305 vs 350

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4WDKC

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We bitch about our emissions and mpg requirements, Japan's have been way way worse for many many years. Anyone ever heard of these used engines for imports that have usually 40-50,000 miles on them and we can buy them here in USA? It's true. You can buy Honda, Toyota, Nissan and such engines used with 40-50,000 miles on them for about 1/3 the cost of a new engine. Alot of it has to do with meeting emission requirements in Japan. After so many miles, like a well broke in engine over there, it's getting a little carbon on the pistons, uses some oil, as in maybe a quart every 5000-8000 miles etc, it won't pass their emissions so usually it's cheaper to buy a new car than try to get it to pass emissions. Lots of good cars get **** canned in Japan.

Wait, I thought the J spec engine made more power due to reduced emission controls and tuning?
 

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Wait, I thought the J spec engine made more power due to reduced emission controls and tuning?
I'm not big on the import engine knowledge but my guess is going to be, Uhhh NO !!!
 

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I'm not big on the import engine knowledge but my guess is going to be, Uhhh NO !!!

Im not either, had a friend years ago buy a "J spec" engine for his eclipse... it never ran right after he paid someone to put it in.
 

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Usually, as they've said, the JDM engines are just pulled from cars they took off the road because emissions are too tight over there. So they pull them, part them, and ship containers of SR20DET's or whatever over to us.
 

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Usually, as they've said, the JDM engines are just pulled from cars they took off the road because emissions are too tight over there. So they pull them, part them, and ship containers of SR20DET's or whatever over to us.
That's the same story I've heard. Hard to believe at 50,000 miles they won't pass. And because of that, it's usually cheaper for the consumer to get a new car. Imagine all the good used parts they could ship us too. Doors, fenders, glass if it meets NTSB standards etc.
 

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That's the same story I've heard. Hard to believe at 50,000 miles they won't pass. And because of that, it's usually cheaper for the consumer to get a new car. Imagine all the good used parts they could ship us too. Doors, fenders, glass if it meets NTSB standards etc.

Yeah, but then you couldn't be JDM AF :33:
 

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Id rather have the 292 over the 305

I 2nd that! I had a '77 K20 with M465 (?) It wouldn't win a race against a one-legged chicken but it would pull like nobodies business. Only had about 20 lb. ft. of torque less than my buddies 454 at low RPM's. It was a torque monster! Heck, a lot of dump trucks used it too!
 

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Where did you find that air cleaner at? That's about as "Badass" as I've ever seen!
 

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I 2nd that! I had a '77 K20 with M465 (?) It wouldn't win a race against a one-legged chicken but it would pull like nobodies business. Only had about 20 lb. ft. of torque less than my buddies 454 at low RPM's. It was a torque monster! Heck, a lot of dump trucks used it too!

used to work for a mowing company and had to drive a 88 ford f350 with an NA diesel 4speed engine had a new engine installed right before I started driving it. One I had to help another crew do a job, when finished we ended up side by side with trailers full of equipment..you see where this is going right? That diesel was out pulled by a f250 with more weight on it and it had a 300 I6.
 

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This might not make sense to some, but I took a 454 with a blower out of my car and replaced it with a stock 305TPI.(the $3500 difference in a price was the reason)
 

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I wish I could invent a time machine and go back to the day that GM decided to put the 305 in trucks. The engineer would get slapped in the back of the head and then get a severe cussing!! Trucks deserve V8 power not this quagmire of an engine. Ford did the same thing with the eco boost. I don’t care if they make 450hp. They sound like ass. Even the ford engineers agree cause they emit v8 sound through the speakers. OK I’m done with that rant.

