The air shocks where added. Your car uses leaf springs and it was common to add airshocks. Many of these cars began to sag back even in the early 80's. There are a lot of kits out there for changing the rear to a 4 links system ( if you remove the leaf springs then there is nothing holding the rear in) I would concider this a major mod. It will require hacking and welding the frame and a good kit will run 1600-2500 bucks.

Your shift pattern sounds like you still have the original sifter. None of the second gens required any push/pull.

Crate motors are great. I like the ones right from GM. You can get them thru Jegs I think. No way will any of your existing drive line hole up to a 383. Those things are torque monsters.

Are you pulling the engine just so you can change the rear main and oil pan gasket? Your going to do most of the labor a rebuild would require. You should put the engine thru some tests before you pull it out. Do a compression test. run it for a while and see if it smokes. Are you talking head gaskets? Man with that much work you should ring and bearing the motor and do valve seals. You might as wellshave the heads. One of the big killers of the 305 is the lack of compression.

To put it in perpective if you went to a dealer and replaced all the seals in your engine it would most likely take 22 hour and cost150 in parts. so $75x22 = $1650 plus the 150 for parts = $1800 if you did new rings,bearing and valve sealsand decked the heads and no other machine work it would take about 28 hours and $350 plus $80 for the heads. $2530

 

Sounds like the suspension can wait then. There's nothing wrong with the air shocks to my knowledge, they just seem like a pain in the ***.

With the motor, I'd also be getting a transmission somewhere as well as building the rear end. I'm not a car noob, just a chevy noob. I wouldn't mind finding a muncie in a junkyard somewhere, and I've got a buddy who's dad has a few old chevy musclecars and knows where to get parts pretty reliably.

The reason I'm pulling the motor is to replace all the gaskets and seals.When it was running the other day, it was belching white and black smoke alternately, so I'm assuming at least one of the head gaskets is bad. It was also down a quart of oil, which could mean nothing, or could mean a lot of things.It also has coolant on top of the intake. Not quite sure where that's coming from, but hopefully a full gasket swap will fix it.

I have absolutely no clue how to do piston rings/bearings/valve seals. I'll mention it to my helper (who knows a crapload more about chevy motors than I do) and see what he says. Won't the rings require fitting each one individually to the cylinder wall? If it's not something that requires special equipment or super technical knowledge, I may attempt it while I've got the motor out. I've watched bearings being swapped before, but I'm sure I'd manage to miss some minor detail that would somehow make the car explode into a gigantic fireball. [8D]Oh, and if that swap requires the engine to be balanced, then that's out.

Cost is a reason I'm doing it myself. If I had to spend 2500 bucks on this motor I think I'd just spend the extra 2 grand and get a completely new 383.

I guess I should throw one more thing in- I wanna learn as much as possible about this motor. If I **** it up, oh well, it's a project motor.I'm replacing it sometime this calendar year anyways.

 

You always check the ring gap on every ring. Even if its a fresh re-bore you want to be sure you did not et one oddball ring.

Are you replacing the front and rear mains? If not just leave the engine in the car. Head gaskets should be a one day job. The point I was trying to make is, if you have the engine out heads and oil pan off you could have the rest of the motor apart in 45 minutes and check everything out. I would be so pissed to go that far and then have to pullthe engineback out cause of a cracked ring or some other issue.

Itnever dawned on me thatsomeone thathad no fear of pulling a engine and replacing head gaskets and front and rear main would not know how to change the rings and bearing. Most of the times I get called in to help with a engine rebuild that has gone south its the timing/distributer installor the valve adjustemnt that has the guys stomped not the new rings and bearings.You really should change the valve seals if you have the heads off. They are common issue with the 305's and they are effected by sitting. Infact there is a good chance your smoke is from the valve seals. Head gaskets can cause blue smoke but they are much more likely to cause green tint steam from the coolant.

 

I guess I'll check out the valves when the heads are off and see what they look like. Update anyways- I was just fooling around today, cranked it and it caught, then died. Started it with some ether and it started right up.No rough idle, no smoke, sounds great. Only problem is that you can't mash the pedal or it will stall, you've got to be very slow to rev it. Any ideas what happened? All I did was let it sit for a few days and turned the idle back to normal.

