whats it take to put a big block in a 3rd gen camaro?

 

It's not hard to do. How much money do you want to spend?

Search through the archive. The question is asked at least once a week.

 

well, right now i'm trying to figure out how much more trouble and money it would be to drop a big block in, but in the end i plan on spending around $9000-$15000 on the motor

 

Time, patience and lots of money.

Figure the price of the engine and add 1/2 that amount to it. If you go with an all out big block then you will most likely want an all out install (braided lines etc...), if you go with a $4500 crate engine, then you will probably settle for a few compromises to keep the costs down, and if you get real bad and stuff whatever engine you find you can just cobble it all in there for about $500 including the accessories and brackets but using cast iron exhaust.

Don't forget beefing up the trans to handle the engine and the chassis will need upgrades as well.

I've seen guys here go with stock manifolds and others have paid upwards of $1300 for a good street exhaust system. The only person who can aswer the question of ultimate cost is you.

 

9-15k!!! We've got an all aluminum Keith Black motor for sale for ~15k. Complete carb to pan and 2 stage NOS fogger kit. Made ~1400 hp with 2 stages. It's the motor in the yellow cuda on my page (that's an old picture with the old NX junk on it, now it's a 2 stage Pat Musi NOS system). Now that it's legal to run a 10-71 blown alky motor in the NMCA Super Street class, no need for a nitrous motor anymore

BBC swap info is on my page at www.koolmeister.com I did the swap 4 years ago. Not that hard but will require a little work and modifying.

Miles
www.koolmeister.com

 

I have been trying to sell my supercharged big block for some time. If you're interested then shoot me an e-mail at littleborgy@yahoo.com

Frankly, I'd sell you my entire car if you want it. I tried to sell it last winter but nobody bit. It has every goodie you can think of and even if you didn't want the car itself you'd save money because of the parts alone. I think we should talk!

 

sorry guys but i'm not looking to buy the motor, i want to build it myself

 

No problem. I can deliver it unassembled.

 

not quite what i ment

 

Unless you have access to a machine shop you should jump on the package. Building an angine doesn't mean just buying parts and bolting them together. Wanting to "build" a powerful engine requires a lot of work. When I built my first BBC I budgeted for $5000. I turned the key to start the engine at $8000 and have spent a lot more since then fixing mistakes or upgrading.

 

i work in a machine/fabrication shop and what i would like to spend is about $10k, but thats why i set my budget at $9-$15k. seems like very meany over shoot their budget by nearly 1/2 of what they were planing at first so i figured i'd try to fix that with mine

 

I have thought about the big block route just to be different, but there is one thing stopping me. SPARK PLUGS! Have you ever seen a 3rd gen with a big block? Might as well pull the motor to swap plugs.

seriously, its tight.

 

Ummmmm..............It's actually much easier to change 7 of the 8 plugs with the big block than the small block.

Miles

 

well, I just fiunished building my 550-600 hp BBC for about $4-5k. Haven't totaled all the receipts yet, but somewhere close. I started out just "building a mild big block" and ended up with a hydraulic roller setup. It was supposed to be a budge build but I figured why not go for it?

Its going in my 78 T/A, but I'm looking for a 3rd gen driver for an LT1 swap when its done.

Cale

 

here are some pics of a bbc in a third gen

http://207.53.239.181/~terry/RatMobile/BackHalf/

John