Check with jegs or summit. They have short blocks and don’t have a core charge. I THINK!!!
I know this is an old post now, but I'm just seeing it. To be quite honest, for the era in time GM put 305's in trucks they did very well. The LE9 is what kept GM in business and if you compared it to what Ford and Chrysler were doing at the same time then you'd agree too. LE9 was all about meeting the Federal Governments demands on emissions and mostly the mpg requirement based on their fleet as a whole. This is why the 8600 GVWR C20's and 1 tons would have been better choices for consumers to purchase. They didn't have near as strict requirements. This is why even up to 86 you didn't have cat converters or ESC on the 3/4 ton trucks. This is also why we had junk ass 700r4 OD transmissions and 3.08 gears or even 2.73's in trucks.

All these regulations were thanks to the gas crises of the 70's. Most of you are probably to young to remember lines at gas stations, and this when we had gas stations on every corner because all the boat cars of the 60's got like 10-15mpg and had 20-28 gallon tanks. America used lots and lots of gas back then so there were many gas stations. There were times where you got gas based on your license plate. Ending on odd #, you got gas on odd days of the month, ending in even #, you got gas on even # days. Lines would be wrapped around city blocks to get fuel and sometimes you'd wait for 2 hours to get fuel just to get up there and then the station ran out of gas so you go find another station. You usually tried to follow a tanker truck and see where he was delivering so you knew where to get in line at and knew you'd get some gas for your wait time. I was a little kid back then, but I still remember it well. And I lived in So Cali at the time so you can imagine how bad it was there. I remember my dad having to call guys at work for rides to work cuz he couldn't get gas, so him and 3 other guys started car pooling so they could leave the cars at home and let the wives fill them up with gas that day and then another guy drove for everyone the next day.

So when all that **** went down, the Feds gave the auto manufactuers a few years to increase mpg and that's why in the early 80's cars got detuned so badly. Emissions all started about 1970 and the requirements just got stricter. This is why we now have unleaded low octane fuel.
 

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And my old man would buzz right past the lines with the diesel Mercedes and fill up (no rationing) on 65¢/gallon diesel fuel. I think people seeing that kind of thing go on was what got GM selling those 350 Olds diesels. Which of course, pretty much singlehandedly destroyed the diesel car market in America.
 

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those older diesel mercs are sweet. I'd take one for a run around car. supposedly they can get over 40mpg set up properly. pretty good for a boaty cruiser.
 

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And my old man would buzz right past the lines with the diesel Mercedes and fill up (no rationing) on 65¢/gallon diesel fuel. I think people seeing that kind of thing go on was what got GM selling those 350 Olds diesels. Which of course, pretty much singlehandedly destroyed the diesel car market in America.
Yep you're right. That gasoline crisis is for sure what motivated the diesel sales. GM did a hurry up and jumped the gun on that too with the 350 Olds diesel. Took a gas engine and made diesel heads for it, using the same block mold while increasing the main journals size is all they did. Not enough head bolts for the higher compression was the biggest failure and problem they had with that 5.7 Diesel was well as a few others with glow plug circuit boards and fuel pump issues.

As with your dad, back then it was the foreign cars that had it going on with the diesels. VW being one of the best, like the Rabbit with a real true diesel engine that ran flawlessly, very reliable and dependable, great mpg and maintained properly, getting 500,000 miles out of one wasn't unheard of and those were the days of when a car had 100,000 on it, it was pretty much ready for the scrap pile. I know a guy who had a VW Rabbit Truck. It was a Rabbit but had a bed on it behind the front seats. He did get over 500,000 out of his. He had that thing for years and years and drove the living hell out of it.

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those older diesel mercs are sweet. I'd take one for a run around car. supposedly they can get over 40mpg set up properly. pretty good for a boaty cruiser.

You could clock them with a calendar, but back in the gas crunch the speed came from not having to wait in line. Typically M-B, the ride and handling was great. They probably could crack 40 MPG if you didn't push them too hard. They maxed out around 80-85 MPH. The first one was a '67 220D, the second was a '77 240D. I was a little kid during the OPEC unpleasantness, so I never got to drive the 220, but the 240 stuck around long enough for me to. For a plodding 4 dr sedan the handling was very impressive.
 
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