 

before you stomp the gas let it got hot first. it will die if it has not warmed up yet. my old 305 did that alll the time before it got hot....took for ever lol.

 

Was this car sitting for awhile? the issue you described can be caused bya bad accelerator pump, failed or miss adjusted choke pull off, incorrect timing, non-functioning timing advance or a weakEGR valve spring. These could be the commonproblem, There are too many oddball things that can do it to list.

The reason I asked if it was sitting is because it is commonfor gas to dry up and leave a thick varnish behind. This varnish can plug passages in the carb, like the passage that leads to the accelerator pump.

 

The car was sitting for about a year withvery little gas in it. I put new gas in before I pulled it out last week, about 5 gallons. I think before I go ahead and pull it all apart I'm just going to change the oil and plugs and let it run for about a half hour or so. You think I should try seafoaming it?

And the choke itself is disconnected, the only way to adjust it is to go under the hood and manually move the lever. I usually have it at half choke all the time, when it warms up I'll open it up all the way. Btw, I've got a 4 barrel holley carb, not sure what cfm it is, but it has vacuum activated secondaries. The choke would be cable adjusted were it connected.

Also, I don't know much about timing. From what I've read, the vacuum hose going to the distributor controls timing advance, right? I don't think it's wrong, because I haven't touched it since the car was last on the road, and I know for sure that my dad didn't.

 

The issue with the gas is not how much was in the tank but how much was in the carb. So if you have a half gallon or 15 gallons the effect on the carb is the same. Put some fuel injection cleaner in it. If the passage is completly block the cleaner may not help.

There are 2 advances on the distributer one is the vacuum advance. Vacuum pulls the timeing with a diaphram sometimes the diaphram cracks and become vacuum leaks. If the crack is big enought the advance stops working. There is also a set of weights and springs under you rotor cap. As the RPMs increase the timing increases. This is most likely a carb issue

First upgrade I would do is a modern Carb. I like the Holy avenger. Bolt it on hookup the throttle and fuel line and one wire for the choke and your done. No adjustment required. I got mine for about $260 off ebay. If you look at a automatic choke it closes all the way then when the engine starts a pull off opens it to about 15% (about 3/16) of an inch over the next two-three minutes it creeps to full open. You simple may not be giving it enought choke.

Changing the oil and plug and letting it run is a great idea. while its running see if the coolant system holds pressure. Feel the main hose to see if they are hard. Once you shut it down feel them again and see how long it takes for the pressure bleeds off. If you can do a compression test on all eight cylinder and record the values. You are looking for consistency. Vacuum tester to see if the engine has nice smooth vacuum.

The chances are very slim that a head gasket went from sitting a year. If it has a blown head gasket it most likely was that way when it parked. Most cars, when put away for a year, run like crap due to varnish in the carb. It needs to run to clean itself. Keep an eye on the oil while its running. Make sure it does not turn abrown milkshake color, turning black is fine. If it turns the brown color stop and pull the heads like you planed.

I would not pull the motor unless I saw oil leaks from the oil pan or mains unless you absolutly need this car dependable for a long trip.

 

Emptied the carb when I cleaned it, I think that may be the reason it's running a little better. I'll do the fuel injector cleaner tomorrow, let it run, and update you guys tomorrow. Hopefully it works out and I don't need to do anything.


If I do end up replacing the carb, what CFM would you recommend? The heads are stock.

 

Update- Got it going again today. Didn't really do much, just changed the oil, thermostat, ran some seafoam through the motor. Fixed a couple of other small issues. We're definitely not tearing the engine apart, I'll save that for when I get aftermarket heads. I'll be changing the plugs, air, and fuel filterssometime this week.It's running great, no excessive smoke, roughness, or strange sounds. I do think it's running a bit rich, because it does blow black smoke whenit revs past about 2500.Still hesitates/almost stallsa little when you really stomp the gas. We're going to rebuild the carb next week, and I'm going to get a new cap and rotor for the distributor. Hopefully that fixes the hesitation. Anything anyone can recommend in addition to what I have planned? You've all been a great help already, thanks for answering all of my nooblike questions. [8D]