What to replace with rebuild?

[96redlt1ta]

My brother left last week for the U.S.M.C. bootcamp and left me some blank checks to get some stuff done to his 87 T.A. TPI 305. The car gets out of the bodyshop next week from it's much needed paint job/rust work, so then I will have the engine rebuilt and I didn't want to take a shops sole werd on what needs to be replaced. I know all gaskets, rings, bearings, etc. But I wasn't sure about things like lifters, springs, pistons, rocker arms, etc.
The motor has around 180,000 miles on it, it smokes a little when it starts and sometimes deisels when he turns it off after intown driving. He wants to keep it close to stock for gas mileage, but wouldn't mind getting more power out of it.
Any help on this would be awesome, he told me to suprise him with what I do to the car, and what is the stock compression ratio on this motor?
Thanks

[Grims]

Did you say blank checks?



:D

[96redlt1ta]

Yeah, i think this cost a little more than he was thinking,hehehe

[89gta383]

You could replace that 305 with a 350 for cheap, then with the 22lb injectors, headers and a cat-back exhaust, he would be way ahead of the 305 power wise.;)

[rat454]

It all depends on what your brother wants the car to do.

We all want the chick magnet 8 sec rod but only a very few can really devote the money, time, money, effort, money and more money to it. If your brother is looking to keep it original then by all means rebuild what you got. All small blocks can benefit from, a free flowing headerized exhaust, a less restrictive intake system, upgraded ignition, little better injectors and some computer work so figure on that regardless of which motor you select.
A 305 kinda has a bad rep. The reality is that it's not really that bad of a motor, (GM's cam selection really strangled this little motor), a little more compression, some valve work, good intake and exhaust and the all important cam selection and it does fairly well. It is real easy to go astray on the cam selection. Ego and bragging rights at the bench race session can really cloud reasonable judgment. Regardless you can not beat a hydraulic roller cam for street driving. They are expensive, but well worth the extra torque they can get you and torque is the key to street performance.
If he isn’t set on a 305, then the cost for building a 350 will almost be the same as the 305...45 extra cubes do make a difference...your aftermarket mail order places post real good deals on good 350 Chevy stuff.

read read read...there are thousands of pages of information on building the small block Chevy. The problem is really digesting and deciding what needs to be done to meet the criteria for the engine being built. There is a lot of really trick stuff out there that will help a street small block survive, there's a lot more stuff out there that costs big money that will do nothing to extend the life or improve the performance of a street driven motor (and sometimes some of this stuff will harm a street motor).

So first and foremost decide what you want the car to do and stick with it. Build your shopping list from that.

I would think that someone could take a 305/350 TBI car and drop around $4000 into it and come up with a good respectable street car...

Which leads me to the next thing. so often we start at the engine and as a result the tranny takes a crap and then the rear goes away...a little prevention here can save big money later...a limited slip unit with high quality lube and a good set of u-joints that have grease zerts,

I'm assuming the tranny is an auto. If it has 180,000 on it then get it to a good shop, someone who does 4x4 or performance trannys would be best. When it comes to the tranny it is an issue of heat. A cooler, a temp gauge, shift kit and a kool pan will go a long way.

Let us know what you're gonna do.

Greg

if it has nipples or wheels, sooner or later you will have problems with it..

[five7kid]

You could replace that 305 with a 350 for cheap, then with the 22lb injectors, headers and a cat-back exhaust, he would be way ahead of the 305 power wise.
And in the same range as the 305 economy-wise.

I'd suggest a "4-inch bore kit". A 350 shortblock with worked-over 305 heads is a pretty hot ticket.

Although I have a carb'd version, I'm getting as good of fuel economy with a 350 as I did with the souped-up 305, and the 350 has gobs more power, easier to drive, etc.

Don't rebuild the 305, put in a 350 instead.

[96redlt1ta]

Thanks for the replies guys.
He wants to keep the 305:screwy:, I think he wants a pretty much stock rebuild, so what i've kinda decided on a .030 overbore, with stock compression, maybe a little higher. Then i'm going to put longtubes on it with an ORY, he put a flowmaster catback on it a couple months ago, and he has a ram-air hood with the intake that came with the hood, the car has an M5 tanny.

I kinda think i'm going to do this rebuild myself, and have a machine shop do the bore and do the heads with a valve job and put new springs on it.

A couple more questions, should I go with a standard flowing oil-pump or should I get him a high flow pump, I found out he has a 9.5:1 CR and the rebuild kits i'm looking at from summit only have 8.3:1 CR, so how would that affect things, and also can someone explan rod/main bearing undersize to me.
Thanks
http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+400298+4294870280+4294908216+4 294925008+4294840138+115+4294870257

[89gta383]

Don't buy anything until the machine shop measures it and tells you that you need to bore it and to what size. If it doesn't need it, then don't do it. If you buy the .030 kit and they need to take it to .040 to you are ass out.

Stay with the standard volume pump, but use the high pressure spring. I think it is the melling 55a, but don't quote me on that. You don't need high volume with a stock-type rebuild especially with the stock 5 qt oil pan and no baffling or sump in it to keep the oil covering the pickup.

