I drive 78 fireturd with a sound 305 with edelbrock performer manifold and 600cfm edl perf carb to match. Carter electric fuel pump. Beast weighs in a *** 3200-3600lbs. Stock just about everything else but no emissions crap.

I was looking to put on some hooker comp headers (thanks to reading posts on this board) and an edelbrock performer 204,214 cam with 1.6 ratio rockers. (oh and dual exhaust, 3in collectors and about 1 5/8 primaries)

It would be done if i didnt need it daily, and if i wasnt poor and in college.

I was told putting a spacer on my intake would give me a nice extra umph (ofcourse nothing like the above). But would be useful anyway.

Is this idea worth while, and if so, what size spacer should i use. This is taking into account that i will eventually do the more expensive stuff.

Even pointing me to a nice article for info on spacers and what they do would help

thanks!

realize that my theory on what to do with a 305 is leave them alone, drive them, enjoy the ride and save money due to the great gas mileage they can achieve, but if your dead-set on performance and dont see another performance car in your future then a cam swap and headers are going to show you some major torque gains, the rockers on the other hand are of more of a touchy subject, they will probably show you gains but realize that they will take away from your buttom end, they increases overlap triangle area and especially since you have a small cube engine and little compression, this may not be the best for low speed torque, more than likely the extra .1 of a ratio will add some to your top end but in a dollar per horsepower basis it might not be on your best investments since rockers are spendy. increasing the ratio increases horsepower by a means if a engine is under-cammed, well a larger displacement engine are going to be the ones responding greatly to rocker increases since there are certain restictions on camshafts for street living engines and they will be the engines "under-cammed", realize that your engine is very small displacement and needs less cam for the same peak RPM, it also involves head flow and the theory that you might be stalling out your flow by opening the valve to far and other things, so you may want to re-consider this choice. A spacer might or might not be a contributing factor, but heres some interesting articles to read

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/2944/index.html
http://www.carcraft.com/howto/1031/index2.html
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/4533/index8.html

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/4533/index8.html

Thanks Gibs for the prompt response.

I agree with your attitude to the 305 to some extent, but my intrigue in putting some power into it is that if and when i drive it through (now at 130k), i can always swap most of the perf parts into a 350 (making a mild one).

It seems that the higher rocker arm ratio wouldnt be worth it then, I certainly dont want to lose low end torque and I assume i'll be saving a bit on the gas with the stock ratios.

Also seems like the spacer probably isnt an area I want to go wandering into, atleast not without some hotrodders by my side.

This 305 is a damn reliable engine, and i dont plan on ruining it by racing, just want a bit more fire in my daily driver.

Thanks again.

and i think you are correct that leaving the stock ratio will help mileage

yes spacers are a tuning aid, I especially believed this till i read a interesting article in National Dragster about a spacer made by High Velocity Heads called the "super sucker" then i read about about a half a dozen people using this spacer in the last couple of years of Popular Hot Rodding Engine Master's competition, it might be hype, it might work damn good, but im not 100% sure, i know with our own experience it has done well, but of course that wont mean that it will work well for you, also you probably dont want to put a $100+ spacer on your budget 305, just some food for thought

even though you might want to test some sort of 1 inch open spacer, usually these show some gains, and they at least will help insulate the carb from the intake manifold heat (especially if it is phenolic)

nice talking with ya and good luck!

    Hi there, I just wanted to tell you not to be afraid when it comes to specers. I currently have a 1 inch Helix Throttle-Body Spacer on my 1996 S-10 4.3 Vortech engine. I've had it now for over six months and it only cost me 100 dollars. it comes with all the hardware you will need to install it. I imeedietly noticed a gain of about 8 horses on the dyno, and I also achieved a 2 M.P.G. increase in fuel milage ever since it's installation with every tank of gas. That means 20 extra miles of travel from each tank of gas. I can even hear the air being sucked, and swirled into the engineat every takeoff. This tells me it's working. I track my mileage very percisely so that if my engine loses any I know there is a problem to be fixed. So dollar per horsepower, it is a good buy, (Especially since your trying to get through college).

    Another helpfull tip is to check out Hi-Performance Synthetic motor oils. I have been a Royal Purple user since August of last year and I have been astonished at how well it has kept my engine bay cooler by reducing engine temps. and improving the smoothness of the engine by cleaning it out and keeping it at like new conditions. It also increased my horses and performance. Unfortunately I have no dyno results to tell you how much, but i can deffinately feel it. Now I should mention that it does cost 5.88 a quart, but once the engine has been cleaned out, usually about two 3,000 mile changes given your engines high miles, then it will be able to withstand 12,000 mile changes due to the engine running at like new conditions. This means even more of a load off your finances. Now I'm only recommending RP because it's what I have tried that has worked better than any petroleum oil did for my engine, but there are others like Amsoil, Redline, and Lucas that are probably equivelent to the RP. Check out RP at www. royalpurple.com., or at your local Napa Auto store. Good luck with your 305!  

thanks for the tip man, ill look into spacers very soon. Now on another note, you were talking about synthetic oils.

You should definately consider AMSOIL. Its hard to find a good supply of, but definately worth it if you can get it.

I know a british guy who uses amsoil in both his old wagon volvos. He has over 300,000 miles on one and around 200,000 on the other. Both run like clocks.

He changes his oil every 32,000 miles! Changes his oil filters every 16,000.

I have had a look at his oild right before he changed it, and it was not bad at all. Infact, it was cleaner than my regular oil is at 3000 miles, and i use pure one filters.

amsoil is about $7 a quart, so it comes out to cost about the same as normal oil changes if you run it like he does.

I run synthetic oils in my vehicles. In the racecar, I use Royal Purple. Initially, I used it because it was a bit cheaper than the amzoil... but it made me a believer after my oil pump pick-up broke off. I don't always look at my oil pressure guage when I'm racing, I spend more time watching my tach or my opponent... anyway, I happened to look down to the oil pressure guage around the 1000' mark of the drag strip, and noticed my oil pressure dropping to 0. I thought that the oil level was just low, so I added a quart and ran again. Same thing happened. So I trailered it. Later that week, when I pulled the motor to find and fix the problem, no bearings were spun or black, though some were "unsprung". How many passes did I run before noticing the lack of oil pressure on the big end of the track at over 6000 rpm? I don't know. Would Amzoil have done as well, or better? ... I don't know. I'll stick with the purple.

Injoy your 305 until your ready too build A350  you could put A biger cam in it like a cranecams 212;218-446;459 part#crn-113511 with geardrive elderbrock preformer 600cfm holly /elderbrock? accel distributor with accel super coil this should give you good preformance let me know ok                   BadChevelle