Hi everyone. I have a question. I took the 305 out of my 87 Monte, and I wanted to rebuild it just to see if I could. It's my first try at this in a long time and I was assisted by my auto shop teacher when I did rebuild one before. This motor I'm tearing down now ran when I pulled it, just the valve seals were leaking really bad. Can I check all the journals and other critical surfaces, cylinder walls etc. and if everything looks good just buy standard size, OEM style pistons and bearings and slap the bottom end back together the way I took it apart with a standard size rebuild kit? Or would I have to take it to a machine shop no matter what? That's the part I want to avoid. This engine isn't worth a whole lot to me so I want to keep it around $500. I might put it in our farm use truck and go 4 wheeling.

Oh BTW, everybody who knows a lot about these small blocks knows the car engines got roller cams in 87 along with centerbolt valve covers. My car is an 87 so the factory engine had a roller cam stock. From a purely cost oriented standpoint, is it possible to run a hydraulic flat tappet cam in a roller block without any mods? I know the roller cam is way better, but they are also way more expensive. Especially if you want to run roller lifters and rockers too.

I appreciate the help in advance! Thanks!

 

you dont have to take it to be machined, but it would be a good idea since you already went through the effort of taking it apart. at least have it tanked, cleaned, bores honed, and checked out to ensure all clearances will be good. then reassemble it yourself. also swing by some machine shops and price out there services you may be surprised how affordable the simple stuff can be. hell you never know they may have a bigger small block laying around that is pretty much ready to go for a decent price.

id keep the roller setup. you can reuse your lifters, you would just need the cam. the roller cams are only really expensive when you have to buy a retrofit kit for the older gen 1s that dont have the roller lifters. car craft routinely combs junkyards for roller lifters to avoid selling there first born for a new set. it would be silly to go from roller to flat tappet when everyone else on earth is going the opposite way.

on the roller rockers you can shop around a bit and find a good deal. harland sharp makes a good set at a good price. just make sure you by full roller rockers, not just roller tip, and you can also look for used ones if money is really that tight.

 

Thanks for the info! It's much appreciated! It just amazes me how that engine is in as good shape as it's in on the inside. Not to mention it has over 200k miles on it! I went to school with a guy who started his own automotive machine shop a few years back. I'll give him a call and see what he says. He does Chevys but one of the guys at work had him build a 5.4 in his jacked up F250. That big truck would smoke a foxbody to 4th gear with 9 inches of lift and 38 inch tires! So that was like a good reference seeing how that truck ran and he don't even hardly mess with Fords!

I've thought about it and I think I'll stick with the roller cam. I took a good look at those lifters after I read your reply and you can barely tell they've been used! I could probably re-use the cam but even I'm not that cheap LOL! I'm gonna look around and see if I can find a deal on one. I'd hate to pay more for a cam than I'm going to pay for heads LOL. (219 dollars for remanned 58cc 1.94 int. 1.50 exh. with 175cc runners) Myself, I think a roller cam is superior in every way but cost. You can run a more aggressive cam profile without excessive wear on your valvetrain, they make less noise, they'll last 3 times as long as a flat tappet, and I think it just makes for a cleaner, more efficient running engine. I'll post more about the build as I go along, maybe somebody can read it and get some info they need. Thanks again!

 

wow lots of miles on that motor. yeah i would have a machine shop clean her up and check your clearances. obviously get a new timing set. my 406 had god knows how many miles on it before we rebuilt it, but when i was disassembling it the piston rings turned to dust. im surprised the car never smoked.

the retrofit was like 7XX bucks when we did my motor so i went flat tappet. i didnt know you could use factory roller lifters at the time or that wouldve changed everything. the cam is still aggressive enough for a dd, just that when the car finally gets the n2o plate were going to wind up having to do a cam swap.

on the heads you may want to hunt around. the heads are what makes the motor so you want the best pair you can afford. id try and hunt down a set of world product sr torquer heads. new theyre about 5XX, but used they should be fairly affordable. a little cam, some compression(flat top pistons) and the motor should make some power. shell be low on torque, but you dont have a ton of cubes to work with. if the bottom end was shot thats when i would suggest ponying up the cash and getting a cheap stroker kit for it. once again doesnt make as much power as a bigger cubed motor, but it would be working with what you have.

 

That all sounds like pretty smart advice man. In my experience with 305's they don't start making their power till later in the rpm range so I agree with ya, it'll never make torque like a 4 inch bore engine will. I had a 305 in this huge chevy truck one time, and it was built somewhat. RV cam, high rise intake, holley 600, long tubes, you know the usual. But anyway, it was kind of a turd until you got up to about 2500 rpms, then it came alive. It would sling the mud everywhere, but you had to give it hell. If i could make this 305 i have now run like the one i had before, I'd be happy. Not to mention, this 305 is a roller block. I'll look around for those world torquer heads. I've heard a lot of the local racing guys talk about world torquer heads how they liked them for the price, so I'll look into that as well. There are a whole lot of cheap looking heads on the internet for a small chevy and I'm not too crazy about the idea of taking a gamble on them. Even they cost a few hundred bux so you'd might as well get good heads for a hundred or so more. As always, thanks for the advice!

 

i dont have experience with the torquer heads, but i currently run the world products sportsman 2s and theyre a real set of iron heads. probably the best bang for buck in iron heads. im not well versed in 305s but since it has the 350 stroke i would assume it should be able to rev like one, but im also going to assume that the small bore and small valve heads you have to run on them hurt the top end. if i was forced to stick with a 305 id get a set of small valve heads that can really flow, and a cam that makes power all the way to 6500. the big downfall to putting money into the 305 is that the heads become useless when you step up to a 350+ cube motor. at least everything else will pretty much swap over and the aftermarket heads can be sold(at a loss). its one of those deals where you either live life with the 305 as is, while building a proper motor, or go all out with a 305 and live with making 50+hp/80+tq less than a comparable 350 while spending the same amount if not more money doing it.