and .060 blocks. No way, no how. If it were about spending or wasting money, I wouldn't be touching the 305 at all. Since anything that is 305 will either be free, or a way to make a few bucks for me, how can I justify taking a chance on the 400?

The only part of this engine that I'm spending money on that will not transfer over to the 400 is the valves and the pins for the rocker studs. 416 casting heads with 1.94/1.50 valves sell for $300+ on Ebay all of the time. Since I have $64 into valves, $80 into .600 springs w/retainers, and about $6 in roll pins, I'll be way ahead...

The heavy duty reconditioned 5.7" rods will transfer over, the intake and all fabrication that goes along with it, and the entire roller valvetrain... Any used parts that will not transfer over, such as the cam that will be to small for the 400, will again be sold on Ebay. So long as I watch Ebay for a while and keep checking up on completed items to know what they should go for, no money will be lost except maybe a few bucks shipping... even that should be covered by making money on the work my friend will be helping me do in the machine shop. ... I should have said "he drinks the beer while he shows me/tells me to do things..."

By the way, I'm not a newbie mechanic. I've got 3 years professionally while I was in college (ten years ago), plus growing up racing with snowmobiles, motorcycles, hot rods. I'm just a newbie at GM tuning and at LT1 manifold swap fabrication... You know, the things that could blow up even a well built 400 engine.

Just for reference... here's my '70 vette that I had for four years (sold in late '99). I built everything from a lightly wrecked friend's car (tapped on front end). Everything from paint, one piece front end was grafted on (no more pop up headlights), adjustable fiberglass leaf rear, close ratio 4 speed, 4:10 posi, heavy duty dog bones, 420" stroker, Trick Flow TW heads w 2.02/1.60, 1.6 rockers, .510 cam (rated using 1.5 rockers), Holley Strip Dominator intake and an 850 CFM double pumper. Just over 510 HP to the rear wheels at Car Craft Midwest Summer Nat's in St. Paul in summer '99...

 

What are you going to learn building the 305 that will keep the 400 from blowing up? Sounds like a waste of time, but then again it's your time!

 

Learning to tune on a dyno with a GM ECM for one! Making sure I don't leak coolant into the lifter valley after modifying the LT1 intake for another! A little coolant on the bearins and bye bye virgin 400 short block...

I agree that most people wouldn't have the time or funds to produce a temporary engine, but when one practically falls into your lap for free, how can you pass it up? With all of the spare 305 parts I will have by the end of this whole thing, I will be able to make money and will have learned how to keep an increasingly hard to find virgin 400 with fuel injection together on the dyno without blowing it up. I will also have ported my first set of Chevy heads, completed my first roller retrofit using factory parts for less than half of the cost of retrofit roller kits, and put together an LT1 305...

Will it work? Who cares... it's the learning experience I'm after. If the LT1 305 is a flop, then everyone will know and be able to live up to the hatered. If it does happen to work well, then there's a cheap alternative to some HP for the least favorite SBC.

An engine swap in these cars are as easy as pie, completed in under a day when you pull one engine and put in another one already assembled. What's the waste? The few hours at the engine stand? The hours spent learning to cut Chevy heads? Why not learn on throw away parts, then go to the good stuff?