Cascade Crew

[HONDASLAYER]

ok at the risk of everyone thinking i'm an idiot i have a question. at what size (c.i.) does a chevy engine go from a small block to a big block. and if you can take a 350 and bore it out to a 383, then what can you bore a 305 out to?

[chevymad]

A 350 isnt bored to a 383. It's mostly stroked. You take a 350 and bore it 0.030in over and then use a stroker crank. People used to use a 400sb crank and turn it down to fit in a 350, but now aftermarket cranks are cheaper and common place. You can use this same crank and bore in a 305 and I think it comes out to a 335.

Factory small blocks ranged from 265-400cid. Factory big blocks went from 366-502cid. Now gm also makes a 572bb but its only sold as a crate. There are stroker and aftermarket combos for both families of engines. I think they've got the sb stretched out to 500cid in the aftermarket, and the big block to 632cid. There are some really way out there motors that are almost 1000cid. But other then bolting to a chevy trans, they really dont have much in common with a chevy.

[HONDASLAYER]

would it be very difficult to turn my 305 into a 335?

[chevymad]

No more difficult then rebuilding a motor. But.. you'd have the same money into doing that as building a 383. Parts cost the same or more, and all you need for the 383 is a good 350 core. Which you can come by pretty cheap.

Of course theres a few other things for better performance, like bigger injectors, better intake etc.

[HONDASLAYER]

i guess i want to squeeze out as much power as possible from my 305 without having to swap it....... so i want for all intensive perposes for my engine to appear fairly stock........but more powerful

[flea]

If physically stock appearance is the goal (cosmetically any way) then the 305 and 350 are, whats the word... twins. yes that's it, they are twins from outward appearances they look the same.

Want more power then just go with the 383, it really will look the same as your 305 from the outside.

[chevymad]

Ya, until you run the #s on the block, you really cant tell the difference. Even a 400 looks pretty much the same, unless you really know what to look for.

Now if your 305 is in good shape now, theres lots of things you can do to perk it up without changing it.

[HONDASLAYER]

so all i have to do is pull a bare 350 block from a junk yard and slowly build it to a 383? is that fairly simple for a guy with no formal training to do?

[HONDASLAYER]

[chevymad]

First you need to know exactly what you have. You have an early car, is it carberated or crossfire injected? If its carberated then we'll have to figure out if its an L69 or an Lg4. L69s were the performance 305, they have better heads and compression then the lg4 of that year. If you have an l69 you've got alot of the parts you need allready. The heads are good, compression is good, you mainly need to work on breathing. Stock intakes and carbs were decent too. Biggest gains here will be a good set of headers and exhaust, and a camshaft.

If its the LG4 then you need to see what the casting # is on the heads. It may or may not have decent ones. The better heads are cheap to come by though. Then its the same deal, exhaust and cam.

If you have a crossfire engine.. umm.. thats too bad. LOL Basically you want to toss it and put a carb on, or a more modern EFI setup. The crossfire is extremely restrictive.

[HONDASLAYER]

it's a computer controled carb, everything else i don't know. where do i look to find out?

[chevymad]

Does it have the stock air cleaner? If the stock air cleaner had 2 snorkels it's an l69, if it only has 1 its an lg4. Is it an auto or a 5spd? If its an auto its an lg4. Is the cooling fan electric or engine mounted? The l69 of that year had an electric fan where the lg4 had an engine mounted fan.

[HONDASLAYER]

[chevymad]

Sounds like an LG4 then. The carb and intake manifold are decent. Theres a few tweeks you can do to the carb. Is it an iron manifold or aluminum? You can save some weight by getting either a performer or an aluminum stock manifold. Performance is about the same.

You can get an electric fan set up off a newer car, save a few hp there too. Even gain some mpg maybe.

LG4 exhaust manifolds truly suck. Theres not much out there thats more restrictive. You can practically plug the main outlet of one side with 2 fingers. Headers and exhaust should be the first thing you do.

If you take a valve cover off, make sure you get the casting # off of the head. There are a couple of decent stock castings. You may or may not have one of the good ones. If not, then try to find a set of 416s. These should have the larger 1.84 valves and good ports. You don't want huge heads on a 305, or even big valves. The cylinders are too small in diameter to breath properly with large valves.

As for a camshaft, i'd pick something like a comp xe262, or voodoo 262.

Then you could always add a nitrous kit like dewey. He's putting down 305hp to the rear wheels on the juice.

[HONDASLAYER]

sweet. after i get the new tranny in i planned on removing all the cluter from my engine bay. and possibly putting on a holly carb. but that fan thing is a great idea, i can do that the same day i swap trannies. is there a particular year i should look for to get an electric fan off of?

[chevymad]

Tpi cars have a dual fan setup that will cool better. But my single fan setup cools my 327 just fine. You'll need to wire it with a relay and install a temperature switch as well. I think either set up will work.

[GREG DAVIDSON]

like what? remember like alot of others out there i've got a small budget.[/quote]

your budget's prob bigger than mine and i wanna do a 400 sbc and i see it as dooable lol btw no dumb questions here if there where i'd of asked them sooner

[Twilightoptics]

If you'd stroke the 305 you might aswell swap it because everything internally has to be done out of the car.

[blue89]