Spent this afternoon at the dyno, just not for my engine...

A couple of months ago I talked a buddy of mine into buying a C10 with a 305 for his new DD with the promise that if he bought the parts I told him to build up the engine and it made less than 400hp at the crank, I'd buy it from him for every cent he had in it. We spent 6 hours at the dyno today, engine was broken in on stand in my garage so we didn't need to waste any time, it was straight into tuning it and the first run, 340hp, :-O WTF? Second run 332hp, oh crap. I pulled the entire ignition off, swapped to another carb I had with me, just in case, pulled the valve covers to check EVERYTHING and couldn't find a single problem. Third run after warming back up, 346hp. Well, guess I'm buying an engine. Till I went back a third time and checked cam timing. -8 degrees from centerline, 10 degrees from where it should be, OOPS, no wonder we had to dump so much damn fuel into it. Pulled the whole thing apart, completely, re-installed the cam straight up(adjustable cam gear to get the other 2 degrees I wanted); re assembled, warmed her up, 388hp, there we go! After tuning on the orignial carb and timing for about an hour(I'm a bit OCD) final numbers: 412hp @ 6100 and 401ft/lbs @ 3900rpm. WOOHOO, no new engine for me, but he's happier than a pig in shit. I'll see if I can get a sheet from him to post for everyone, specs and budget on the engine(owner had a bunch of spare parts from a previous build that never made it off the ground):

88-94 305 block from 91 camaro: $50 short block
Cast 3.75" stroker crank: $100, never used, but not new anymore
Cam: Comp 08-502-8 cam $150 new on eBay(lucky find!)
Vortec heads from 98 silverado: $200 clean but bare pair, ~70K miles on them, very good shape
LS6 beehive valve springs, new $180 on ebay
Comp retainers for valve springs $60
Locks, seals, valves and seats including install $300(my valve spring compressor got run over and the guy offered to install everything on the heads with a cheapy 3 angle job for $80 on top of the parts, KILLER local deal)
Comp Pro Magnum roller tip rockers, ground to 1.50(not 1.52): $200 ebay
Hydrollic Roller lifters, gm stock pieces: $128 shipped
Pushrods: $0 came with heads and were in good shape
Double roller timing set with +/-4 degree adjustment on cam gear: $0 owner had it on his shelf
timing cover, valve covers, accessories and bolt kits: $0 owner had them on his shelf
Summit Stage 3 Vortec SBC intake manifold: $0, see above
Oil pump, pick-up, drive shaft and pan: $200 newish locally, moroso pan and standard pump with bolt-on pickup.
HEI distributor: $50 in sad shape from pick-n-pull
HEI rebuild kit: $70
Pistons: KB hyperetic pistons for .020 over 305: $300 on ebay
Connecting rods, powdered metal stock pieces came with crank, cleaned up and crank end opened up .010: $0

Total Cost involved including Dyno time and all the misc parts I didn't list $1587
332ci 10.8:1 412hp @ 6100 and 401ft/lbs @ 3900rpm
>300ftlbs from idle to ~7000rpm
>300hp from ~3800 to well past we let it go
Did one run to ~7200rpm before we started to get valve float and it sounded like crap and it took little to no extra motivation to get it to ~6600rpm, the last 600 were a notable pull on it, it'll rarely see north of 4K on the street though.

Point to the whole story, I think I'm gonna have to put one of these in my blazer when I get around to it, it just ran SOOOOO nicely and pulled HARD, loved it!

I love 305's they are underdogs, but can still be built cheap. I have less than $500 into mine and have ran a mid 13 second 1/4.

I had a 305TPI third gen camaro for about 9 months in high school. That thing was a blast. L98 heads, all the bolt-ons I could find and a 150 shot of nitrous. Would still have it today if I'd been 18 by the time I got around to having my license suspended for all the speeding tickets I got in it. Parents made me sell it and get my truck. Big mistake on their part, a 96 silverado with a vortec 350 doesn't stay slow for long in the hands of someone like me. Wrapped it around a tree after about a year, then they made me get an 01 sierra with a 4.3, finally slowed me down, a little. Had slow cars for my DD every since, and it's saved me a lot of money in retrospect. I just need to get around to another project car, just have way too much else on my plate right now

damn. 400 horses for 1500?
hmmm...

pretty good for a stroker 305.  just little under the 383 Horsepower put together on tv.

Happily, I've been building 305's since before I could drive, so I've got a few combo's pretty nailed down. My favorite part of the whole thing is the gas mileage. My 305TPI third gen had a 700R4 and 355 rear gears and I could squeeze 30mpg out of it, highway only, and cruising at 54mph. Around town and mixed driving I normally got about 16 out of it though.

I've actually built 28 engines so far, including re-building the same 455 three times and the vortec 350 in my 96 silverado twice, though all builds were from the shortblock up and replaced at least one major part, not just pulling down and putting back together. Of those 28 17 have been 305s, and once I got dialed in, the last 10 were only essentially the same 3 engines over and over, just for different vehicles.

