Budget 307 Small Block Chevy Build & Dyno - Vice Grip Garage EP28 

The best Engine build video ever!

My first car was a 1968 camaro with a 307. I could careless about the HP, it was freedom to go where I wanted when I wanted.

The sound at 5500 is absolutely wonderful.

I was almost expecting this to end with "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy"... Great content, and I enjoyed the longer format.

I had my 307 chevy bored out to fit 350 pistons . That makes it a 327. I put dart iron eagle heads on it. Roller rockers with summit 1785 cam . Holley 600DP. Weiand intake.. Runs very strong

"Moses's sandals! those are deep" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Great work mate, really enjoy your channel. Inspires me to tear into a project of my own. (Aussie Ford 250 2v 6)

Man, glad Derek decided to make his videos longer. Great

I use the rubber ones I just put a little extra RTV in the corners because it's always work for me

Vortec heads good valve springs 280 480 108lsa cam 230 at.050 lift should give ~340HP at flywheel with 750 Holley carburetor 3:73 to 4:11 gears muncie m22 or TH350 and 2400 stall converter.

RTV on the end seals for the win

We just built the same type 307 build for sons car! We have not taken it to the track but it runs very well, spins the 275/60/15 coopers for 15 car lengths, we went with a chevy 350/300 cast intake with a qjet, and the summit 1785 cam and lifters, what cam did you actually use in this 307 build?

Mr Gasket intake sets. Really worth the money!

He reminds me of the Red Green Show. Except he doesn't use duct tape. Funny guy.

Alright I don't much care for cold snacks but I got my hot drink. I wish you could come help me work on my 54 GMC...👍😁🧐🤨🤔🥺😥😪

The 305 is a 265 with a 350 crank, and they can be pretty powerful. A good cylinder head and cam makes all the difference. That 307 would be better off with a Performer intake. That Z intake is too big. Sell it for BIG $$.

How much lift was on the cam? Or part number??

you gap rings extra wide for 2 reasons. turbo or supercharger.

I guessed 285 HP. Bob Barker would be proud’a me.

"how much torque?" all of it! pretty funny

Bleep bloop!

what thickness head gaskets did you use?

Did you put this 307 in anything yet?

What carb did you use ?

Have you been collecting any parts for future builds of unloved motors, or just for funsies?

Thus guy is hilarious

This is probably one of my new favorite car channels ever since motor trend stopped putting quality content on youtube

Funny how I find myself saying "I don't knowwww" or "great" while working in my junk now.

"Chrome won't get you home" ...Puts chrome valve covers on it.

Somebody really well known in performance world told me something I never forgot. A engine doesn't know what brand it is, what size it it, what color it is, if it has a power adder or not, what it is SUPPOSED to do, or what kind of vehicle it's in. It says at this instant I got these parts, I see this fuel, and I ingest this atmosphere, so I can do this xxxx. That person was the founder of Kinsler Fuel injection 1984. Build what you got, f the noise, and rock out with your BLOCK out.

307 is a much better engine than a 305 I love to pick up a cheap 307 and slam the crank into a 350 to make a 327 the most valuable part of a 307 is that 327 crankshaft

"Did you put a good valve spring on her?" "NOPE!"

Love this guy! He’s the Everyman. No high dollar parts most of us can’t afford. The jokes and comments keep me rolling:)

i don't care what some guys say first engine i built had a friend that was a mechanical engineer. we built 307 using flat top pistons .bored 30 over ran a .480 lift cam. i cant really remember the heads we used wanting to say they were off 400 small block. we manually weighed each piston and rod we filed every rod down to match the weight of the lightest one we had. .this was 40 years ago. i remember turning 8000 rpm just couple times because the engine wasn't completely balanced you don't want to do that to many times. installed in a 73 nova 4 speed manual trans. i never raced it on drag strip strictly street racing was never beaten in that car i raced a couple chevelle ss big blocks and a guy that drag raced on the track a lot never was able to out run the nova .guys in chevelle ss big block cars there problem was spinning. my car would not or i would not let spin. i raced a guy twice in his chevelle ss first race he started in first gear and just smoked his tires he had a posi rear end second race he started in second gear lot closer i still beat him by car length and half.. my good friend i mentioned earlier he got a light body mustang installed a built 350 sb. i out ran it with nova is such a light car it was 500lbs lighter than the z28 Camaro i had. miss the late 70s and 80s when people were people that had common since best times ever

you turned a boat anchor into a tire smoker! It was worth it!

