305 V8 C1500?

[LT1 Kayker]

actually my truck is an 89 C1500. and i saw that it said L03 on it and i believe that meant 305 TBI you said right? I know its a 2 barrel carb but hell it could have came with a 6 barrel and i wouldnt know it cuz my uncle did some crazy surgery to that thing ive heard. So after figuring in that it has 240,000 miles on it (about 1,000 driven hard by me) and so on what would its specs be? and ill take a pic of the whole ROLP or whatever it was called in the glove box and you can have some fun with that telling me everything about it Thanks for the help, and so its a 305 with TBI...? But i know for sure it has a 2 barrel carb, not the 4 like the 88 you are talking about...jw.

[broughy84]

that was all according to my Chiltons

[chevytrucks92]

If its a 305 TBI it doesn't have a 2 barrel carb, lol. The only way it has a carb is if your uncle switched it out.

It's supposed to have a throttle body with 2 injectors, one for each side of the engine.

[LT1 Kayker]

man those RPO codes probably mean nothing anymore. My uncle was a friggin mad scientist to that truck lol. At least i know its one of a kind!

[jimss454]

Yes, what Chevytrucks92 said! I have a feeling the engine may not be original. Take a look at your photo. See the front of the passenger-side cylinder head? (Just below your valve cover). It is orange, which was the factory color on most engines up until the late 70's, then they went to an ugly ford-like blue color. Late 80's had black paint on the engines.
Now, this doesn't mean your uncle (or someone else) didn't paint the stock black heads orange, but you get the point. Look just below that front edge of the passenger-side head. Where it meets the block, there is a little "shelf" - the block extends frontward about 3/8 of an inch beyond the head. That little area is a pad where the Engine Production Code (a series of 7 or 8 letters & numerals), and a partial VIN are stamped into the block.
See if you can wipe the pad clean & read the code on there, and let us know what you find. The codes indicate the engine assembly plant, the cubic inch displacement of the engine, horsepower rating, type of vehicle installed into, and sometimes additional info on clutch, the transmission, etc. Example: T1206XG is a 310 HP 396 built in Tonawanda, NY, on December 6th, 1967, for a 1968 GMC truck.
1st letter is plant. Next 4 digits, are the month & day of completion. XG is the actual Production Code, which is tied to the engine specs & intended vehicle. The Engine Production Code is usually followed by the sequential VIN serial number (last six digits of the VIN).
The codes went to 3 letters in 1969 or 1970. Note, this is how it was done at least up until the mid-80's, not sure if they still use codes stamped into that pad. Some engines have the code stamped on a pad near the rear edge of the block, vertically, above & to the rear of the oil filter location. (My original 1970 Monte Carlo SS454 had the number in this position. It was T0925CRN 122506 = Tonawanda, Sept 25, 1969, 390HP 4-Barrel LS5, and the car's VIN was 138570L122506. 1 = Chevrolet, 3857 = Monte Carlo Sport Coupe, 0 = last digit of model year, L = vehicle assy plant Van Nuys, CA, 122506 is sequential serial #, which always started at 100001). Good luck, -Jim.

[LT1 Kayker]

Holy crap thats a lota info haha. Thanks for the number crunching and i asked my uncle and he said that it was him that just painted the block orange. Ill look back soon and find out what my girl is. Thanks.

[helliviknow]

they offered both? why would they offer a carb i wonder... i believe those power numbers cause i drove my dads 88 reg cab longbed with the 305 efi auto and its slooooowwwwwww... haha peace

[LT1 Kayker]

Haha, yeah they aren't really made for a drag race, but they work. Thats why I keep wondering what my uncle has done because back before when the distributer cap and wires weren't corroded like all hell it was able to spin tires from a dead stop and leave a 10ft ish of rubber. I know he put posi-trac in the rear end, and the differential cover isn't stock so maybe something there...Plus i noticed it has a edelbrock intake manifold and many other not so stock parts all over it. Right now with the VERY bad timing and VERY corroded cap with bad wires if it doesn't bog in first I am thinking 0-60 in maybe 8 seconds...I know it's around there because my dads 2001 civic gets 0-60 in 8ish and it keeps up if not beats it. Hmmm...intersesting...

[LT1 Kayker]

Oh, and in case you don't believe me heres some pics of my driveway when I was in the not so best of moods...

BTW the rubber is about two weeks old, it was much thicker two weeks ago, plus i did it going backwards (not on purpose)

[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

The truck was parked over where the burn started, and im too lazy to move it, so just imagine it about five feet longer than pictured.

[helliviknow]

hah thats pretty cool.. my dads used to burn out if you pegged it but when my older brother was driving it he put sum 15x8 wheels with 275-60-15 firehawks on there.. it will barely break em anymore haha

[helliviknow]

of coarse that was a single one wheel wonder burn b 4...

[quaddriver]

only the 88s and 89s had 2 individual headlights. os yours is indeed a 88 or 89 (unless someone swapped)

also, the 1988 H code 305 DID in fact come with TBI - I should know, I have one. However, my 305 was ripped out by previous owner and a HO 350 put in its place, using same TBI system (you can run a 350 on the 305 ECM, but prolly shouldnt the other way around - the 350 spark table is bad for a 305)

at any rate, SBC motors all look alike from the outside. the real arbiter is the block castings.

You can also use the head castings, because *all* of the GM 305s used 184/150 valves, so if you pop off a valve cover and peek, match up the cast number. Someone could have put a 194/150 valve head on a 305, but I doubt it, the compression would lower way too much to make any power. on the top of the bell housing boss on the drivers side rear of the motor will be either a casting number (pre-80) or the engine size in inches (80-86) or the engine size in liters 86-

A proper number for a 350 would be for example 3970010, or say 350G or 5.7L G (the G means gas for fuel)

The vin however, just tells you what the factory put in, H=305, K=350, Z=4.3 but v6s are sorta easy to spot. The vin does not tell you what the previous owner put in.