Trade

[TheElCamino]

Should i trade my 1981 El Camino for a 1997 Trans Am?

My mino has a 305, headers, Cam, Intake, 650cfm holly carb. LSD in the back, 3.73 gears, 4spd,and has 80k miles and is in beautiful condition.

The Trans Am has 111k on it, forest green, 4spd auto, Exaust dont know what kind, has had the front end painted but the title is clean.

Just getting some other input as to what i should do. im gonna go test drive the Trans Am tomarrow. thx

[flyfrito3800]

I'd keep the El Camino, less miles.

[Reaper]

is this a joke lol?

[C.J.]

this is an easy choice

[David]

a clean modified mino or a LT1 firebird???

since your being serioius...i'd keep the mino.

[4 cam torino]

Any trade the involves getting rid of a 305 is a good one.

[C.J.]

Any trade the involves getting rid of a 305 is a good one.

[TheElCamino]

yea the 305 isn't as torqy as i want it to be. If i don't trade it i might go with this 400 SB that my GF Grandpa has, balanced and blue printed.

[4 cam torino]

Keeping the Elky and swapping the engine FTW! A LS engine would be sweet but a 400 is on the right track. The right track being any track the gets the 305 out of there.

[82355]

You know how rare a manual El Camino is? Keep the Camino and throw the 305 away. Or put the LT1 in the Camino, and have the best of both worlds.

Somewhere Brooke secretly has a hard on.

Martin

[supercrackerbox]

I'm with Martin and Brad. Personally I'm not big on El Caminos, but one with a 4speed makes it way more than just another El Camino. Besides, there's way too many F-bodies around here.

[Jasen]

Should be a no brainer, keep the Elky.

[STOK5OH]

ya,**** an Lt1. Don't do it,a 4-speed elcamino in the shape your saying is worth 6-8k easy.
That LT1 pile is worth maybe 4k....and it'll be 1k by 2009.

[TheElCamino]

Ok thank you yea my friend has a LS1 sitting in his garage ill see how much i can buy it from him. that would be pretty nice.

[MadmaX]

I know I miss my elcamino, and it wasn't even a stick. Ls1, Lt1, whatever. The short answer is for $1000 your elcamino will be cooler than the T/A by a lot.

[supercrackerbox]

It means "The Camino".

[turbodaytona87]

Means 'the path', that's probably why its in spanish, it is nowhere near as cool in english

[4 cam torino]

what does Ranchero mean? And why did the behemouth Simpsons SUV have a name that is reminiscent of the names of car/truck things that really weren't ginormous?

Canyonero, for those that don't recall.

[roo]

Get rid of the weak ass 305 and drop a 307 in that *****

displacement ftw!!!

[4 cam torino]

Get rid of the weak ass 305 and drop a 307 in that *****

displacement ftw!!!

The later emissions-modified versions produced just 115 hp (86 kW) SAE net, giving the engine one of the lowest power-per-displacement ratings of all time

That's just bad ass right there.

You would be gaining 3.4 mm of bore by going from a 305 to 307, so you'd have a very slight amount more potential. But it would still be a boat anchor. But at that point everything but a 305 would be a step up, so you would have gone from the bottom of the ladder to like, one foot on the first rung.

[roo]

****, do you know how rare that would be to have that engine in your car? How many people get to say they have the lowest power per displacement engine in history in their car?

[4 cam torino]

In other news, according to wiki, the Oldsmobile 307, not the chevy 307 I mentioned above but the Olds version that came a long later, is said to be the last engine that came with a carb in the US. 1990 was the year. What did we get up to on SCR?

[roo]

Didn't you find a 1991 accord with a carb on it?

[4 cam torino]

I guess that would make the 307 tied with the Festiva, both ending carburetors in 1990.

[4 cam torino]

Didn't you find a 1991 accord with a carb on it?

no, 1990 Ford Festiva, Fiesta, Ass spire, or whatever the **** they called that pile in 1990. I just went and looked. the hondas were through 1989 or something. I forgot already, that isn't what i went to find.

[4 cam torino]

yeah, still had it up, 89 was the last year for the Accord.

[4 cam torino]

The Chevy 307 was originally rated for 200 HP, which is more than the 305 was ever rated at. Although 115 is less than the 305 was ever rated at.

[roo]

carb'd 307 FTW. V8 power, earth friendly

[roo]

Actually the TPI 305's offered a powerful 210HP

I wonder why Chevy offered two V8 options in the f-bodies during those years? Why not just tell everyone they get the V6 or the 350

[4 cam torino]

Ford offered like, 10 V8 options in the 69 Fairlane/Torino and you question why GM offered two in a car at some point?

[roo]

Yeah

[C.J.]

if you ditch the 305, keep the el camino.