Lmao!....I flippin love this guy!...I'll take him over Skotty KILMER anyday!...

I always come back to these early episodes of VGG, because I like when Derek builds engines on the cheap. I admire whats he's done with the channel since then, but these were my faves.

Almost 1hp per cubic inch with factree stuff. You sir are not dipped. Good job 👍💪🏻

"They run like OJ Simpson." Ha!

Love this show. I've learned so much from watching it. The old school talent you just don't find today at your local shop. I bet there isn't a buried car anywhere this guy can't get running.

Pretty good for a 307 with those stock parts! Good job!

The 307, my first love. I would "borrow" my Uncle Jack's 69 Malibu in my pre-driver's license days when everyone was out of town. I turned the closet upside down looking for a spare key.

Permatex 1/4 bead. Those stock type gaskets are junk.

“It’s just f’ing hanging in there” lol that guy was impressed.

Looks like that engine was cared for by Quakerstate oil! 🤣😂

Great job and thanks for proving what an old 307 is actually capable of.

Low overlap cam and wide ring gap. Nagasaki spinny thing coming soon

Dam! Thought I was watching the Red Green show! Lol

Hey 290 and 328 isnt bad at all for an old 307 with an okay cam in it! Good job yet again Derek! Just going through watching old videos while i wait for new ones, i love that over the years youve stayed true to your roots, and still teach us everything along the way, and alot of that info hasnt changed much, including keeping things on a realistic budget that alot of us can afford, excluding me 😂. Thank you Derek

Come for the jokes! Stay for the info!! Love this channel!

I'm impressed by that power level from a 307. Imagine 325HP is easy at 6000-6200rpm if the valvetrain supported that engine speed. Nice work.

Love the "Don't Tread on Me" and the "Come and Take It" flags hanging up in the background!

Best Hone Alone movie ever :)

This guys a hoot! Definitely good content. I'm hooked.... funny feller

pulls one valve cover off "oh no" lol

Way back when I was a kid, I needed a motor to drop in my ‘68 Camaro to get to work. I was in to street racing, and the car was broken more often than not... A friend offered me a 307 out of a wrecked Chevelle. The engine had been overhauled by the uncle of another friend, who told me I might find it interesting. I pulled it out of the Chevelle and dropped it in the Camaro one weekend, with new plugs, wires, etc. Around noon on Monday, I took it for a test drive. Holy crap, that sucker ran damn good! The builder never would tell what he did to it, but it blew off a built 72 Z28 that had been the quickest street car in our small town. Of course this was long before the internet, and 1000 horse supercharger kits and computerized engine controls...

Just found you recently, love the rebuild on the this 307, makes me have hope for mine. You make the video's so much fun to watch. I would love to see you do a rebuild/restore on an 87 Cutlass Supreme, shouldn't be hard to find as there's plenty around. Keep me in stitches, lol. All the best.

Excellent example of what a feller can do on a budget. With proof even!! You dang near squeaked 300 out of 'er. Gotta say I was ducking when you were giving her the business tho. Good on ya!

“These heads have precisely between 1 and 319,000 miles.” Lmao

“That there intake’ll make her run like OJ Simpson.” 😂😂😂

You missed your call !…you’re funny as hell, but very knowledgeable!…🤓

You got a great outcome. no leaks, no failure and 290hp is excellent.

Derek is a mechanical genius. And entertaining too. I can only do maintenance on my lawnmower, so I find this channel very interesting.

"Cold Snack" - I need to incorporate this term into my daily conversations.

Good job on this, man! That's a mighty little 307 for that budget! proof that something decent can be done out of these. Sound was fine during the rain by the way.

