Hey oh! I'm thinking of doing a 350 swap sometime in the future, but I'm afraid that because I have T-Tops that it would be a bad idea. I plan on spending plenty of money this summer in throwing just about every suspension upgrade I can (SFC, panhard, LCA, STB, you name it) in hopes that it would solve the problem of frame warpage. I have tried searching for topics to answer this question, but it's hard to find topics that help. Can anyone here tell me from experiance a yes or no?

Also, at what displacement size do you think T-Top car's limit is? Cause if I could, I think I'd want to put in a 383. OR would it be better to talk HP or torque numbers?

Thanks for any input!

 

Once you get the subframe connectors the car will be just fine for 500+ hp/tq. You have to worry about your rearend as well. So you're going to have this built powerful engine with SFCs, LCAs, Panhard Bars, STBs... so you'll get alot of that power to the ground as long as it doesn't destroy the 7.65" rearend. Aside from that, the SFCs like I said will assure your frames stability and safety no matter how powerful an engine you want to drop in.

 

Alright, thanks, that's just what I wanted to hear! Would it be wise to swap in the rear end from a factory V8 car, as well?

 

A V6 rear is the same as a V8 rear with the same ratio. A lot of guys look for V6 cars to get a rear with higher numerical ratio gears in it.

 

GM installed a 350 in T-top cars.

My car has T-tops and I've had no problems with them. Raced 2 years with only SFC. Got the 6 point bar when I finally dipped into the 11's. The only problem I had was the floor and driveshaft tunnel wrinkling from all the force the LCA were putting on it. The body is still straight and no cracks can be seen.

There's no difference in diff strength between a V6 car and a V8 car. Only gear options were different. A 1986 and newer 10 bolt is stronger than the older ones because of the slightly larger ring gear. The 90-92's have 28 spline axles but can easily be converted to older diffs if a 28 spline carrier is used. Other than that there's no real difference in the diffs unless you have a BW 9 bolt.

 

Yeah you can totally keep you stock rearend. Except, cruise on over to the tech articles and read up on how to do a budget build up on the gm 10-bolt. 800 bucks and labor can have your 7.65" ready for a 383.

 

you guys worry too much about what MIGHT break. just drop it in and romp the gas. then you can see what actually does break and fix it.

 

Your 7 5/8" rearend will take some ****. I've used mine behind my big block. Of course the car never hooked, so its a crap-shoot.

 

Right. Never hooking will ensure your 7.65" won't spaz. However, once he has some real power from a built 350 or 383, and decides to throw some slicks on so the stock rearend can hook he'll find that it WILL hook indeed... once or twice before he vomits it all over the track. If you plan on good traction (and you should) you need to build that rearend. The tech articles 7.65 build up is what I plan to do cause it's cheap and unique. Or you could pay 2,000+ dollars for a moser or ford. It's up to you.