1988 monte carlo ss w/305 need more power

[teske]

i have a 1988 monte carlo ss with a 305 and its a nice car but it doesnt have the power i want. i dont wanna swap engines i just want to know how to make this 305 have more power. what are some fairly inexpensive mods that are worth the money.
i am already getting a k&n air filter and dual exhaust with headers. how much power will this give me. what else would u recommend.

[MagicRat]

You have just about the easiest engine to modify.
The K&N and exhaust mods are an excellent start and will give you about 25 more HP.

I would suggest aftermarket intake manifold, performance carb, camshaft (always use new lifters) and cylinder heads in that order.
If you have the money, consider a matched set of these parts from a company like Edelbrock. They have engineered these parts to work together and have taken the guesswork out of it.

If money is tight, auto swap meets and the classified newspaper ads have more small block Chevy parts than anything else, so used performance parts are cheap and easy to get. Just do your research and be careful when buying used.
Intake manifolds pretty much never wear out and are a good buy used. But I would not buy a used camshaft.

Finally, many small block Chevy parts swap over from earlier years and from different size Chevy V8 engines, (like exhaust manifolds) Some do not, so do some research when buying used.

[beef_bourito]

if you can find one you could try a stoker kit, that's a rather expensive modification but it'll give you alot more power and torque. you could bore out the cylenders, get better heads, get a better ingition system, i think that should be prettycheap and it should give you a few more horses and fuel economy, advance your timing.
if you want, and you have the time and money, you could go forced induction with a blower or you could go a more unique way with a turbocharger. turbo's on a carbed system are more difficult to tune than on a fuel injected system so you could either upgrade to fuel injection or you could tune a carbed turbo system. i hear that a blow through rather than a draw through setup it easier to setup and easier to tune. there's a website that was mentioned in the engineering/technical forum in a thread called blow through or something that has really good info on how to setup and tune a blow through setup.

hope this helps, good luck making that thing a monster.

[MrPbody]

All the previous suggestions are reasonable. They are not, however, "cheap".

305 is not a "good performer". Regardless of what modifications you make, you're still dealing with a tiny bore that won't allow any "good" heads to work properly. This isn't to say you CAN'T make a 305 perform, it's just difficult and expensive, COMPARED to other small block Chevy engines.

Swapping in a 350 would be the easiest/cheapest way to get more power. Changing engines is less work in a car like that G-body, than changing camshafts while the engine is still in the car.
Is the car TPI? Or TBI? (Tuned Port Injection or Throttle Body Injection) A TBI engine has a carb-looking thing. I would guess that's what you have, as you say you have a K&N filter assembly. They DO make one for TPI ngines.

What exactly ARE your performance goals? A place to start is always nice...


Jim

[samandiar]

I agree. Adding a cam, set of heads, headers, or just about anything else can be a pain in the ass with the engine still in the car. A 350 swap will be far easier and less expensive in the long run. The motor itself doesnt have to cost a whole lot... Those things are everywhere in junkyards, etc, and parts are cheap and plentiful

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by samandiar

I agree. Adding a cam, set of heads, headers, or just about anything else can be a pain in the ass with the engine still in the car. A 350 swap will be far easier and less expensive in the long run. The motor itself doesnt have to cost a whole lot... Those things are everywhere in junkyards, etc, and parts are cheap and plentiful

I would agree.
The first post specifically excludes replacing the engine, which IMO is a mistake. For any serious mods, the 305 must go.

Chances are, the owner can sell the 305 while its still in the car for decent money, which can be put towards a 350. Its much easier to sell a runni9ng and driving engine than some iron lump in the corner.