Upgrades for 92 5.0

I just recently bought a 1992 caprice wagon and wanted to know if swapping out the 305 for a 350 is a good idea or not.

No replacement for displacement...

I am think there is a thread where someone did exactly what you are asking about . Getting old memory is failing me now lol .

what do you mean by a 'good idea?

Phantom309 by good idea I mean will the 350 with a few add ons be on in power terms or should I wait for a little bit more and try to get something bigger than that. I'm not trying to go win races i just want some nice power behind the pedal.

Simply get a 350 and the computer from the same donor vehicle and it won't be an issue. The harness should be identical.

all depends on your budget,.

sometimes it's just a lot easier to sell the wee tbi and buy a real,.    er,.... LT1 car,.

A nice LS3 with 6l80e would do the job tho,..

True enough.

Those two are expensive but are actually able to get now are they direct fit or would cost more money for me to set up inside a 92. One more thing the 6l80e was coming up as a trams from a Tahoe or did I just not look up the right part?

I put a 350 in both of my OCCs, and it was a big improvement. If you can get the 350 LO5 out of a 93 9C1, it will have a hotter cam, larger injectors, and 205 HP. Get the computer and Y pipe as well. You can also put an LT1 cam in the LO5 for a performance increase. It should work with the 9C1 computer, and is a bolt in. Another 5 HP can come from the 93 Fleetwood electric fans. You can hook one up to come on with the AC, and get a sensor from JEGS for about $40 to turn the other one on. It worked great for me.

Duals and headers are fairly simple. The only real mod is a hump in the driver's side of the trans support. You can get the muffler hanger from the right side, and bolt it to the left side for the left pipe. The holes are already there to mount the hanger. I dumped mine in front of the axle to make it easy.

If you put headers on the car, changing the starter is much easier. The Y pipe blocks the starter, and you have to remove the pipe or the triangulating brace for the rear lower A arm.

4L80E was a later model tranny. My gut feeling is you may have issues with the "E" part of that Equation.

If you are swapping in an LO5, check the wiring that runs under the engine. The wires are notorious for having cracked and melted insulation. It is a lot easier to fix when it is out of the car, and can solve a lot of strange problems. Cut and splice one wire at a time to minimize confusion.

lakeffect wrote:

4L80E  was a later model tranny. My gut feeling is you may have issues with the "E" part of that Equation.

edit: The 91-93 were 4L60 BUT no "E" designation. The computer did not support the Electronic version until the LT1
came into play during the 94-96 models.

Unless there is something wrong with it, why bother? The stock LO5 was rated for 10 more HP and not much more torque. I am leaving the perfectly running 305 alone until I have the money saved for the LS3/TR6060 that I really want in the car.

The LO5 has 20 more HP, and 50 more Lb. Ft. of torque. The 9C1 LO5 has another 25 HP, and a little more torque. The cost, if you do the work, is about $400-500 for a pick and pull engine. Check your gear ratio as well. You may want to find a 3.42 or 3.23 rear. If you change rear ratios, get the VSS gears out of the car you are pulling the rear from.

Well the body and interior are pretty good. It has a an exhaust leak. But my main concern is that the frame has rust

Maybe just have fun with what you have,and start budgeting for a newer (LT-1)wagon.

Frame rust is a deal killer. Drive it until it breaks.

If possible, test drive a B body wagon or sedan with an LT1 and compare. You might be looking for a '94-'96 model sooner than you think. On average your looking at a 1.5 second difference in the 1/4 mile to put it in perspective.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

The LO5 has 20 more HP, and 50 more Lb. Ft. of torque.

TBI 305 is 170hp/275lbs. TBI 350 is 180hp and similar torque. 9C1 cars bumped that to about 205hp/300.

Steve Smith wrote:

If possible, test drive a B body wagon or sedan with an LT1 and compare. You might be looking for a '94-'96 model sooner than you think. On average your looking at a 1.5 second difference in the 1/4 mile to put it in perspective.

I daily my 95 and other than a slight increase in oomph to get around traffic I see very little difference between it and my TBI 350. People really need to let this whole LT1 superiority go.

No big difference??? Yet in your own signature,referring to the LO5,you say,"Coming soon:More smallblock." Clearly its not enough.

The 305 is supposed to have 140 HP.