My cousins 75 elky DD has a 305TPI we built still in it, with 68K on the clock, that sucker made 410ft lbs at 3600rpm, never had one come out as good since, though it had just over $3K in it, including ported L98s and a lunati custom cam with full roller aluminum rockers, belt drive timing(would not do again for a DD, he's on his third belt) and was a full 11:1 engine.

Building engines is the highlight of my projects, I imagine it's about the closest you can come to having a baby, but less expensive and with a shorter-term commitment, which is perfect for me.

damn. 400 horses for 1500?
hmmm...

Don't expect to replicate that unless you can get some damn good deals like we did, I would normally price out a build like that at $2K in parts alone. I think the only gasket we bought were head gaskets and we had all the studs, nuts and bolts, sealant, coolant, oil, filter, all of the nickel and dime stuff that usually chews a budget all to crap.

i've always wanted to build an engine...maybe one day.

My 305TPI third gen had a 700R4 and 355 rear gears and I could squeeze 30mpg out of it, highway only, and cruising at 54mph. Around town and mixed driving I normally got about 16 out of it.

my 350 tpi in my 92 with a t56 and 410 gears, i could pull down 30mpg at 55 also and get about 16/18 around town.  im expecting to pull down 30mpg at higher speeds with the new build and electronics.

My 305TPI third gen had a 700R4 and 355 rear gears and I could squeeze 30mpg out of it, highway only, and cruising at 54mph. Around town and mixed driving I normally got about 16 out of it.

my 350 tpi in my 92 with a t56 and 410 gears, i could pull down 30mpg at 55 also and get about 16/18 around town.  im expecting to pull down 30mpg at higher speeds with the new build and electronics.

That's pretty good. What all had you done to the 350 though? The 305 was FAR from a stock 305 when I got that, you would think it would help with mileage, but with the L98 heads, cam and dual 58mm TB it didn't know how to sip fuel anymore. That and with your T56 in 6th and 4.10s your final gear ratio would be 2.46, while my 700R4 with 3.55s would be 2.59, and with the losses in the auto transmission not being a lock-up, I should hope you could get better mileage than me, it is a good reference point for everyone though, thanks.

I think I'm going to buy a 20 gallon fuel cell for my rig. I bought a 377 sb from a pulling truck. It ran on alcohol in that rig, but I'm going with e 85. No long drives for me!  Got a great deal on the motor and I'm just putting new Pistons, rings, bearings, and oil pump. it's solid

my 350 tpi in my 92 with a t56 and 410 gears, i could pull down 30mpg at 55 also and get about 16/18 around town.  im expecting to pull down 30mpg at higher speeds with the new build and electronics.

That's pretty good. What all had you done to the 350 though? The 305 was FAR from a stock 305 when I got that, you would think it would help with mileage, but with the L98 heads, cam and dual 58mm TB it didn't know how to sip fuel anymore. That and with your T56 in 6th and 4.10s your final gear ratio would be 2.46, while my 700R4 with 3.55s would be 2.59, and with the losses in the auto transmission not being a lock-up, I should hope you could get better mileage than me, it is a good reference point for everyone though, thanks.

it was a pretty much stock 350 at the time.  had a crane cam in it and slp runners.  stock exhaust manifolds with 2.25" exhaust with cats and a H pipe then a turn out infront of the rear wheels, no mufflers.  how are you figuring out the final drive.  my T56 has a .5 ratio 6th gear.  gonna be all ported with aluminum L98 heads and intake.  sequential coil fired ignition should really help with the mileage also.

my 350 tpi in my 92 with a t56 and 410 gears, i could pull down 30mpg at 55 also and get about 16/18 around town.  im expecting to pull down 30mpg at higher speeds with the new build and electronics.

That's pretty good. What all had you done to the 350 though? The 305 was FAR from a stock 305 when I got that, you would think it would help with mileage, but with the L98 heads, cam and dual 58mm TB it didn't know how to sip fuel anymore. That and with your T56 in 6th and 4.10s your final gear ratio would be 2.46, while my 700R4 with 3.55s would be 2.59, and with the losses in the auto transmission not being a lock-up, I should hope you could get better mileage than me, it is a good reference point for everyone though, thanks.

it was a pretty much stock 350 at the time.  had a crane cam in it and slp runners.  stock exhaust manifolds with 2.25" exhaust with cats and a H pipe then a turn out infront of the rear wheels, no mufflers.  how are you figuring out the final drive.  my T56 has a .5 ratio 6th gear.  gonna be all ported with aluminum L98 heads and intake.  sequential coil fired ignition should really help with the mileage also.

It was calculated with a .63 sixth gear, though I can't remember why I thought that was correct, maybe it is in another vehicle like the Viper, oh well, in the case of a .5 6th gear your final drive ratio was 2.055, even better.

ok, cause i was cming up with 2.05 and thought i was being stypid and calculating wrong. 

Just for anyone that comes to this in the future, the t56 with .63 sixth gear is the mustang cobra trans, and has a 2.97 first gear instead of the lower one in the viper trans that has the .5 sixth gear.