This channel I’ve been watching for about a month and it’s very fast becoming my favorite his goofy antics and just how smart he is when it comes to engines makes it super simple to learn from him and I’m a learn by doing kinda guy

Hello again from Aus. I'm impressed with that hp you managed to squeeze from the 307 mate, exceeded my expectations! What were the cam specs for the Lunati you used?

Nice budget shade tree build. Would be a nice engine in a Daily or mini truck, third gen. 290 hp is nothing to be sneezed at in a small, cheap and probably reliable engine. Thanks I appreciate the build.

Derrick, this video was awesome and it hit home with me. My dad medically retired from Winter's Foundry here in Canton Ohio in 1989! I remember they produced parts for the Cosworth Vega. Awesome memory, thank you!

Many years ago I built a 307 for a friend of mine. For some reason the engine came with a forged steel crank from the factory. The engine came from a Malibu taxi cab. I had the engine hot tanked and had new cam bearings pressed in along with new freeze plugs. I honed the cylinders and got new forged pistons for it. The rods were magnafluxed and shot peened 350 HP rods. A set of new Z28 rod bolts finished the assembly. I farmed out re balancing the rotating assembly. The heads I used were “double hump” heads that had 1.94 intake and 1.50 exhaust valves. A complete rebuild was done along with new Z28 springs, valve stem seals multi angle valve seats. The cam was the 151 327/350 hp hydraulic lifter cam lifters and pushrods. For the oil pump I used a Z28 high volume pump. I matched the oil pump cavity to the rear main cap and before bolting it down I polished the inner surface and did a smooth radius into the cavity. I packed the oil pump with petroleum jelly for instant suction. The intake was a stock Chevrolet aluminum high rise dual plane 1970 Z28 intake with the ports opened up to match the intake gaskets as were the heads. The head gaskets were copper. We dropped it into a 69 Camaro that had 307 emblems on it. It was a 4-speed car. The carburetor used was a Holley 600 cfm vacuum secondary unit. After a 1,500 mile gentle break-in. We changed the break-in 30 weight oil for 10W-30 Kendall GT-1 racing oil and a magnetic drain plug. The car was dyno’d and got 312hp at the rear wheels! Not bad for stock Chevy parts. With 4.11 positraction 12 bolt rear. It’d run 13.5’s at 102 average.

I ran a 307 in a derby car. Wow that sob runs amazing.

I can’t get enough of this guy! He crakes me up!

Cork ends..No issues...Glue 'em to the block first about an hour ahead of time...A little RTV in the corners and all is hunky dory...She's a stout little bugger.

This guy is wicked smaht with engines. I LOVE this channel!!.

Inspired me to work on a 69 442! Got it running and driving with a ton of help

It is great to see someone build a engine that unfairly gets no love. actually most if not all engines have potential if built right. a 307 is basically a stroked 283 and in the late 50's and early 60's they built some great 283s, even boring them a 1/8" over and creating the 301. Chevy later built the 302 with a 327 block and a 283 crank and installed it in the Z28.

Cool rebuild! I like the "saving money" aspect of the build and that you took the 307 and didn't do anything radical to it. And 290 hp is very respectable! When I was much younger, I remember those 283's and 307's. Not very well liked motors, but they were work horses. I remember that everyone wanted a 302 or a 350 including myself! Years later, I had a 1980 Camaro that came with a 305 4bbl Rochester. It wouldn't rev, so my buddies and I decided to "build" it ... if course the wrong way. The block looked good, so we just threw in a way too big cam, a double row roller timing chain, bigger heads (I think 1.92 intake, but I could be wrong) with factory springs, keepers and no valve work, headers, no cat, dual exhaust with no name turbo mufflers (still not sure what they are, but they sounded good), Edelbrock Performer intake and Holley 650 (definitely too much carb). It had a highway rear end, I think it was a 2.41, which we swapped out for a 3.31 posi. And of course the chrome valve covers, timing chain cover, alternator bracket and the blue anodized Edelbrock air cleaner! There were a few times, I ran her to 6,000 rpm (just touched it) and she held. The motor made such good noise above 5,000 rpm! The cam had way too much lift and duration, so she loped at idle and loved high rpms. I think she was still making power at 6,000 rpm, but I didn't want to blow up the motor. The "rebuild" lasted about 25K miles - she still ran well, but the performance had drifted away - maybe compression? On a very hot day, I overheated her (bad radiator - I knew it, but I didn't want to buy a new radiator, so I kept running her too long). I broke something - she still ran, but one exhaust pipe blew slightly white puffy exhaust. I was so upset, that I didn't do a tear down and wound up selling her. Maybe it was only a bad head gasket? No leaking coolant outside the motor and only a slight oil leak. That was the last "performance" V8 I owned (the 1984 Pontiac Firebird with a 305 4bbl was not in the same league). Now it's higher performance 4's! Thanks for making this video. Brings back some great memories!

