Ok, my car has some frame/suspension and body alignment issues because the car was wrecked, I fixed all I could and spent alot of money on the body interior and motor over the last 2 years. But some problems will never be fixed and I have a 6 hour drive to college next year. I found an 86 IROC 350 TPI 700R4 that has the main bearings gone in the motor, What all is involved with swapping an older motor bottom end, and putting the TPI unit and heads off the IROC on it? My motor is stout in my 82, But overdrive and fuel injection would be nice for next year, Plus some seals are starting to go in my heads so I figured these L98 heads would work nicely. My motor in question is a 78' 4 bolt main block. Was 86 a Roller motor? Or would it be a pretty basic swap? Could I use everything off the TPI car? Any other advice? I am not sure if I am gonna go through with this yet or not, My car looks great inside and out, But these little problems cause me alot of vibration and etc. If I get this other one I might swap out interiors and stereo and maybe even exhaust....

 

You can use your TPI set-up with a few mods. First that is not a roller block and they did not appear till 1987 in cars and full time in trucks in 96. You will have to modify the bolt holes on your intake a bit to fit the older style heads. Using a non self alligning rocker set-up is also ok but your biggest problem is going to be your cam selection. You are going to need to use a non roller cam that has EFI friendly specs. Meaning you are going to want one with at least 112 LSA or more. Most carb cams do not come with such a wide LSA and have much tigher ones. It can be done. There are a few more things but these are just some of the main.

EDIT: I forgot about the lifter differences. I do not think you can use roller lifters without modifying those heads. I may be wrong and someone with more experience will chime in.

 

350's didn't show up in 3rd gens until 1987 model year.

If the car has a 350 in it now, it isn't what came out of the factory.