Ok my dad has piqued my interest. I told him my car was spewing blue smoke when it got hot and he said the rings were probably bad, and that the best thing to do was get another engine.

He says he has a rebuilt 350 at his garage, a carbed one. Now, I have no clue what this engine is out of, I would guess it's a pre-86, but I'm not sure. If I were to put this engine in, I know everything should bolt up pretty easy, but what about the computer? Can I just take the computer out, or will it make my check engine light come on and make the engine run funky or what? I am EXTREMELY inexperienced with car computers and the like, so *any* help/advice is appreciated.

I'm not positive I wanna put it in my car, I'm gonna go up there tomorrow and take a look at it.

 

Well, you can yank the computer all together and run a vaccum advance dist and it will be fine. The stock fuel pump will work also, as long as you get a fuel pressure regulator. You will also need a different flywheel/flexplate.

 

the pump MIGHT work.

for some people on this board, they had no problem with the pump, some people, including myself, had to rig up a toggle switch.

other than that, the swap is pretty straitforward.

 

Did you have TBI Josh? Because there's many members on this board who have just installed adjustable fuel pressure regulators with the TBI pump and it works fine. TPI is a higher pressure so it wouldn't work with a carb even with an AFPR.

 

yeah, I had the TBI, I installed the AFPR
the car would start, becuz when the key was turned forward, the pump would run for 2 seconds, fill the floats, the car would run for about 20 seconds and shut down.
I had to rig an On/Off switch, and eventually the pump burned out, so I installed an external Holley, didnt even have to remove the in tank pump!

 

Dude, I really don't want to offend anyone here.. but these guys are COMPLETELY steering you in the wrong direction.

I'm not an FI **** or anything.. I've got an 81 TransAm, straight carburetor.. no computer at all (was removed).

But here you have a perfectly running 80s f-body with a /COMPLETE/ Throttle Body Injection system... that, as far as I understand from your post.. is perfectly fine.

Why would you want to tear that out of the car and replace it with a carburetor?

The 305 and 350 are absolutely IDENTICAL.

The only differences between the years are placement of the dip stick, and intake bolt hole locations in the heads.



First things first, you need to figure out exactly what motor that is. When you check out the motor, take a look at these places.

FIRST, you will want to look at the front left side of the motor. Looking at the motor from the front (where the pulleys are) look at the engine block, the flat part that sticks out just in front of the left engine head (passenger side head). This is where the VIN# will be stamped. This will tell you exactly from where the car came. Write this number down.

Second, look BEHIND the motor. There is a "ledge" if you will that's directly behind the motor, facing up. It's the part of the motor that sticks out in the back where the transmission bolts up to. It's not level with the distributor or intake, it's directly behind that on a ledge. You should find a 3-letter code, something like CMJ, etc... write that number down. Also write down EXACTLY anything else you might see written there.

Take this info and go to www.nastyz28.com
check out the site, and go to ENGINE codes / identification. This will give you generally a good idea of what kind of motor you have.

Second, if you want to find out what kind of heads you have, pull the valve covers off and write down all the numbers and letters you find on the top of the head.




NOW, after you know what kind of motor you have, you can decide what you want to do with it.


Honestly, if you take this motor and just do a swap.. keep everything as it is.. you'll probably gain on average of 30-40 horsepower, without doing anything else. This assumes that the 350 is as anemic as the regular run of the mill 305 TBI was.

If the 350 is any kind of performance motor.. you can expect a lot more power.

Your car should run perfect just like this..

if you want more power, here's what you can do for about $1,000 bucks.

1 - $200 - FlowTECH headers from JC Whitney. They are made by Holley, but you can get the entire headers, PLUS the Y-pipe or H-pipe SHIPPED together for a hair under $200 bucks.

2 - $140 - 1.52:1 CraneCams Roller Rockers.

3 - $130 - Edelbrock intake manifold, not sure, I think you can go with a standard 3701.

4 - $25 - Open element air cleaner (if yo don't have the dual snorkle).

5 - $120 - New fuel injectors for the TBI unit. You can order these direct from GM. Identify your TBI unit, (probably rochester) and figure out what other GM cars used that TBI unit... generally Suburbans.. etc... you can get a new injector for that TBI unit for about that price.

Ok, so it was only $615 bucks.. but I'm sure you could find some other ways to spend the remaining $385 bucks.



Todd

 

A '91 will have a one-piece rear main seal, which uses a different flex plate than a pre-'86 engine.

 

I agree with keeping the TBI. It will drive better and be cheaper in the long run. Just sell the carb. Super/Turbo Charging a FI system is a whole lot easier than a carb too. BTW I did get the TPI pump to work with a carb.