Hey guys, Im going to buy a nice 91 RS Camaro 25th anniversary edition this week. Its a great car for a great price. Its a V-6, but I still love it nonetheless.

Anyways, my best friend and I are watering at the mouth of the thought of getting a 350 crate motor to put on this car. We dont have all of the knowhow, but we are quick learners, and I know a master mechanic in case things get sticky. So, I have some questions.

Im un-familiar with crate motors. Who supplies them? Is there a place on the internet I can look at them?

Would a crate motor be best? Or should I find a junked one and rebuild it? Whats the best route, in your opinions?

What tranny would be best for a 350 setup?

Sorry if i'm rehashing this issue, but I did some searching here and I couldnt find very many answers that I needed.

Also.. please spare me the "Its better to just get a V8 lecture" This RS is the best Fbody in the best shape for the best price that i've found in months, and i've made up my mind.

Any input is greatly appreciated

 

Well, since you won't listen to reason, I'll give you the "look through the posts for the last couple of weeks on this forum and the general tech forum, and you'll see all the info you're asking for" lecture.




P.S.: Unless the car is free, doing the V6 to V8 swap is simply not cost effective. Look for a factory V8 car in the version and condition you're wanting and save yourself a bunch of headaches and even more money. Put the crate motor in that instead. The time you spend doing that is nothing compared to the time you'll spend doing the V6 to V8 swap. You've been looking for a couple of months already? It's worth a couple of more months.

 

www.edelbrock.com

good luck

 

Before you try this......The best advice I can give you is, find a donor car and take all the pieces from it to do the trans plant.
Otherwise you will be bogged down for months trying to locate everything you will need. ( doing just that right now) I found a crashed car to work from.

 

Dyno, I like that idea, but I'm afraid I would screw up and buy a donor car with the needed donor parts missing or bad. LOL.

It'll be a while before I start this project.. I get the car tomorrow, but I need to make sure the motor thats in there runs real nice and nothings too wrong with it, so I can start safely saving for the crate motor I want.

Oh, and Five7Kid, I didnt ask for a lecture on cost effectiveness. Im doing this simply for the joy of the project, nothing more nothing less. If I was worried about cost effectiveness, I WOULD hold out for a V-8. This is something that will be fun to do.

 

You wouldn't have had to look long through posts on this forum to find the advice to find a factory V8 donor car if you really want to do this type of project.

Determining if a donor car has everything left on it needed to do this swap is a lot less work than finding all the pieces without a donor car.

If you're doing this for "the joy of the project", there will be a lot more joy available from putting a 350 crate engine in a factory V8 car than there ever possibly could be in putting a 350 crate engine in a car that currently has a V6.

Besides, you implied cost effectiveness when you said the car you're looking at is "a great car for a great price". The purpose of these boards is to share information - we're trying to do that, you insist on reinventing the wheel.

Hey, go for it, have fun, good luck. The best approach from a parts standpoint is to get a factory V8 donor car, even if you don't use the engine. The best approach from a joy & money standpoint is to use a factory V8 car for a crate engine swap-in project. You don't have to listen, but our obligation is to say it.

 

Five7Kid Will you ever stop all this non-sense of telling people not to do v-6 to v-8 conversions? what makes you so hard-assed about it? I've done it before on the 82-92, and on many older cars too, straight 6's to v-8. If you have got any kind of mechanical ability it is not hard to do. why spend more money to buy a v8 donor car?? i'm all about saving money. I'm replacing the motor mounts anyway, not going to put on used brake lines, nor used fuel pump. i've found that the v6 springs launch much better too. sorry about this rant, but i'm sick and tired of seeing your replys. brad

 

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% of people on this board live in an emissions-inspection-required area. Doing an emissions-legal V6 to V8 swap requires more time and money than it is worth, considering the availability of factory V8 cars.

If you are in the other 50% of the population, go for the swap. But, it'll still cost you more than finding a factory V8 car and getting it running the way you want.

Kind of like the old "305s can be as fast as 350s" arguement. Even though I did the V6 to V8 swap (out of ignorance) and still have a 305 (when I want to go faster, it'll be a 350), prudence still says stay away from V6 to V8 swaps and hopping up 305s.

 

State inspections are no longer required in Oklahoma.

Emissions can kiss my ***.

 

V-6 to V-8 swap can be done with time and a LOTS of MONEY.

 

going from a V6 to a V8 does not take long or tons of money. i had my V6 out and the V8 in and running in a week and a half, and that is while i was working 40+ hours a week. now granted i had a free V8 donor car, but i still bought a brand new remanufactered engine. I did the whole swap for less than $1200. if you plan on going to a crate engine you will spend more than i did, but you could find all the missing parts you need cheap at junkyards in one trip. i would say go for the swap, it is extremly fun and well worth it. you will learn real fast on how to do it. and if you have any questions ask them on here, cuz these ppl know what they are talking about. unfortunatly i didnt find this site until my swap was over

have fun, u will love the project!!

 

5-7-kid,Ok, i did over-look the emisions laws. I don't have them here in my state. I helped a friend put a 400 in his 91 3.1 rs a couple of weeks ago. simple. Saved money buying a v6 car, put the money he saved into building a mad mouse. had to buy $8. v-8 motor mounts, $5. re-did the cross-member brake line, $99 set of longtubes from jegs, $15. in wire, he wanted to keep his vats key and the 700r4 so i hooked that all up for him. $69.v-8 radiator. I swapped my 89 rs to a v8 ina weekend also it's just so simple to do. If a guy has the right tools it's so. Instead of fighting with my mtr mnt bolts, i torched the tops off, then dropped the lwr a-arms and bolted the news in. exhaust is a bitch though