I like the flag on the back wall

Close power to an early 2000's 5.3 (~325ci) LS v8, came with 285-hp, 325 lbs.-ft.

That’s about double what the engine had when it was put in from the factory

"Moses Sandals those are deep" Hahahahahaha

im back here five years later just to reminisce of the good ol times! love all of Derek's video's but these hold a special place for me

I feel like I'm watching "Letterkenny" fix it garage.

I go old school with the quarter inch bead of RTV. Seals better than any end gaskets I have ever tried.

I've watched this video a few times already, just like going back & watching your videos over sometimes. There's a reason why small block Chevy was the go to engine of choice for most people back in the day. 283 & 307 were pretty much the same block, like 305 & 350 are pretty much the same block. It didn't matter, you could bolt most every accessory to it, from whatever engine size you had.

I was NOT expecting it to dyno like that, GREAT JOB!!

... fun channel... Thanks for the video !!... my 1st time here, but it won't be the last ; )

Well I'll be dipped your going forced air on that lovely 307 lol that's my guess but I could be way off but off the top of my old head you gap them big for your boost

“Nope”! Stock with unknown miles! 😂😂 freakin awesome.

Congrats on 50K subs! Honestly, I'm shocked you don't have way more, assumed you were around at least 100k!

Stick a small roller in that 307 and itd go well over 300hp.. make a good economical engine for a t-bucket or such..

If I had this man as a teacher in school I would have graduated make learning fun

That was cool.You really drew out some power in that little 307.I got a 305 HO in a 84 T/A.

I had a 307 . I bought a 73 LT . Kid said it had a 350 . It didn't drive like a 350 . Ran the numbers . Its a 307 . So i put a 327 intake on it so i could run a q jet on it . I killed alot a cars with that 307 . Car had a 3:08 posi rear end . It would snap both rear tires up in smoke when i dumped that spredbore ! Raced one guy . A buddy at the time . He had a 30 over 390 . Melling cam . Headers n a holley . We raced . I was behind him a car length . Single lane . Hangin a left . We nailed it . He jumped ahead a car length . As soon as we got around the corner . Turnin left . I jumped in the merging lane and dumped that spreadbore . Shot on by him and put 2, 3 car lengths between us . He couldn't catch back up ! Which is why im a spread bore guy ! That 307 killed alot cars ! I finally floated a valve one day . 5300 rpm . It went down hill from ther ! Good Times 😎

I was thinking 275, you squeezed 290 I wonder how it would've done with the optimum cam, and new springs maybe 325 or do you think it was out of air? Good solid cruiser.

I had a 307 I built for a 72 Chevy truck, little motor would scream.

Hey, I liked my 307 in my 71 Chevelle with Powerglide added stall speed/ B&M trans pack. I just added 4 bbl manifold and carburetor and added headers sounded great!!! This was my second car after High School..then I went bigger 24 cars later…my brother cammed up his 307 in his 72 Nova…. Early eighties best time of my life!!!

Great heads,great intake, this is by far my favorite build I've seen.

Keep on wrenching on pure garbage I love it! Living vicariously through you sir😁

I really loved this video. My guess was 250hp and you went well beyond that! Great job, man. Very cool. I had a 307 in a malibu chevelle of my own and I just sort of figured it didn't deserve a big tune up... and now I think I should have before I sold it. Oh well next time!