I've spent the last few days trying to figure out what cam I should put in my 305. I'm just planning on a mild build up. We took the engine apart to change the gaskets and I decided while we had it apart to change the cam. What would you guys recommend? I'm trying to keep it cheap so I was planning on using the stock intake and the exhaust will be what ever will fit in my '51 Chevy with the stock steering. I do plan on a new carb too. It's late now, my head hurts and I'm going to bed.
pull the stock cam out hold it in your hands andthen put a 327 or 350 around it . thats the best replacement
It seems I post this every day or so on one forum or another. If you pick a camshaft without considering the dozen or so other important factors you are just spinning your wheels. Car weight ,gearing, converter, heads ,carb, exhaust, intended use ,Power brakes,will the springs need changed, will you need screw in studs, piston valve clearance. If you really want advice call a reputable cam manufacturer and talk to him, getting camshaft advice off the internet is , well ,just not smart.Best of luck.
Wow, only one person throwing shade on a perfectly good power plant. What generation is the 305? Roller cam? Mid 70's to 80's smog manifolds, with the air tubes plugged, will clear the stock steering.
some 305's are good, a friends loner car from the bodyshop (78 Malibu 4 door) blew the doors off my 350 4spd Malibu as for the cam, comp cams extreme energy series seems to be popular.
About 222 @ .50 will work. Look for a cam with the same basic specs as the L-79 327 cam it should serve you well. .447 lift and 221 duration @ .50
Any of the so-called "RV" cams will be fine. You're not building a drag car, so that while having all the specifics of your car and use may be helpful, it's really not required. I know the 305 has been labeled as the red-headed-stepchild of GM fame, it's really not that bad of an engine. Look at the numbers of vehicles that came with it. Better yet, look at the NHRA records held by them, speed and E.T. Of course there are "better" engines, but sometimes we have to work with what we have. For the cost, you can't beat Summit's branded cams. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.
Whoa. If you would then researched SUMMIT RACING & your combination the answer would be dead on. TIP: the general rule of thumb, the longer the duration the higher the RPM band. Your cruiser needs an off idle to 5,000 RPM camshaft for drivability & net gain. Small cubes, low RPM limit, a couple of bumps up from stock.
Cheap. Stock intake, stock exhaust. I'd highly recommend putting a stock cam in it along the lines of a 300HP 327, 195/202 degrees @ .050, .390"/.410" lift. You get the advantage of keeping the valve train 100% stock incurring no added build costs and retaining stone-stock reliability. It should be at least a step up from the original 305 cam. Sometimes less is more, the GM engineers put a lot of time and money into the research on these cams. Don't over-cam that 305 for your '51 Chevy cruiser. Good luck.
Sorry you took that the wrong way. Your response was helpful. The "useful response" bit was more ment for the guy who posted after you. I will be looking into the Summit cams. Thanks.
That's the same thing I was thinking. I'm not building a race car. I just want to get a couple extra hp out of the engine while it's out of the car.. I will be checking out the Summit cams. Thanks
Cam -- probably no more than Summit's good old "Performer" cam at something like 270/204/280/214, 112/107, .420"/.443" hy-cam. It is a step up from Chevy's great old -929 cam that at one time or another was used in darn near all base engines through the years. Or one close..... It will do you nicely if you just want a tad more everything.. NOT race at all, but a tad more everything.. Another thing is you might consider if either V-8 Monza or way early 265 log exhaust manifolds will help any steering closeness? These manifolds "logs" are above the sparkplugs, not below like most 350 ones are. There is a site somewhere that has pic's of almost EVERY exhaust manifold type Chevy has used including trucks. So you might hunt it up and look through it. You never know, you might get lucky and find a pair of P/U stainless steel tubed "block-huggers" that are STOCK Chevy.. pdq67
See if you can get a set of block hugger headers to fit, they are center exit and clear most cars. There are better headers out there, but for $100 and good clearance they will work fine. Used edelbrock performer intakes go for about $60, it may be grimy, just use a can of oven cleaner on it and paint it. These 2 items will help quite a bit. Decide what carb you want to run, a quadrajet, carter or edelbrock would be a good match 600 vac secondary is plenty. if you already have a 4bbl that's not electronic controlled run that. Cam, I agree with above posts, cams similar to the 327 300 hp grind. SUM-K1101 would be my suggestion. remember most chevy cams are based on a 350 build so it will act larger in a 305. Check your valve size, some 305's came with 1.94 valves, some with smaller 1.8 or so. Swapping to heads with the 1.94 valves will help. 305 heads are cheap, keep an eye out for them. Work on your distributor, I'm guessing you have an hei that came with the engine, if it was computer controlled, get it back to mid 70's configuration, without the computer input. Then buy a curve kit and start tuning the slow lazy emissions advance out of it.
I just had a 305 built. I used a set of power pack heads for a 57 vette, flat top Pistons, a solid cam from the 57 and a 3 carb set up. I don't know how well it work, just thought it would ct like a bored and stroked old 57 vette motor.
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