im building up my 305 too, except not with nitrous right away..

eventually im going to buy a nice bodied hard top camaro and start a project, a twin turbo 305 just to prove to everyone else that 305s can compete with the best of them if they are given the right oppertunities... that and 305s are extremely cheap, heh..

 

Why dump all that money into the 305 (and I know it will be a lot of dough) when you can put a 350 in there for $50 more and make 15% more HP?



EDIT: Decided to expand a bit further on that idea. Although I am not trying to discourage you from fabbing up a twin turbo system for your engine, I'm sure it will be a very long and expensive journey for you... if it ever happens at all.

That said, I'm sure with all that money and time being spent, you are going to want to get the most out of it all. Obviously, a twin turbo'ed engine is going waaay beyond the realms of simple bolt-ons like headers, intakes, cat-backs, stalls, ect. That is the kind of stuff that will transfer over to a larger engine when the time comes. What you're talking about doing deals with modifying and upgrading the engine internals as well as doing all that "simple" stuff. Pistons, crank, rods... the whole 9 yards. When you get to that point, it's time to yank the 305 and drop something better in.

The point that I'm trying to make here is that a 350 is essentially just a replacement for a 305. There's nothing that you will need to do to accomodate for a 350 when replacing a 305... it'll pretty much just drop right in where the old 305 was. And for $50 more (it may end up actually costing you LESS after you bought parts for the 305 which are somewhat more expensive than 350 parts; e.g. pistons) you will recieve 15% more power than you would with the 305.

Where did I get $50 from? Well, you can grab any decent 350 core from a junkyard or classifieds for about $50--give or take, depending on where you buy it from. Everything else you are going to have to fab up or buy new with either engine. The crucial difference is the fact that the 350 will always, ALWAYS make more power (mod for mod, of course) than the 305. And when you're talking about lots of time and money involved in this project, why wouldn't you want to get the most power out of it that you can? For the sake of being able to say "I've got a fast 305"? Doesn't seem worth it to me.

Now there's certainly nothing wrong with making the most out of what you have. There's nothing wrong with making a 305 faster, either. However, I believe that you are going to be sorely disappointed when people with larger engines and similar mods start beating you with less money put into their projects.

Someone once told me there's a two step process to making high HP with a 305:
1. Throw away 305
2. Replace with larger engine

Good luck with whatever you do man.

 

First of all, in turbo or blown apps. smaller engines make more power per inch than larger engines. Case in point, there is a guy in NHRA running mid to low 7's in a mustang with a blown 289. As for the nonbelief of a 305 making 300HP with TBI heads, I stated befor that I ported the dog crap out of them. I also stated that the car ran 12.56 @ 109.25 at 3305 Lbs. with me in it on a 100 shot. Just go to wheelspin.net and punch the specs. to get the RWHP from there just multiply that by 1.15 to get the crank HP. You should come up with about 400 HP. If you still don't beleive oh well, I'm done on this.

 

First of all, I was never referring to you in any instance.

As for the power adder making more power per inch than larger engines, so what? The 305 will STILL be limited in power by it's displacement and another engine with equal mods done to it will always make more power.

I never said TBI heads couldn't be made to flow, I said STOCK heads will probably never see 300HP (in my mind, stock means no work done to them at all, but I suppose "stock" is a subjective word).

 

I'll do some 305 bashing, hate to see this thread miss it, it is much needed. 305's are JUNK. There, take your inferiorty complex and get mad at me. It is not the displacement that hurts the 305, IT IS THE BORE. Every time I hear someone say the 305 isn't bad becasue the 302 Ford is a good engine I roll my eyes at their ignorance. The 302 has a 4" bore, the same as a 350 Chevy. It also has a supeior intake and head design. Now if you want to prove something with low cubic inches build a 302 Chevy, or a 327, anything that you can push air through.

Martin

 

Why was the Chevy 302 so kickass?? Did it have a short stroke with a large 4" bore, or no?
Which tends to be better; Chevy 302 or Ford 302? Just wondering..

 

yes it had 4" bore and short stroke. I believe it had the same stroke as a 283. Give me a Chevy 302 and dollar for dollar If spent right it will run circles around the ford

 

Now I didn't post on this thread to bash or incite bashing. The man just asked for help and advice, and that is what I gave along with the results of the combination I had in my car when I first started out. That said, I am DONE with this matter and I am sorry to be part of a site who's other members exibit this kind of rude, childish behavior.

 

Personally I don't see any bashing, although there are some overstatements.

The 4" bore/short stroke combo is so sacred that the LS1 continued it, right? WRONG! However, its bore is still larger than the 305, and larger than a 305 can be bored to. The 305 bore doesn't keep the engine from developing any power, it keeps it from going beyond a certain point. 300 gross crankshaft HP is very doable, and mine has demonstrated in the range of 245 rear wheel HP using accepted conversion formulas from dragstrip data (never had it on a "real" dyno).

Of course, the $50 350 is a myth as well. With a free 350 shortblock and using parts from my 305, I was looking at $800 to get one together with decent parts before that deal fell through. As it is, I've got a slightly better core (ZZ2 or 3 shortblock) that, with a combination of rebuild, upgrade, and reusing 305 parts is still going to run me over $1200 to get running - albeit with fairly "good" parts. However, I expect the gain to be well over the 50 cubic inch increase ratio - meaning rather than a 285 RWHP output, I expect more like 300. Time will tell.

If you're starting with a 1986 LG4, the best power for money ratio will be obtained by pumping up the 305 - NOT putting in a 350. I know this because - well, because I've been (or at least will be going) both places.

 

Thanx for the explanation on the Chevy 302.. but i still dont know why the Chevy is better than the ford.

five7kid.. thanx for the inspiriation

 

Its not, but don't tell anyone, they might get mad.

Martin

 

grow up,who cares really,if he wants to build a 305 let him,u guys aint paying the bill....end of tread..period..move on

 

Well after he gets done building a 305 and is dissapointed with what he has and decides to go with a different engine (probably a 350). Now he can say "Why didn't I listen to everyone!" instead of "I wish someone would of told me what sh!tboxes 305's are!"

Martin

 

When you're starting with a V6, the 305 is going to be a real kick in the pants. Do the normal SBC things, and the 305 will more than hold its own. It won't be as fast as a 350, but it will be quicker than 75% of what's on the road.

He has the 305, he doesn't have a 350. As long as the 305 isn't a 1.72" intake valve or swirl port version, it will respond well.

85_305, in my 1st response made a false assumption - that you have a 3rd gen f-body LG4. You just said "305", and that could be a lot of things. You have to make sure what this 305 is before you do anything to it, and if you have to rebuild the lower end - don't bother, get a 350 to build. Plus, you've got a bunch of V6 to V8 issues to address, before you can even begin to think about "performance".

 

Ya, my Z came with the LG4.. so I am not converting from v6 to v8 (i think that is what you were trying to say) But anyways, you prolly know that my car has a 4bbl.. not TBI.. and it has regular cast iron heads, not that swirl-port bull crap.