On an air boat it's setup just like your cars just the only diff is its open with a steel cage around in and it powering a boat and cooling isn't a problem and the motor is hooked up to a gear box that drives the prop when the boat works right it's bad *** our motor is rated at 450hp

 

heres proof the 305 cant handle as much abuse as a 350. probably full throttle for about 45 seconds on the highway, let off at 145. a week later, had a knock. lasted 500 miles before being parked, then abused for 2 miles after i got another car.



i believe the isssue was with the rods stretching (previously mentioned). the engine only went over 5k once while i owned, although the previous owner did manage to neutral drop it into reverse and grenaded the tranny

 

I'm trying to get mine out ASAP I think when I get my new motor I'm using my 305 to make my coffee table

 

My 88 C1500 as a 340 stroker build in it. It dyno at 325 3 years ago, and probably would have showed more if it did not have a tranny failure of the stock tranny at the time. The engine as been in the truck for 7 years, on the track a number of times, and countless burn outs.. Its still running strong. We or not talking stock factory 305s.. The only major thing i did was change head gaskets, they where not bad, but I make a habit of changing head gasket every few years. Oh and i put valve seals in it.

My truck is living proof of what a 305 can achieve, when every one else calls them a boat anch because they never owned anything but a 350. 305 or a good engine, and at stock where not made to be power plants (clearly).

P.S: Toss any tranny in reverse at high rpm and you will damage the engine also.. So I'm a bit confused to talk down a 305, and then say the owner dropped it in reverse at 5k rpm.. (if i followed that right). Even a 350 will suffer from that driver error, I have proof of it sitting in my garage right now out of my buddy's c1500 with a hole in the side of the block. He hit reverse at high rpm on the track, and did not have good reaction on pushing the clutch in to prevent damage.

 

Woah, never would have expected something like that

 

I have a simple idea on displacement and $$$$$$. To make a 350 into a 383 the cost is around?? $190. to bore and hone with a plate. Stroker kit is a ebay special $700-$1000. we will take the $850 middle road. 383 / $1040 =$31.51 per cubic inch. Or you can gain 45 cubic inches for around the price of a block $100 bore and hone $190 for a total of $290 or $5.80 per cubic inch. Some body needs to figure the price to stroke a 305 with the boring and honing and the price of the stroker kit. Does any one know if GM makes a 305 replacement motor?

 

GM Goodwrench L03 Chevrolet Crate Engine, 12518298, New GM Parts

12530284, GM Goodwrench Crate Engine, New GM Parts

Man could buy a crate engine for the price to build a 383. As an engine you do performance mods is going to cost you.. When you can dish out a few grand and have a 400+ HP delivered to your doorstep. There's a company here that sell 360, 383 for under 3 grand. I seen there engines in car ad's at the gas station all the time.

Edit: forgot to say, but some of us just liking building our own engines. I build mine for myself, not for other people to like.

 

thats why i added in that happened, it definatly had a negative effect on the engine. it lasted 5k after that happened, but let go with only 34k original miles

 

All these motors are mass produced crap, one failure or one success means nothing. You have to look at probabilities. When we design a part we design in a safety factory. (We make the part stronger than it needs to be) In theory it should never break. Now let’s make it. Bam! Variability. Casting/fording defects, parts are miss machined, tolerance stack ups cause aliment issues, there are hundreds of things that can cause one brand new motor to fail with less than 500 miles on and another to last 200,000 miles. There are LS1’s with bone stock bottom ends that are running into the 10 second range and can lift the front wheels off the ground. There are LS1’s that failed the first time they were pushed hard and everything in between. (Time is showing us the LS1 is a great motor)

For any given stock engine all you can do is look at the history. On a 30 year old motor if someone comes up with a reasonable priced mod for an engine that holds up over time it will become popular. This will trickle down from race teams. Good example is the 383. You have a good 10 years of thread history on hundreds of sites. Just do the research. Follow along with the 305 builds. I think you’re going to find a common ending. Not every modded 305 failed but you are going to find a LOT more failures than successes.

Please don’t take offence to me calling a motor crap. I am a manufacturing engineer that used to make automotive parts. Everything about the process revolves around cost. These are very high speed machines and we use statistics for inspection. We use the cheapest materials on the planet. Many of the materials would NOT be allowed to be used is an airplane motor because there is simple no way to be 100% sure there is no defect. On the other hand those same critical dimensions would have to be checked and signed off in aerospace or on a racing part. My point is the motor is built base on statistical probability, Translation: your stock motor is a roll of the dice to start with.