Might be relative to production years or marketing ploys.

If you want balls, try a 400 block With a Holley Street Ram  (HSR) set up.

Andebe wrote:

No big difference??? Yet in your own signature,referring to the LO5,you say,"Coming soon:More smallblock." Clearly its not enough.

Swing and a miss. You see, when you have an engine that doesn't run, and then build a new one that does you get "more" small block. But A for effort on your detective skills.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

The 305 is supposed to have 140 HP.

Lol. In what year? 1961? But my GM FSM must be wrong because who would know better than GM how many horsepower their cars had?

Cadet57 wrote:

Andebe wrote:

No big difference??? Yet in your own signature,referring to the LO5,you say,"Coming soon:More smallblock." Clearly its not enough.

Swing and a miss. You see, when you have an engine that doesn't run, and then build a new one that does you get "more" small block. But A for effort on your detective skills.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

The 305 is supposed to have 140 HP.

Lol. In what year? 1961? But my GM FSM must be wrong because who would know better than GM how many horsepower their cars had?

Just bustin'your chops. I think all motors need a lil tweaking.

Why bother to quibble about specifics of a few  HP here or there when there were new 25 years ago. . The real issue is if you want more  now in 2016, it's your car, so do want you  can afford, and  whatever you damn well please  that will make you happy.

lakeffect wrote:

Why bother to quibble about specifics of a few  HP here or there when there were new 25 years ago. . The real issue is if you want more  now in 2016, it's your car, so do want you  can afford and  whatever you damn well please  that will make you happy.

Amen ! I couldn't agree more . Lol

Cadet57 wrote:

I daily my 95 and other than a slight increase in oomph to get around traffic I see very little difference between it and my TBI 350. People really need to let this whole LT1 superiority go.

a slight increase in oomph,..

well,.. there you have it,.. from our most sensitive tbi owner,..

other than a slight increase in oomph

a slight increase in oomph,..

well,.. there you have it,..  from our most sensitive tbi owner,..[/quote]

The difference between my '96 Roadmaster with a 15.54 @ 89 m.p.h. and my '94 Caprice with a 15.47 @ (just under) 89 m.p.h. is not what I consider a "slight increase in oomph" difference when comparing them to either the 170 hp. 305 or the 180 h.p. 350s in the 1991-1993 model year wagons.  The TBI 350 engines (on You Tube) run very low 17s in the 1/4 . Where hundredths  of a second matter, 1.5 seconds difference is substantial.
To put it another way, my former 2007 (stock) Monte Carlo SS ran a 13.99 in the 1/4. That's approx. 1.5 seconds quicker than my  Caprice's best. I definitely don't think of the performance difference between those two Chevys as the SS having "a SLIGHT increase in oomph".

Next...............

My best has been  a 14.189  time and 96.87mph, but not on the same run.

From my signature below you can tell this was on a totally unmodified, bone stock,  305 vehicle while hauling several sheets of plywood from Home Depot.

OK, I'm lying. It was drywall from Lowes. So sue me.

lakeffect wrote:

My best has been  a 14.189  time and 96.87mph, but not on the same run.

From my signature below you can tell this was on a totally unmodified, bone stock,  305 vehicle while hauling several sheets of plywood from Home Depot.

OK, I'm lying. It was drywall from Lowes

Time slip proof? video of those runs? 180 hp. BONE STOCK you say? Nah. No way sorry. Maybe with a 60 mph tail wind down the side of a mountain.

Read the signature line below this, where it says Shammoo, Prince of Whales You can see my wagon is totally unmodified show room bone stock in every way imaginably possible.

Still has the original tank of gas in it.

Ashtray has never been used. OK, it doesn't have an ash tray, but that's not the point.




Down here
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

See! Totally bone stock!

   

Between the torque difference of the 350 and the 305, the deeper gears used in the TBI cars, a towpack TBI and a LT1 with a standard diff are probably pretty close. TBI heads suck harder than a homely girl on prom night and run out of breath like an asthmatic kid, during allergy season. LT-1 heads breathe much better. Our cars are very heavy,still debating on Olds BB or Iron LSx engine for my engine swap even though the L05 is healthy and still surprises people, probably because they expect a total slug.

Stew,check out Harris performance for a few ideas to gain some "free"hp on the tbi.