So I am thinking of picking up a carb'd 305 3rd gen 5 speed this summer and want to ask a few things.

I am basically looking to make it a streetable DD with some good oomph. I am looking for performance idle-4500 or thereabouts with good mileage. So you could say I'm looking for low end torque. Some basic things I would like to know about are carbs, intake manifolds, cams, rockers, and headers.

 

A stock Carb LG4 305 with 5sp had 170 HP. This engine has limited performance potential. The biggest drawback are the Heads and unless they are changed, nothing you want to add will increase the performance you want. Again you can spend a lot of money for a little return and expect less then 300 HP at the flywheel (more like 225/250).

A standard crate 350 will put out 250 HP for about the same amout of money as all your 305 add ons.

 

I wouldn't want it to be king of the road. Could I make a beast out of a 350? Sure as **** I could. But I just want a fun DAILY DRIVER. I will be in college next year and will see alot of travel home (40min) to see the GF, so mpg is a big issue. And don't give the the grief of "if mpg are a concern get a Honda".

I have been looking around and have seen some info on swapping in vortec heads. I haven't found too much on it yet, but that seems like a good option. If anyone has anything postive to add, I would appreciate it. If you just want to tell me what a paper weight a 305 is, you can **** off.

 

Well, for starters you can check out this thread, it details how Car Craft managed to get 325 hp out of a carbed '82 305. If you want to go that way, you could probably carry over a lot of the parts to whatever your year is and manage to do pretty well.

That said, it may be wiser to buy a 350 now and keep it stock until some time in the future when you are more able to. Stock for stock the original 350 gets almost the same mileage as the 305, and of course it will have more potential.

I think the biggest concern you will have though is the transmission. The stock 5-speed in 3rd-gen cars isn't particularly strong, and you can bet on any 5-speed car having been bagged its whole life. If you're dead set on a manual, I'd expect you'd have to replace or rebuild it not long after you start your build.