Treated myself with a Camaro!

[Pyramid_Head]

It's very strict here in CA. You may only swap an engine of the same year, or newer, you must retain its emission system for that particular engine, and passenger or sports cars cannot have engines that come from trucks, such as pick-ups or suv's (sucks because i wanted to use 96-00 vortec heads). Also, aftermarket parts must have a CARB number. I know.... it truly sucks here when it comes to modifying your engine, but i don't plan to do much with it.

Kyle. I just saw that article you posted. I didn't know the small bore 305 could crunch out those type of numbers! I'm very interested on building something like that. For sure that will meet, or exceed my build! Thanks guys for being such a huge help!

[MP81]

Happy to help! It's the article I've always referenced when it comes to reasons to keep the 305 for a good bit longer - might as well make it as powerful as I can, prior to any kind of LS swap (which I have zero space for at the moment - need to expand the garage before I do any kind of engine swap). It's also fairly cheap for that much of a power gain, so really, it's worth doing to make the most of my time with the 305. I will just likely have to spend a bit extra because I do not expect the CCC Quadrajet/distributor/ECM combination will be able to work with the new components...then again, it's very possible they might.

[DynoDave]

It's a small block Chevy. It will respond to all the same mods a 350 or other small block will. You won't find a ton of people who have built 305s, because if you start with a 350, and do the same mods, you get more bang for your buck, so most choose to go there.But all the same principles apply. Intake, cam, headers, roller rockers (maybe with different ratios), heads, etc.

With the L03 TBI 305, the known weak points are: The exhaust manifolds and pipes. They are very restrictive. The heads are a swirl port design that emphasizes low end torque over everything else. That's why this engine runs out of breath at about 4k rpm. Also, the cam is very small, again to emphasis power at low engine speed. Between the heads, cam and exhaust, the engine just can't breath as well as it might.

A looser torque converter (several other L03 owners claim good results from a '90s S-10 with 4.3L converter, picking up several hundred launch rpm at low parts store cost. The 2.83 axle ratio isn't helping much either, so a gear change can help too.

[Pyramid_Head]

Totally agreeing with both of you. I should just fix the 305, leave it stock, drive it around while i save up for a freshly built 350, and strengthen my transmission. After all, this car is dialed in 194,000 miles, and my LO3 Injectors are pouring lots of gas inside the bottom end and diluting my engine oil, and it's idling too rough.... expecting the map, O2 sensor, very old injectors (possible complete tbi rebuild), old rusty distributor, and the engine coolant sensor. Gotta deal with all this before i start dissecting the suspension.