[five7kid]

M55A is the standard volume/high pressure pump. M55 is standard/standard, M55HV is high volume/standard pressure.

[rat454]

VERY WISE ADVICE FROM 89gta383. As a former engine machinist I can't tell you how many times folks have brought there stuff in to get worked and had to go thru the big hassle of returning stuff because it was the wrong size...

Rod and main bearing undersize. As the crank turns it wears…so to fix this machine shops put the crank on a crankshaft grinder, see http://www.winonavannorman.com/machines/cgseries.html (http://www.winonavannorman.com/machines/cgseries.html)

The crankshaft is centered to the journal centerline, then the machine revolves the crank, the grinding wheel is water cooled and the operator uses the controls to carefully grind the crank. The operator uses a precsion gauge called an Arnold gauge that measures the crank diameter as it turns. The crank turns and the grinding wheel grinds the journal to a smaller diameter, ie to an undersize. Bearings are listed in standardized undersizes.. usually at .010, .020 etc. . it is a time consuming process, but this is industry standard.

also with age and wear, connecting rods also become out of round. Have the rods re sized and use new rod bolts…

There are arguments for and against a high volume oil pump… all are valid points…I think and prefer to use on a low to medium rpm street motor, a hi volume pump. this insures a hi volume of oil is moved thru the motor at low rpm's promoting better bearing cooling, but that is my personal opinion…either way use a steel cupped drive rod and modify the bottom of the distributor so it will lube the distributor gear. Use a 2 quart oil filter…

On the pistons for the 305. Use flat top pistons. Flat tops with the small combustion chamber work really well. When the plug ignites the air fuel, the mixture begins to burn, the flame front goes across the top of the piston very quickly, rapidly expanding and pushing the piston down. It does this more efficiently with a flat top piston…

Trash the balancer and flex plate for new ones and spend the money for a good balance job.

With the mileage you have on this, you will most likely be looking at replacing the valves and having hard inserts installed in the exhaust seats. The guides will most likely need to also be replaced. Use a good quality valve guide and PC type valve seal.

One of the things I routinely did to the 305 heads was to install larger valves…inevitably, the customer needed new intake valves and usually after we ground the seats, the valves would be to low, thus needing new seats also. If the heads didn’t already have 1.94 intake valves, I routinely just cut them to take the 1.94 intakes, eliminating the need to install new seats. This gives you a little more flow..

On the exhaust side, I went up to 1.50 exhaust stainless valves. A little more expensive. But you must use hard seats here, lead in the old leaded gas, was used to lubricate the exhaust valve/valve seats.. when we went to unleaded fuel, the lube went away. Manufactures responded by hardening the exhaust seats to help extend their life. so you can’t just open up the stock seats (an expect them to last a 100,000 miles) to accept the 1.5 valves as you will cut the layer of casting out that has been hardened…

If you can swing it change to a hydraulic roller cam designed to work with the computer…there are many manufacturers out there. They last longer, generate less heat and give better overall performance…for a stock or mild street keep the duration short and the lift low, focus on torque not horsepower…be sure to have the spring height set exactly per the cam manufacturers recommendation…use a good quality roller timing set, and use a cam button to keep cam walk down…the stock rocker arms will work fine as long as the cam lift is below .450…

Lastly… the little small block needs to be honed with torque plates…and use moly rings…

Greg
sister Salley sitting in her Cheverolet, all day long she sits and shifts, all day long she shift and sits..Sister Salley sitting in her Cheverolet.

[89gta383]

I guarantee you he won't be happy with the 305, and you will regret it later when he wants more power. He WILL want more power once he gets a taste.;)

Suprise him with the 350.;)

[96redlt1ta]

Well I got the motor out last night(that was a PITA), Thanks for all your replies you guys are awesome!, after talking with the machine shop about a rebiuld kit I found out there is in r.v. cam option for the kit, do you know anything about that cam??. if not i'm sure I can ask them for the specs on it, what headers/ory would you recommend going with for this project?

[rat454]

Most cams that are marketed as RV cams, focus power in the lower operating range, they tend to have short duration and narrow lob seperation angles. They tend to have low valve lift. in otherwords they make good low in power where a truck or rv would need it to pull something. This might be a little small for your application,...Ask the machinist for the duration at .050 lift and the advertised lift. it will probably be something like 215 duration and 420 lift..
greg

[89gta383]

Don't use their cam, they are trying to be conservative. My feeling is that you will swap it out later when your brother wants more power(did I say that again, sorry).

The cam selection will depend on what springs you are running on the heads and screw in rocker studs. Are you willing to pay more for screw in rocker arm studs or not, that will determine which cams you can choose from.

The machine shop will pick one that will work with your current limitations, fuel injection, head flow, springs, etc., so it won't be optimal. If you are still using the stock tpi intake, then you are rpm limited to 5000 or so rpms. Anything around 210-215 duration would work.

If it were me, I'd use the hotcam, but it's not my motor.:candlesad