what to do with this 305?

I recieved a free 305 from a friend, he said it ran strong except it was burning oil thru the valve guide on the passenger head. What would you suggest I do for something like this? I want a good running motor but really don't want to do the full out bore and all out rebuild. Should I just fix the valve guides and send the heads to the machine shop then clean the motor up and regasket it?
thanks everyone
bob

 

Fix the valve guides. Put in a stock 350 or 400 cam. E-bay a edelbrock performer intake, and you'll have a nice little smooth motor.

You can always swap the heads over to a 350 later to raise the compression and have a torquey motor.

 

Pull the head and make sure its not cracked .Ive heard that this is a common problem ,Good luck I hope its just a guide ......And if it is the guide regasket the motor and put in a mild cam intake and 4 barrel ......

 

What year is the 305 and did it come with a 4 bbl intake???

 

Run it enough to verify good oil pressure and compression. If that's satisfactory, then do a valve job. After that you'll know whether to run it like it is or not.

 

Fix the heads and run it. the botom end will prolly be in good shape, new cam might be in order. If you have a cracked head, find another, they are a dime a dozen. We just threw away ten sets, nobody seems to want them.

Before anyone jumps me for scraping heads let me say we kept ten sets too, you just cant keep them all.

 

Run it, add oil, and save for the motor of your dreams. Oh, what is motor of your dreams? How much does the 305 burn? How much to fix valve guides? Can u find another set of 305 heads?
I have a set of 305 heads on my 350 good torque, worn guides, smokes on intial startup, will add oil till have time to switch heads. All comes down to time and money.

 

Hope you did the right thing and kept the 4 bbl heads.. 1.84" intake and 1.50" exhaust valves. I have 2 sets of those...

 

If it's just puffing at start up I would run it. My parts chaser will puff every now and than at start up, but uses no oil between changes.

 

you can just go through the engine ive seen 305s become good engines. Plus people will think its just a 350 sitting in that car. Also the 305 heads are great on 350 but watch out to make sure they are not to 60cc or 58cc combustion chambers if so you better be prepared to run premium and then some. Also it depends on what elevation you are at and what duration cam you are running all that can change your static compression. But for cheap just go threw the block

 

Just remember, if you replace any of the guides then those valves and valve seat will need to be reground.

 

Uuuhhmm, ya do know that 350 heads on a 305 lowers the compression, not raises it, don't cha?

 

He did say the other way around.

 

Oh, ok, read that backwards, pain meds kicking in, sorry.

 

good motors. I had 2. They're not revvers though. Blew out a set of rings on my first and broke a piston on my second. No big deal, $20 dollar motors.

I have 58cc heads on my 350 with flattops, and it runs like a bat outta hell!

 

Even a free 305 is worthless. I'd say make a table out of it but I don't think wine bottles will even fit in the cylinders.

 

I run an all roller 305 in my '29A. Plenty of power, and 28.8 MPG, if I keep light on the pedal.

 

if I took the heads to a machine shop and told them the valve guides are letting oil thru then they would check it right? and then would know what to do from there...any idea how much something like that would run? or does anyone have a good set of heads for sale?

 

I've got a set of 882 head that I'd sell for a C-note. They are said to have Z-28 springs, but iother than that are stock. Ready to run.
r

 

I'm freshening up a roller cam 305 out of an '87 TA with the Ramjet 350 cam and a pair of L30 305 Vortec heads. It cost me about $160 for the machine work and labor, $16 of that was to have the guide bosses cut down for additional cam lift. That's a Vortec thing, you wouldn't need it for other than Vortec heads.

Check your casting numbers, if they end in '416 or '601 those are the HO heads. Pretty decent heads for smaller engines. They flow similar to the 461 Double Hump heads on the intake side, a little weaker on the exhaust but a dual pattern cam or 1.6 rockers on the exhaust can "band-aid" that.

If you don't want to get crazy with it and just want a little more zip the summit 1102 cam works great in the flat tappet 305's. The 1103 works nice too and gives it just a hint of lope but you lose a little low end. Not too bad though. If you run headers try to get 1-1/2" tubes, definitely no bigger than 1-5/8". Stock iron intakes work well, you need to keep the mixture velocity up below 4,000 and nothing beats the factory intakes below 4 grand or so except the old SP2P and you do NOT want one of those if you ever want to turn it 1 RPM over 4,000. The SP2P will also make the engine more detonation prone and 305's are already more prone than the 350. I'd run a cast iron Q-Jet manifold and Q-Jet.

I could go on but I promised the wife a shopping trip and she just cashed in her "coupon" so off we go!

 

awesome, thanks for the info!!

 

With a 1.500" exhaust valve, I think the 1.500" tube headers should be plenty enough. Anything bigger, and you'll loose bottom end torque.

 

this motor is going to go in a '53 pontiac, I'm not really worried about horsepower I just don't want a whimpy motor...and plus I want it to sound good, of course

 

hey "Rudebaker" is the cam you were referring to?
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-1102/?rtype=10

 

Yep, the older 305's really respond well to that, a small 4 bbl. and headers with good dual exhaust. A friend had a boneyard late 70's 305 2 bbl. in his '63 Bel Air with that cam, a Q-Jet and iron intake and duals through the stock '63 ram horn manifolds. It had a 200-4R and 3.08 gears. It wasn't fast by any means but it could easily haul 4 adults on the highway in OD and could maneuver in traffic no problem. With some 3.73's it would have been even better.

 

You sure do like Whine bottles.

 

this is probably going to sound really dumb, but if I change the cam what will I have to do after that? Is it a slippery slope after that?

 

Not sure what you mean but the 1102 cam will work fine with a basically stock 305, you don't have to change valve springs but if you're having the heads redone anyway better springs are relatively cheap. Definitely buy new lifters and a new timing set. Personally I'd slip a high pressure spring in the oil pump but that's optional.

 

............ Or you could buy the Z/28-LT-1 version of the oil pump.. Even a lo-po bbc oil pump will bolt right up. Just use the stock sbc sump tube.

 

Another idea is to switch over to a AC pf-35 or equivalent instead of pf-25 oil filter.. It's a little longer which means more filtering capacity.