SSC

Well a little back ground. I picked up the Camaro with a dead engine, rod through the block l69 but in other wise great condition a couple months back. I tossed around the idea of just dropping in a 350 since I have plenty and driving off into the sunset roasting the tires all the way. I decided not to go for power after a week of heavy drinking.,.,..,. er uhhh thinking and just go for a nice daily driver. Being on a first name basis with several local gas stations employees isn’t to fun.

Short story time
I had gotten a L30 a couple years back that was knocking with 77k on the odometer. The person who owned the truck was told by a friend it needed an engine and when it was brought to the shop it sounded very ill, rod knock. The guy didn’t want it checked out at all just wanted a new crate engine put in. I moved the truck into the shop a few days later and it stopped knocking 2 seconds before I shut it off. Figured it was just a fluke it stopped and would start knocking again if it warmed up. We replaced his engine and he was happy, GM didn’t want this core so it went into the corner to collect cob webs for nearly 3 years.

A month ago I decided to see if this engine was worth rebuilding since I was set on using a 305. I pulled the pan and found an inch thick of sludge in the pan, no doubt from 77K of Pennzoil use and a few dozen skipped oil changes, oil pump was full of crap but no metal. I pulled the mains off expecting to see the typical damage the closer I got to no.1. All the bearings were clean and perfect , so I pulled the rod caps off and they were clean too. I guess the Penzoil coated the bearings well enough to save the engine form death when the oil pump got plugged. So I did a quickie overhaul on the short block, cleaned the pistons, new molly rings, a fresh hone job new bearings, polished the crank, new oil pump and pickup tube. Only spent around $160. I decided to leave the stock cam in since high hp wasn’t a goal and freshen up the 416's from the l69 since the valves weren’t damaged. I would have used the vortec heads but a manifold would have set me back a few coins. So I did a minor port job about 2 hours just cleaning the casting flaws up a bit and re-laped the valves in the 416's and added new VGS. Assembled the engine installed it, fitted a new carter rotary electric pump since the L30 isn’t drilled for a fuel pump rod and the cam doesn’t have the lobe either. Fired her up.

The results after break in are very impressive. This engine is very responsive idle- 5k where the 700R's governor makes it shift, 5k is plenty RPM for my use but I don’t doubt it would pull 6k very easy. Gm rates this engine 230hp @4600 RPM, 285 Ft. Lbs @ 2800 RPM. Vortec 350 numbers are 255hp @4600 and 330ft. lbs @ 2800. It feels like it has a tad more power then GM rates these L30's at but the butt dyno isn’t accurate. I would like to get real dyno numbers since the heads are about equal to the vortec 305 heads now and compare MPI number to 4bbl but it will have to wait. I'm going to slap some headers on which should make a huge difference in a couple months, I have them but am too lazy to put them on. Fuel economy what I set out for is awesome compared to the 355 I had in the bird. I'm getting 19 MPG city and 22 on the highway cruising 2600 RPM according to the factory tach.

I am pleased with this engine and am impressed with internals GM used in it, the rods are beefier then older SBC's and the factory windage tray is a nice plus. If anyone is looking into a replacement 305 these vortec 305's are a very nice platform to build from. The components I used are in my sig. Yes a 350 would make more power

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I missed this post while doing my after-weekend catch-up.

Does the L30 have a roller cam?

Did you happen to take any pics of your porting work (or any of it)?

SSC

Yes the L30 has a roller cam which is nice for a change, future LT4 cam swap I need to dig up the cam specs, seems a lot better then the peanut cam like grind Ive heard these engines came with.

I dident take any pictures of the port work since it was minor cleaning/gasket matching, just a few hours worth of work.

I'm probably going to save my picture ***** post for the BB swap, reducing the pictures gives me greif. I never replaced my DC so gotta do it the old slow way. but I'll try to get a few of the finished project.