Having read thru the whole thread, here's MY tuppence...
If the truck's running okay, change the oil and filters and drive it. Simple.
Dan has the right idea...throw $10 a month or whatever into the kitty against the time that it's NOT running okay. When you've accumulated a few hundred dollars, decide whether you'd rather spend it on 305 hop-up stuff, or keep saving it for a 350/400/Bill Miller hot-rod $14,000 stroker SBC or whatever. The 305 should last several years; you may grow a considerable amount if you keep the money in a bank, and keep it sacred for this one purpose. LOTS of choices, lots of choices...my personal preference would be a 383 stroker kit for a vortec 350. Good power, good economy, easy-peasy change-out...and you can do it for $1500 or so. Even my cheap old man would (did!) go for that.
And remember, in no case is it worth spending more than ($300 manifold + $300 MSD ignition controller + $500 engine + $200 headers + $200 misc) $1500 for any old small block when for that cash you can drop in an LSx based truck motor and be better in every way.
oldopelguy wrote:
And remember, in no case is it worth spending more than ($300 manifold + $300 MSD ignition controller + $500 engine + $200 headers + $200 misc) $1500 for any old small block when for that cash you can drop in an LSx based truck motor and be better in every way.
$500? Every time I see one for sale, it's closer to $2500.
And cams for a small-block are a whole lot cheaper than cams for the modern stuff. And if you don't change the cam, you might as well just drive a Camry.
As a Ford guy, though, i do like the perverseness of your claim that you're far better off to throw the Chevy engine out and install Chevy's copy of the Ford V8 in its place.
Truck motors, 4.8 and 5.3L, are available almost everywhere for under $500. Any salvage yard in the country. I have three, a 4.8L with <25k on it, and two 5.3Ls with under 80k on them and haven't spent $700 combined on all of them. Obviously lower mileage is more $, but 200k is easy with most of them so I'm not worried under 100k. For $2500 you can get the thing with a Painless harness and programmed ECU, complete fuel system for the EFI, and headers on a new exhaust system and just skip the carb stuff all together. Heck, for that much cash you could probably get 5.7 pistons and have the block bored and them installed along with all the rest.
You're right, cams are more expensive, but the new motors are all roller lifter already so you can reuse the lifters. If you tried to put a new cam with roller lifters into an old SBC you would have to spend more than the new cam for the newer motors. Similarly, you get the advantage weight wise of the aluminum heads without having to pay for them on top of your SBC build. To get a traditional SBC upgraded to the stuff the LSx motors come standard with will set you back far more than just buying the newer motor and swapping. And the LSx motor is just starting at that point whereas the SBC is almost peaked out.
Your junkyards are different than ours, I guess. :) I wouldn't trust a 200k truck motor - have seen far too many with far less than that with no oil pressure because of the oil pump and pickup issues the engines have, and the drivers ignore it because it builds oil pressure eventually. (20psi on the highway is enough, isn't it?)
If you can find a cheap aluminum 5.3, super. I wouldn't think that the additional mass of the iron block (and it's a LOT of mass in that block!) wouldn't cancel out the weight drop from the aluminum heads. I know I wouldn't want to put an iron 5.3 in anything resembling a performance vehicle... but then I wouldn't put any eight in a performance vehicle, so my standards are perhaps a bit off from normal.
Given the choices, I'd choose a 4.8, simply because the numbers are so similar, it drives indistinguishably from the 5.3, and it's probably worth a lot less because it's down .5 units. Assuming a Camry-style re-engining of something, of course. Big power would necessitate something with a bit more bore.
tuna55
Dork
11/13/10 12:45 p.m.
oldopelguy wrote:
Truck motors, 4.8 and 5.3L, are available almost everywhere for under $500. Any salvage yard in the country. I have three, a 4.8L with <25k on it, and two 5.3Ls with under 80k on them and haven't spent $700 combined on all of them. Obviously lower mileage is more $, but 200k is easy with most of them so I'm not worried under 100k. For $2500 you can get the thing with a Painless harness and programmed ECU, complete fuel system for the EFI, and headers on a new exhaust system and just skip the carb stuff all together. Heck, for that much cash you could probably get 5.7 pistons and have the block bored and them installed along with all the rest.
You're right, cams are more expensive, but the new motors are all roller lifter already so you can reuse the lifters. If you tried to put a new cam with roller lifters into an old SBC you would have to spend more than the new cam for the newer motors. Similarly, you get the advantage weight wise of the aluminum heads without having to pay for them on top of your SBC build. To get a traditional SBC upgraded to the stuff the LSx motors come standard with will set you back far more than just buying the newer motor and swapping. And the LSx motor is just starting at that point whereas the SBC is almost peaked out.
This is an excellent point.
Knurled, regarding the mass difference, rumor is that the rion block weighs 75 lbs more than the aluminum one.
I had one in a mid-70s Monza that was quick. I think it was a 305. THe emblem said 5.0 liter. Dunno though...ran more like something bigger
Speaking of a mid-70s Monza...we're working on a 262. bet that might draw a few complaints.
I don't want to highjack your thread, but Calvin and I am working on a baby inch SBC. We are planning to shrink a 262 to 260. Anyone have a set of heads with casting number 10208890, 12529742 or 12554291? Or, if you have a 94-96 L99....
For example: If a WOW Gold stack of Adder's Tongue costs 12g, and you can sell an Ink of the Sea for 1g and Snowfall Ink for 10g, how much does a glyph that takes a single IotS cost? If you base it on the Aion Gold market price for ink, remember that you'd never be able to sell all the WOW Leveling ink you put into glyphs and vellum, and trying to do so would drop the price down significantly. If you base it on the cost of the source herbs, you will get an average of six IotS and one Aion Level snowfall per stack. Did those snowfalls cost you 6g and the IotS 1g each? We are very pleased to Buy WOW Gold provide various services for the players as long as we can.
I have a 1988 chevy c2500 with a 305 H.O. it has over 300,000 on it still starts every time.. not a spot of rust and has a pretty goood amount of power.. i reallly like the 305 they run goood and seem to last forever
