I am going to (have engine, waiting to pull V6) pull out my old (blown) V6 and drop a corvette 350 (I think it is a rebuilt 79) how hard is it going to be to rewire it and what other body work should I do to help with the new wieght of the engine (I have new shock and springs, I am going to put in poly bushings).

 

There's no difference between a 79 Corvette 350 and any other 79 350, they were all the same 175 HP POS unless you have one of the few hundred L82s (not bloody likely), in which case it has almost as much power as a L69 305. Don't concern yourself for even one more instant that somebody is claiming that they're selling you a "Corvette" motor, and most of all, don't pay one extra cent for it just because they're saying it's a "Corvette" motor. That's real close to the oldest lie in the book, right behind the ones about only an inch and the check's in the mail; a very commonly used trick to artificially jack up the price of car parts to the uninformed buyer who gets stars in his eyes over the "V" word. You can be quite sure that no mystical secret properties jumped out of the fiberglass and are going to magically install romantic Viagra-like properties into the cast iron of the motor.

{Rant mode off}

Ok, now that we've got that out of the way, it's the same as any other small block Chevy as far as fit and weight is concerned. It won't bolt to your trans, so you'll need to come up with a V8 trans which will have to be from one of these cars, and a bell housing if your car is a stick shift. You'll need a radiator because the fittings are on the wrong sides. A set of IROC springs, and the struts for one of these cars (they're all the same), is all you'll need there. Rewiring depends entirely on what induction you're putting on it.

 

I was wrong about it being a 79..... it is a 78. If you have such bad feelings about the old 350's I was thinking about an LS1 instead. Post back to me because I work with the guy that has the 78 350. I know a place where I can get use LS1 engine's (and I like them more anyway)

 

A 350 is a 350, as far as that goes. There's nothing wrong with a 350 as such. The problem is everything that bolts onto it. Almost any of them that you get from any 70s car, if you want it to actually run decent, you throw away the stock heads, cam, and pistons, because they're such garbage. Those are the parts that made a 79 Vette have 175 HP, where just 4 years later, the L69 305 made 190 HP; and that's a slow car now by modern standards. The 76-81 Vettes were even slower than 350 2-barrel big sedans from the early 70s. They had exactly the same motor as any other 350 car would have; an Impala with a 350 2-barrel in those same years came with exactly the same 76cc 882 casting heads, 929 cam, and dished pistons, they just stuck the different manifold on top. What a joke. Those of use who actually knew what was in them were not amused however, we were sickened.

If you actually have a stock 78-79 Vette motor, and you want your car to be fast instead of lame-dog slow like those Vettes were, the first thing you need to do is tear the short block down and get rid of those 3 major parts. Then put it back together with flat-top pistons, some decent-flowing heads with small enough chambers to get reasonable compression and enough flow capacity to support the HP level you want, and a modern cam.

My sister-in-law had (and still has, I think) a 81 Vette with that same 350 in it. My 83 305 car, just a run-of-the-mill HO Z28, would beat her car so bad back when both cars were nea new that it didn't even look like it was a race. It looked like one car taking off and one car just sitting there. It was a total disgrace to a proud name like Corvette, for them to stick those pig motors in them. In fact, that's exactly what the F*rd guys called 70s Vettes: "plastic pigs". Might still for all I know, while they watch the new Vette's taillights pull away from them.

An LS1 would be a terrific motor, but extremely a hassle to put in. It's not really an option for most of us. Everything is different, and I do mean everything: trans bolt pattern, engine mounts, exhaust, wiring, and on and on. For a fraction of the work and money you'd spend on putting one of those in one of these cars, you can easily build a 500 HP Gen 1 small block.

 

He did a total rebuild on it 10k miles ago, while doing that he had it bored 60 over. The only thing stock on it is a exhaust mainfold.

 

lol i'm sorry but a stock exhaust manifold completely negates the point and effect of boring out an engine ... first thing you need is some headers =D