I am currently putting the finishing touches on my 383 project that I spent this past year on. It's made my Elky a beastly delight, and I am thrilled with the end result.

That being said, I have another Camino (a 1980 I believe) that's shedding some parts before heading to the metal monster. The body is thrashed and the frame is bent.

However, during the last drive I took it for, it carried a cracked long block, a rusted rear end, and a pile of wheel and tires that bottomed out the rear end. The tired 229 under the hood wheezed its way up hills across the county with this load on its back, and now I just can't bear to see the-little-engine-that-could scrapped.

Since I already have the badass V8 that I've always wanted, I'd like to make this little 229 a charity case.

Please clue me in on what you believe to be the most radical cam available for this motor(although a solid roller is probably a pipe dream), whether there were other heads that flow better, and if there's an aftermarket intake manifold that fits.

I know I'm sentimental fool, but that's what took my original El from basketcase to contender in the first place. :)

AWWWW...... the 229 i remember that little guy, i'm a owner of an 82 El and that was the original motor i had. She ran hard but not so strong and one day the oil plug fell out of her ( oooops ) and she keept going for 237.9 miles until she took her last wheezing breath. So now i have a brand new 355 that does everything but wheeze and wakes up the neighbors.

I know this has nothing to do with you 229 nor any help with what you want to do with it. But I think we all can remember why these cars are sentimental to use and love to drive them. So good luck with your build.:beer:

Hey there ElkyDori,

I have an 1980 229 with many many miles and I have to say that I'm impressed by its tenacity. Once it gets warmed up it really pulls! Since you going to be pulling parts off can I put in some requests? Off the top of my head, I need the rearward interior plastic window trim (similar to front pillar trim) and the exterior clip-on trim between door window and side window (driver's side but will take both if you have 'em.) I'm sure I can think of more. Please let me know!

I haven't looked into radical cams... I'm not sure that would do much good on this engine with its long-ish stroke configuration (of course you know it's the 305 minus 2 cylinders). I can't imagine it wanting to rev enough to make use of something radical, even if it had gears to do it. Maybe it would, who knows...

However, there are aftermarket cams from Comp and the other companies. I was looking into a very mild cam update. You have to remember, when these engines were made, the emission controlss were still a bit of a black art. What GM did was to cut duration off the intake and retard the valve timing, to keep NOx emissions down (lower BMEP). If you look at, say, a mid '90s 305 engine, you'll see the cam profiles are back to normal, and pretty much identical to the 1st level upgrade Comp Cam.

Along with that, the stock heads are awful with the port matching. The aluminum intake is pretty good, but the heads are junk. Clean those up, maybe cut the valves, polish the chambers, it would be equivalent to a HO 305 minus 2 cylinders... a "HO 229" LOL I could see it easily making 150 hp. More if you want to go radical with headers, and gears, and what not. That's more than the stock 305 did in those years.

Remember?! Shoot! I still have a 229 in my elky. Thats cause I'm a poor recent college grad coming into the real world at a bad economic time. But my little girl is still chuggin. infact it was the only elcamino in a car show of 200 + cars here in north florida. Shes still got spunk.

I've started snooping around and it looks like the 262 that replaced the 229 in 1985 used a bigger set of valves and should bolt right up in theory. I don't believe the even-fire redesign should have done anything to make the heads incompatible, but I could be wrong.

Flat top pistons with valve reliefs are out there, thanks to the people trying to make do with 305s.

On the cam end of things, Crower makes a pretty aggressive profile for hydraulic flat tappets with an advertised duration of 296/308 with 0.509"/0.498" of lift. Equipped on an odd-fire V6, that sound should inspire a lot of blank stares. Also, hydroboost brakes will almost become mandatory at that point.

Still kinda stuck on a performance intake manifold, so any knowledge on that would be a big help. Ideally something designed for a square bore four barrel.

Also, if the lift on this valvetrain gets to be a bit much, are there any tall valve covers for this motor? It looks like the 262 heads started using centerbolts in 1987, so that's an option too.

Thanks to everyone chiming in; there certainly is some love out there for these funny-sounding little guys.

Silly, silly me.

Amazing the obvious solutions that are staring me in the face sometimes and I just don't realize it.

My 383 uses late model Vortec cylinder heads, so you would think I'd realize the V6 Vortec engines got the intake port design from their big brothers. So, not only can my 229 benefit from mid-90s factory tech, but Edelbrock supplies a Performer intake for the job. Hopefully it won't drown under a 500 cfm four barrel.

When all is said and done, I think these little guys can run well over 220 hp. Now, I'm really curious to see how far my charity case can go!