[STOK5OH]

i say dont **** with the driveline and go tinker with something not as rare.

[AeroSS_87]

It will cost you some good money to do the ls1. I say just build a gen 1. nobody yet makes headers for late-A or G bodies yet last I checked, and John Bzdel sells oil pans and engine mounts. Summit now carries ls1 swap radiators though.

If you really want to look into it, here's the link:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bzdel/

I would urge you to just put that extra cash into an engine worth a ****. maybe something not so long stroke since the caminos have little weight in the back. I say a 327, 283, something like that. Or just a standard 350

[4 cam torino]

I say LS1 but any 4" bore or better gen 1 SBC would really be a huge step up from that 305. You can go as fast as you would ever want to go with gen 1 parts, faster than you can go on an LS1 more reliably without an aftermarket block.

[TheElCamino]

Yea a 350 woundnt be bad. Easy to find and lots of parts around for them.

[supercrackerbox]

Ford offered like, 10 V8 options in the 69 Fairlane/Torino and you question why GM offered two in a car at some point?

Things changed a lot between the 60's and 80's. First gen Mustangs were available with 260, 289, 302, 427, 428, 429 c.i.d. displacements (am I forgetting any?). By the 80's, there was a choice between 2.3, 3.8, or 5.0.

Which reminds me, you forgot to mention the Iron Duck option in the Third Gens . . .

[4 cam torino]

I know things have changed, I'm just wondering why you would ever second guess having 2 similar engine options when there is ltos and lots of precedent for much much more and many vehicles since even have more.

[supercrackerbox]

Doesn't seem to me that a lot of passenger cars since have had many more options, seems like 3 options is about where it's settled at.

[STOK5OH]

It will cost you some good money to do the ls1. I say just build a gen 1. nobody yet makes headers for late-A or G bodies yet last I checked, and John Bzdel sells oil pans and engine mounts. Summit now carries ls1 swap radiators though.

If you really want to look into it, here's the link:

http://home.earthlink.net/~bzdel/

I would urge you to just put that extra cash into an engine worth a ****. maybe something not so long stroke since the caminos have little weight in the back. I say a 327, 283, something like that. Or just a standard 350

you'd better stick to fwd mazda's. lol

Lemmons makes LS1 swap headers for EVERYTHING and you will pay with a limb.

[roo]

I know it wasn't uncommon to have more than one V8 option back in the earlier years but as time progressed most manufactures took an approach to try to minimize options to maximize their profits. Obviously once they went to the 4th gens it was V6 or V8.

I'm just curious where the market was for the 305 option. About the only thing I came up with was they needed it for the manual transmission part of the market because they didn't have a manual at the time that would hold up to the torque of the 350 (at least not good enough for them to feel safe about having a warranty on it).

[4 cam torino]

Lots of cars have three engine options, at the time the camaro had three options, right? I really fail to see the shocking nature of having three engine options. I know car makers cut back, I know why they cut back, I just don't see why it was shocking to have three at one time.

[roo]

Nothing shocking, just wondering what the selling point was for the 305?

[4 cam torino]

What has the selling point for any smaller V8 ever been? The 305 having the manual option give it more of a selling point than most smaller V8's.

[Cobra Commander]

Somewhere Brooke secretly has a hard on.

Martin

That I can't argue.

[AeroSS_87]

Nothing shocking, just wondering what the selling point was for the 305?

fuel mileage. they took a short stroke small block, choked up the heads, and ran a smaller diameter cylinder so there wasn't much of a combustion chamber to fill. that's why with different heads, cam, and proper intake/exhaust, a 305 really isn't a bad engine. the small bore just really limits your options for serious output. keep in mind hot rod made a 400hp 305 with a 100% stock bottom end L69 305 (9.5:1 c.r.), an off-the-shelf comp cam, .501/.501 - .244/.244, and some standard gmpp 58cc chamber iron heads ported by RHS. I think the engine even had 150k on the clock.

[roo]

I just can't imagine there is a significant increase in fuel mileage dropping from a 350 to a 305. If fuel mileage was a concern I figured people would have stuck with the V6 option.

[STOK5OH]

either way,305's are pretty poochy.

[AeroSS_87]

I just can't imagine there is a significant increase in fuel mileage dropping from a 350 to a 305. If fuel mileage was a concern I figured people would have stuck with the V6 option.

My old SS new with the h.o. 305 carb engine clicked off 1 more mpg on a trip to colorado against a 4.3 F.I. monte CL of the same year back when they were new. You'd be really surpised. But also, I think with the better fuel mileage was also easier to reach the more strict emissions standards.

[supercrackerbox]

So they could still say they had a V8, even if it was a weak one.

[STOK5OH]

nah,most likely Justin can't do math and was prolly getting 4 mpg less.

[82355]

305's suck.

Martin