you can make plenty of power from any motor with the right parts and a big wallet. A friend of mine built a chevy 302 motor and put a couple of turbos on it and it made over 1200 hp. Of course it was a race car (bonneville) but the technology still applies.

 

got some specs on that motor, id love to read about that thing... my little 302's gonna be a bit milder though

 

The car was a 68 corvette built for bonneville, called the Sundowner. It had been raced out at the salt flats since the 70's. My friend got it and put this 302 in it, biggest cubes his class would allow, with a couple of turbos and proceeded to set several class records. I think his best run was at 245 mph. I'll try and find out more specs on the motor for you, but he hasn't had the car now for 2 or 3 years.

 

307 bore and stroke is 3.875 x 3.25. So you have a small bore and a 302 stroke cast crank. The crank will handle maybe 350-400 hp, for a short burst. The small bore severely limits your valve size, so you are limited on the rpm. Pretty much nobody makes anything other than cast pistons for this engine, unless you have some specially made ($).

Any supercharger setup will run you around $3400, plus an ignition and fuel system to support it.

You could have a custom crank, and pistons made for it, and run some small valve heads, and try to rev it to 8000 rpm to make power, but it would be worthless on the street.

The ONLY reason I would even consider messing with the 307 is if you want to restore the car, and it IS the original, numbers matching motor.

 

Actually a guy about 30 min north of me built and engine for popular hot roddings engine masters challenge that was a 307 block he bored it out and put a longer stoke crank in it. It came out to 366 cubic inches I believe it made 640 horsepower or something like that..... that was naturally aspirated too. If you do a search on the popular hot rodding NOT hot rod the article should still be up. I would look but I have a whopping 24k internet connection damn crappy copper cables.

 

Awesome 365 cubic inches from a 307. Horsepower seems to be pretty good as well. If I lowered the compression, and installed a supercharger would this setup be very streetable and be able to kick *** at the local track. Stroking my 307 out to a 365 would this be a wise decision, becouse its the original that came from my car, and someday I may want to put it back in. After looking at the web page some more I saw it cost him a little bit of money. Its a little bit over my budget, but I already have the block. JV

 

Theres a reason you don't see a buildt up 307 all the time.
Its a waste.
Its like driving a candy wrapper all the way to the dump when you could just throw it in the trash can in the kitchen!
Comparing a 302 and a 307 is like throwing in a 305 also,there not the same.
A 305 is good for nothing,a 307 is good for a truck with an intake,carb and headers which would make an excellent parts and Autozone go getter.
But just doing something just to be different will only net you being slower than everybody else and thats how you will be different.

 

Don't listen to anyone trying to convince you not to do a 307. What it boils down is that it is your decision, any motor can be built to high hp numbers. I have seen straight 6 camaros and crappy little imports running in the 10's. If you really want a fast 307 sleeper I say High Compression, High Quality parts, and a drivetrain to complement it, six speed, 4.56 gears, some really sticky tires, and a dialed in suspension set up.

 

Amen Brotha If we went by somepeoples negative advice we all would be running top fuel engines or jet turbines.........hmmm....

 

"QUOTE"Hello everybody,
I am wanting to put the original 307 back into my camaro. But I am sure everbody is aware that the 307 sucks, no power, no tourqe, nothing. I just want the original 307 small block back into my car. I want this motor to have more than 200 horsepower like it did from the factory. I want this motor to be able to blow the doors off any stroker, any big block, even the ls1's! Then pop the hood and show everbody the small old beat up 307. What setup should I be looking into. I have never seen anybody do this before, so I know it will be expensive, everybody give me your best thoughts. Thanks JV"

When a question is ask like this and he did ask for everyones thoughts
Cutting to the chase would save alot of time.
He wants to out run "stroker motors"?
Hey Its a new idea lets build a 1970 307 and outrun new technoligy 383s,and Ls1s!!!
Damn noone ever thought of that before,its because its senseless to even try thats why.
But yea build a 307 but just follow the building of a 350 and when your done you have a 307 with about 255 horses that will not outrun anything and a bundle of money to prove it!
Whats the use?
*Answer= 350 build up like the other millions of people with proven winning combos.
Its not always a good thing to be different,as a matter of fact,about 1 in 1000 is qustionable if its better or not in the first place?

 

Well, my point is... drop $5k on a 406 or drop $5k on a 307... you will be WAY ahead with the 406, not to mention if you ever want to sell it, you have a much better chance of getting some of your investment back. Not going to happen with a 307. Period.

 

Build the motor with good quality forged parts if you can find them, then add a big shot of nitrous. That's about the only way you're going to outrun a larger small block or a big block and do it relatively cheap. It'll suck when the bottle runs out though.

 

Tim why are you driving a lt1 (and a 93 for that matter) car when it is a proven fact you can go faster in a ls1 car? Why are you even touching that old 70 camaro? Why do we drive f-bodys? i mean corvetts are lighter and a better performance platform...... I bet it's because of peoples preference just let people do what they want to do with their cars. I've seen so many people get shot down by other people on this board it's not even funny. As long as your happy with what your doing keep doing it and have fun. If you don't do it there is always going to be that little what if.

 

The 307 on popular hotrodding's website was stroked out to a 365. It was pushing near the 500 mark on both horsepower and trq! I would much rather have a 307 with that much power than a 350 that everybody and their grandma has. JV

 

Jon,
The 307 has a small bore, which limits the valve sizes available before shrouding occurs. If you want it to make power, consider that when choosing the heads and intake options. I'd suggest you try to make torque and maximize air flow velocity through the ports. Keep the RPM down and make what power you can in the mid-range, where air flow velocity rules. Put in a power adder like a centrifugal supercharger to counteract the effects of a small intake valve, and use a dry manifold design with a port fuel injection system to boost the off-idle torque. Use a large duration on the exhaust valve, and pay particular attention to the cylinder head and upper cylinder wall around the exhaust valve to reduce shrouding as much as you can.

Add an aftermarket ECM, ceramic coat the tops of those cast 307 pistons, put in some splayed 4-bolt mains, and then mix in nitrous to further boost it when you want to really raise the eyebrows!

That might be the ticket to getting that 307 to run.