1983 Chevy Camaro Z/28 Corvette 305

Hello. I would actually like to KEEP my 305. There is nothing special about my car other then the fact that it has a Corvette engine and transmission. However, I have read various places around the net where guys have been getting 25 miles to the gallon out of this engine. I'm NEW the GM / Chevy engines and I know everyone keeps telling me get a 350 BUT I'd like to keep this car as a simple cruiser. (yeah yeah, where is the question?!?)

Are there any members who have this engine type and have had success with it that might like to share some insights. Thank you very much in advance.


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So are you saying you have a 1980 305 california vette engine ?



Cole

Seems odd that your '83 Camaro would have a 1980 California engine?

I see the OP states he has an '83 Camaro with a Vette 305, but what year is this "Corvette 305" motor??

Edit: I see the Vette only came with a 305 in 1980...oops!

__________________
''Life's tough, Pilgrim, and it's even tougher if you're stupid.''---John Wayne

Midnight Sun Street Rod Association

so you have a 83 camaro with the crossfire injection..
basicly the same engine in th 80-81 vettes that didn't get a 350
cali, being one place

not much you can do to it.. add headers, better converters later cars came with dual converters, that be over kill here..
you might want to find the later 350 exhaust manafolds with the 2.5 dumps..
yours are 2.25"

I'd hit the vette boards, these efi systems where a 80-81-84 only item in vettes

very few f bodys got it.. my 82 t/a had it..

it is a very unliked efi set up.. it's to bad no one makes a intake with bigger ports, as thats the biggest thing holding those back..
g.m. went for low end power over high end breathing

I hate to be a bubble buster, but there's nothing special about any 305 regardless of what it came out of. This thread kind of falls under the myth we call the "it's a vette engine" which falls in with the rest of the mythical sayings such as "3/4 cam" "4 bolt main" "350 rocket" and "Police Interceptor" just to name a few. The last year a "vette engine" would be something worth anything is the 1970 LT-1 350 engine. Why is because it was the end of the factory horsepower wars. It would be worth something to someone trying to restore a '70 corvette back to it's original state. However, if someone had a LT-1 block from 1970 for sale just as a 350 they would only get what blocks are bringing for the times as just the raw block isn't anything special either, it won't make any more power than any other 350 with the same internals.
We often still refer the vette engine myth by referring to there has to be a field somewhere just full of Corvettes in A-1 shape with there noses up due to no engine in them.

If you wanted to put money into converting it to TPI, installing a 700r4 and going with a good set of cruising gears, you could probably get great mileage and ok performance out of it. The biggest way to save on gas is to keep the car in great running condition and have a light right foot. Sounds simple, but it's the truth. In a car as light as that, you're not going to see a massive decrease in mileage between the two motors if you're looking for performance and mileage as long as you don't jackrabbit from every light.

I'd try and find a 350tpi/700r4 combo out of one of the later model Iroc-z's and swap it in. That'd be the ticket for having solid mpgs and decent performance, especially for their time. It'll feel like a jet engine compared to what's under the hood right now.

The only 'vette 305 was 1980, California. So you must mean the Crossfire injection. It's crap. It earned the nick-name cease-fire for a good reason.
Getting a 305 to 25 MPG? No clue. Getting a carbureted 350 to 25 MPG? Been there, done that, more fun than any of the 305s, and I've driven the 2 hottest versions and built one even hotter.

nothing wrong with crossfire,, most time it was the mechackic that didn't have a clue, that they got that name..
my '82 had 326k on it..

Stich, It got the name cease fire injection for a reason. I seen Cease fire injection be worked on and be running perfectly. Then a week later it was back with a different problem. After a while the owner gets tired of pouring money into it and converts it to a carb. There has been very few cars left that I've seen that still have cease fire injection still in use. Some of them worked out okay, most of them didn't. My ex g/f's brother was a engineer at GM during those years and he told me the cease fire injection was not much more than a band aide system that should have never been put into production as when they started failing it gave GM's image a bloody nose. it was GM's first real step into the injection world so the parts, the computer, the layout was all in its infancy. The cross ram style intake was a good idea, but to get it to produce enough torque GM reduced the intake port size down to less than half the size of the head ports. This was the only way they could keep velocity high enough on a little 305 with a cross ram intake so it would have some low end torque. The con to that system was the intake port was so small the power fell to nothing by the time it reached 3500 RPM.
Valk, no harm meant here, but I'm curious at what weight do you consider a car to be light? These cars weighted in at 3170 lbs. In my opinion anything 2800 lbs and under is what I consider light.

GS,
If the car is running OK, why not leave it like it is and find out how it runs?
What kind of mileage are you getting now??? 305's are no different than a 350 with the exception of a smaller bore. Anything you bolt on to a 350 will work on the 305.

I know the crossfires have a terrible rep but most of the problems come from over-revving and blowing up the manifold with excess fuel in it. In my opinion those engines should be limited to 3500 rpms to reduce fuel reversion in the manifold.

I am in the ATL area and have built prolly 50+ of these as race engines thru the last 20 years as OVAL and RoadRace engines. If you need any further info just pm me.

Best thing to do if you want to get something better is to build it on a stand and then do the swap. If you live in an emissions county you better check and see that you can do mods.

guess I've been just lucky then..

I wouldn't say it was luck, I would say what I already have, some of them worked okay, but most of them didn't.

No offense taken. I personally consider anything under 3,300 to be a "light" car by modern standards. 2,800 makes sense though. The lightest car I own at the moment is an 84 caprice sedan so my internal scale must be off My 3/4 ton surprisingly tipped the scales at a little over 7k lbs when I last went to the dump. Couldn't believe it. Moves pretty good for 305 power, but gets poor mileage. 14mpg is a miracle in it.