Need Advice.
 

Aside from the obvious answer of Throw it out! What can I do with a 305 2 bbl in a 78 firebird. Any recommendations to beef it up a bit? I dont have the funds right now to change it. What has anyone done with these blocks???
Thanks

Typical V8 Mods....add a 4bbl intake; conservative cam, dual exhaust. Youd be surprised what a good tune-up would do.

I say buy a used 67-79 4 barrell intake from this board or eBay. Should cost 40-100 bucks. Buy a Quadrajet from this board or eBay. Should cost 20-100 dollars. Replace the cam/lifters/timing chain with new, mild performance parts. Should cost about 150 bucks. You could then bolt on about 50-75 horsepower, and be happy for about 2-300 dollars. This would be a big improvement without sacrificing drivability.

"What has anyone done with these blocks???"
My brother bought a real nice boat with one, rebuilt it and was so happy with the power, he sold the boat. I got one in a car that I brought home and took it to the dump.

Check out Summit and Jeg's for speed parts. The sbc is the cheapest and easiest engine to hop up. The 305 we used to replace the tired 301 in my car was bored out to 315 c.i. The lower end was balanced. Between the TRW pistons and the head work, it has around 10.5:1 compression. The iron heads were ported and polished with a 5 angle valve job. A high lift/long duration Edelbrock Performer cam was installed as well as an Edelbrock Performer intake. The carb is a '68-'69 Carter built Qjet(for GMC trucks). At the moment we are still useing stock style exhaust manifolds into true dual 18" glasspacks with T/A splitter tips. From carb to splitters, I've got about $850.00 in the whole engine. Granted, I bought the long block done from a friend of my brothers, but you could build about the same package yourself if you have some connections. No one believes me when I tell them what engine is in the car after they hear it running.

Edelbrock Performer, 650 Holley (or a well built Q-Jet), HEI, XE256H cam, 1 1/2" headers, good valve job, 601 heads (1.84 intake valve, 58 CC chamber).

305 is not a real good high-end performer (in street trim), but can be made to be very "snappy" (lots of low-end for a smaller engine). Good gas mileage will go along with that.

Jim