305 intake/carb help

[alone_and_insane]

I'm not a 3rd gen guy, so I'm a little out of my element here. I'm inquiring for my brother, who has an '86 Z28 with the 305. The car just had the intake manifold gasket go out on it, so my brother wants to do some upgrading. He's not nearly as experienced/knowledgeable with cars as my dad and I are, and he's more of a shoot first then ask questions person. I want to give him solid advice, but I don't know carbureted stuff, or 3rd gens for that matter.


He wants to get a upgraded carburetor (he's thinking Edelbrock) and a new intake manifold to go with it. This car is his daily driver, so it's 100% street driven. He just wants boost in power/performance while maintaining driveability. He also wants a setup he won't have to mess with--tune it once and don't worry about it for a long time.


Any thoughts/suggestions on which carbs/intakes he should look for is appreciated.

And before anybody says it, he's not getting a 350

[hoogiesngrinderz]

He's lucky the car is an 86, but make sure the engine is original or pre '87.

I have a Weiand intake which is a very good all around intake that I would part with. Also have some other one's but they worth a lot more.

Edelbrock carbs are pretty good for DD, still like the Holley's better but aren't always forgiving. Is the car originally carbed? Auto?

[alone_and_insane]

It's originally carbed, and yes it's an auto. I'm about 99% sure it's the original motor, my brother is the second owner and he got it with 86k miles (it was originally driven by a high school lunch lady). It's a little over 100k now. My brother said the guy who's working on his car said Holleys can be a bit finnicky to get just right. He's a noob, so the less he has to tinker with it the better.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Ok. He will need to get the 700r4 adapter kit for the Edelbrock. Might need to fab up some brackets for coil, MAP, etc. I can't remember if the stock intakes have bosses for those or if they use the intake to head bolts to mount them.

Edit: did 86's come with the electronic carb? I'll have to look that up later on. It's beer night

[alone_and_insane]

From what I've gathered from another thread I made on another forum, it is electonically-controlled.

[alone_and_insane]

Edelbrock is the easiest to tune, a electric choke would be nice too....keep the stock manifold. Upgrading it on a stock 305 won't be worth the results..well you won't get a boost in performance sorta speak.

Well to change the carb he has to disable the ECU- replace the distributer and Carb. He can get a little more out of the mid range RPMs the torque style intake. This would have little or no effect on Max HP like everyone likes to brag about but it would make the car slightly faster in the ¼ mile and it will show up on a butt dyno.

Setting up a Carb and distributer on an engine is easy getting them right all through the RPMs takes a lot of years to learn how to do. Even then for the car to just match the performance of computer controlled you are going to have to run premium gas and still will not hit your current mileage. The knock sensor allows the factory to run more timing advance because the system can hear the spark knock and reduce timing as needed.

Of course this all assumes the computer is intact and working right. The reality is, if you not upgrading the Cam and heads removing the computer is going to hurt the cars performance and MPG and will cost a lot if you do it right.

This is what people on CamaroForums are saying. Thoughts?

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Pretty much spot on.

Those are swirl port heads (if I remember right) and kill airflow above 4000 or so, negating the HP gains from a nice intake. Torque numbers will probably increase a bit. LT1 cam would be a cheap upgrade for it, but probably not worth the troubles on a DD

[alone_and_insane]

I think my brother would be open to doing something like a cam swap down the road, but definitely not now.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Just put new gaskets on and call it good

[Darren]

I have a edlebrock performer RPM that I might not be using if hes looking for a intake.


EDIT: I did just see on TGO a guy selling a intake and carb on there for pretty cheap as well. TGO is a great place to find things.

[deeznuts94]

Check out this link. They actually pull some pretty decent numbers out of this little 305. http://www.superchevy.com/technical/..._engine_build/

[alone_and_insane]

EDIT: I did just see on TGO a guy selling a intake and carb on there for pretty cheap as well. TGO is a great place to find things.

Yeah, I'm trying to convince him to create a profile on TGO and start using it, rather than calling me to look something up for him. I also wish he would take more time to do his homework and consult people that know these cars real well. It seems like anything his mechanic says to him automatically trumps anything I try to pass along to him. If given the choice between somebody pointing and telling him "do that," and somebody telling him, "here are the things to consider, here's where to learn this stuff yourself and make an informed decision," he'll go with the first guy every time.

Just put new gaskets on and call it good

That would make sense, but somebody once told him that the stock carb sucks and now he's convinced that it's "Quadra-junk," (he's very impressionable with that kind of stuff: somebody tells him something is bad, and he'll swear that it's bad, and if somebody tells him that something is good, he'll swear that it's good, without actually making individual judgments). So he's convinced that his car is a POS unless he upgrades from the "Quadra-junk" and gets rid of "all the stupid hoses and emissions crap," and he thinks he's going to swap a T5 into it at some point too...

[hoogiesngrinderz]

He's not sure how to go about an intake yet he thinks he's going to pull off a T5 swap?

Sorry, not trying to be mean, but that's funny.

[Darren]

Have him make a name here and we can help direct him with some good advice. Honestly my first advice would be dont buy anything you CANT use on a 350 later down the road

[alone_and_insane]

He's not sure how to go about an intake yet he thinks he's going to pull off a T5 swap?

Sorry, not trying to be mean, but that's funny.

Oh don't worry, I'm right there with you...I've already told him that if he seriously wants a T5 that bad, he's better off selling his car and buying another 3rd gen (or a 2nd gen, he likes those better) that has a manual. But, somebody told him once that it's not too hard to do, so he thinks that it won't be too hard to do

Have him make a name here and we can help direct him with some good advice. Honestly my first advice would be dont buy anything you CANT use on a 350 later down the road

I'll see about him getting a username here. As far as the other stuff, I'll advise him on that, but I seriously doubt he would be upgrading to a 350 with that thing. He's more the type that would want to keep the original engine.