Call it an Iron Lion, a Holden 308, or a little sleeper small block, but just don’t call it boring. We truly dig this little engine build and its performance on the dyno for the fact that it illustrates the fact that there’s still a lot of fun and satisfaction in taking the simple road and that four digit horsepower isn’t necessary to have a cool engine.
The engine in question here is a Holden 308 with factory heads that have been freshened and touched up, a new camshaft, stock intake, and a Quadra-Jet on top. The fact that by the time the testing and tweaking are done the little sucker is making more than 340hp at 6,000 RPM and 363 lb-ft of torque at 3,900 is fun to us.
Why build the engine like this? When you see the car it is going into you’ll understand. The machine has been concours restored and the owner wanted the carpet to match the drapes so to speak. It would have not suited his purpose to have some aluminum headed, single plane intake equipped or fuel injected version of the engine in a car that is supposed to carry all of its factory character.
This is old school stuff. Timing, metering rods, and finding the ideal tune for the combo. No, it is not massive horsepower but it is good horsepower!
