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HybridZ

First motor for the z, L69?


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Well I just sold the hot v8 I had at a huge profit and am about ready to go find my z-car. For anyone following my project I am about to find a good condition z and have it shipped up to canada. Now my plan is to focus on body and suspension/brakes and just do a stock v8 swap and let the power progress once I have everything else settled. I have a lsd r200, brake kit already and now I am already looking for a plane jane sbc to last for a few years.

My buddy is willing to give me a FREE 1985-L69 supposedly having about 6k on it after a rebuild, its complete minus starter. I figure I could pick up a nice cheap t-5 and have a solid drivetrain for under 1k all said and done. What I am wondering is if I decided to say dump a modest 1k or so into hopping it up a bit is it worth it? I am going to pick it up in the morning and give it a good once over.

Stock specs are 190hp and 240trq.

Given that I will just replace it in a few years and it should make a fine daily driver motor as is , is it even worth trying to squeeze some more power out of this thing. Looking at all its specifications I am less than inspired about squeezing easy performace with out disposing of the top end. You think I could 250hp with stock heads and just a intake/carb/cam/exhaust upgrade?

Opinions?

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Guest Nic-Rebel450CA

You shouldnt have any trouble hitting the 1HP/cubic inch mark which would give you about 300HP at the crank, or about 240HP at the wheels. If you use the right setup, you could probably get a bit more, maybe 350 at the crank...

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The thing is I will eventually go fuel injected probably lt-1 but I am just looking for a stock motor swap right now and will concentrate on the rest of the car before I add more power. Given I got this motor for free I am wondering what kind of power I can get if I put about 1k into it. Again, what gains could I expect with a carb/intake/cam/exhaust upgrade. Anyone have a proven recipe? If its not going to yield much I will leave it alone for know, its just that its sitting here ready to be worked on is all.

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Guest Nic-Rebel450CA

I'd supercharge the 305 and forget about a 350. The powerband for the 305 would be more fitting for a Z. Of course, you may not even need to supercharge it, it depends on what kind of power you want. The only downside I see to the 305 is that I dont think you can use the common heads that you could use on a 4" bore block.

 

BTW, if you determine that you are just going to swap it out, I think I would leave the 305 stock for now, I dont think there is much of a market for modded 305's so you would be likely to lose most of the money that you put into it. (Unless you can find someone who needs to swap a 305 for another 305)

 

EDIT: Here is a recipe:

http://edelbrock.com/automotive/autopartsphotos/graphs/3701graph.jpg

Could use bigger valves though, but valves are something that are probably going to cost much too much if you dont keep the engine. I'll see if I can find a good setup with desktop dyno if you want.

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Great posts, thanks I am going to spend some time researching a 305 buildup. Given its a free motor it might make sense to just go with building this up. My eventual target is 300rwp, there are no local strips here or anything to push me beyond that. That should be easily attainable with a worked over 305.

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