In the near future, I plan on droppin in a built 350 in place of my boring 305. Do you know people know of any special wiring harness that I'll need to do the swap. also, I plan on using the original TPI and swapping it onto the crate motor. Are there any problems that I should be aware of? I also plan to drop a turbo 400 tranny-- any suggestions?? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated as this stuff is all new to me.. thanks in advance

 

The vast majority of wiring on your engine is related to the TPI induction system, so that part will not change since you are carrying it over to the 350.

Similarly, the wiring to the starter, alternator, A/C etc will be the same too.

There shouldn't be any difference in the placement of any of the devices that your wiring harness connects to between the two engines, however the threads for the knock sensor might not be in the new block/heads depending on their vintage etc, so you may want to check that.

Make careful notes of how the harnesses were strung through the engine compartment and label what came off where and you should be in good shape when you put it all back together.

 

yes, i agree. you will be all set. the only difference will be with the trannies. what does the car have now for a tranny?

-brian

 

right now I have a 700-R4 tranny, but i plan to drop in a turbo-400.. i've done some homework and supposedly it should bolt right up to the chassy. Also, do you know if the tpi from the 305 will be too small and too restrictive for the 350? It will be a performance motor like no other and I dont want to sufficate it with crappy air flow. With the new engine, I'll need to reprogram the redline/shift points and stuff like that-- how do i do that and how much will it be. thanks

 

i may be wrong about the turbo 400..but...

that is an older tranny, and does not have any provisions at all for sensors, etc. (ie, the 700 R4 has a vehicle speed sensor, etc.)

not sure how you will be able to let the computer know how fast the car is going with the turbo 400, because i know that the speed of the car has to do with how the ECM runs everything.

as far as programming shift points, etc. you dont do that anyways...even WITH the 700, so you dont have to worry about that. its all in the TV cable adjustment.

why do you want to go with the turbo 400? just wondering...

and with the 305 TPI system on the 350...the only difference as far as i know is the injector size. i think the 305 has 19 pound injectors, and the 350 has 22 pounders i think. everything else is the same (runners, intake, etc.).

-brian

 

the reason for the TH-400 was because I recieved some advice about the 400 being a good/strong transmission that can hold the power i plan to throw in this motor (think upwards of 380 before blower) Does anyone else know if the vehicle speed sensor will go in the Turbo 400 tranny? if not, is there anything I can do about that short of getting a different tranny? my main thing is that I dont want much trouble when doing the swap as i'm new at all this. I figure the best way to learn is to mess up doing it.. haha-- all advice on anything pertinent is very very welcome
-Justin

 

i forgot to mention...the VSS in the 700R4 sends the speedo it's signal electronically. the 400 i think is cable driven. just something else to consider..

-brian

 

The 700r4 can take wonderful amounts of abuse (my experience so far), I can't say hosepower but, I know mine still works and I've tortured the h*ll out of it in my p.o.s. camaro and it still works fine (2yrs of owning & closing in on 280k total mi. so far).
I do believe the VSS will go in the 400 just the same as a 700r4 just because birds started using electric speedos before camaros but they all used the same tranny. Just take the VSS stuff on the tailshaft from your 700 and swap it to the 400. If that's wrong hopefully someone will correct me.
The only other ECM controlled thing would be the converter lock-up which I'm not sure, but, I don't think the ECM 'looks' for that to be there (ie, won't make the check engine light come on).
Also, the 305 injectors are 19lbers as to where the 350's had 22lb. You might want to consider changing those along with the 305 to 350 prom or just custom burn (or have one made). I'm not much into the PROM stuff but I don't think with speed density, the 305 calibrations will work well with a 350. Don't quote me on that either. You may want to inquire about the on the TPI forum.

 

If your plans are for big HP anyway you could always go with a nice carb/intake setup and screw the whole computer all together. I put a built T-350 in my last car no problem. Of course now I got an 82 w/ a T-350 already there!

 

yeah, the converter lockup definitely doesn's set an SES light. but, the computer does control that. i think if it's not there, then it just ignores it.

-brian

 

hey 91 Camaro Z28 what kinda of crate engines were you looking at?

 

A buddy of mine has a shop teacher that is going to custom build me one from the ground up. So i dont really know whats going to be in it-- he just promised gobs of HP and tq.. so hey, as long as he lives up to his promise, its all good.
Does anyone know if the 700-r4 can take 400+hp?
I dont want to spend any money for something thats just going to break in the long run...

 

the thing that you have to worry about with trannies is the torque, not necessarily the horsepower. do you know what kind of torque numbers this guy is promising? because the torque could be, and usually almost always is higher than the HP.

not sure from experience, but i heard that the later years of the 700R4s were capable of handling 350-400 ft.lbs. without many problems, but not sure if thats true. i got mine done before i got even close to those numbers.

-brian

 

I'd hope they could since, according to 'spec', the L98's were putting out 345ft/lb tq since '89.
A transmission will handle more than it's rated as long as you are somewht 'gentle' with it, similar to the rear's of these cars.
The T-5's are suppsed to be rather limp wristed as well but, as long as you not doing clutch drops on them & power shifting them, they'll last a long time.
Abuse is the biggest life limiting factor to just about anything.
The 700r4 also has the advantage of better gearing over a 350 or 400. That's just my opinion though.. i could be wrong