A guy i know is willing to give me a beater 83 camaro z28. i dont have any cash but i have a feeling im going to need an engine. what are some cars that are good doner cars for engine. obviously other camaros but are there less obvious ones i dont know about? 305s, 350s, whatev

 

Mid-90's trucks w/ 350 make a nice donor, and there tend to be plenty of them. You'll want to swap in a decent cam and a set of valvesprings, but you'll have a good running setup afterward.

'97 is the cutoff in most cases, after that the gen-3 engine started taking over and it's not a direct swap.

 

thnx a lot man, can yo be more specific on what kinds of trucks?

 

any 80's or 90's caprices or trucks 350's are out there everywhere

 

yeah like the 2 wheel /4 wheel drive 1500/2500 series chevy trucks

 

C'mon now, thats not nice, sending the guy out looking for a swirl port wonder.

 

???
i dont know wat that means but i guess has something to do with the porting of the heads? dont know a lot about engines

 

It is the style of the heads. I would look for vortec 350's found in GMC, and Chevy full size trucks, vans, tahoes, and suburbans. I would only use a 350 TBI (early truck motors) for the short block. At least with the vortec motors you get nice heads. Vortec motors were used up to 2001 in the van lines. 2000 was the cahnge over to the Gen III small block in the trucks.

 

so a vortec 350 out of a gmc before 2000 would be good?

shifty, your name=crazy town?

 

GMC or chevy. Same motor. Those motors even have fairly decent cams if you were looking for a direct swap. You can go carb, TBI, or multiport with that motor.

Yes my name is from a Crazy Town song. All the way in song 11. You are only the second person out of 5 forums and tons of posts that have actually figured that out. I don't mention it now because I am much older, wiser and now crazy town is horrible and I do not like to associate myself with them. They were cool 8 years ago.

 

heh, ya i dont know how i remember that cause is was a hella long time ago. but ya, thnx for all the info guys, really apreciate it

 

do ya think it matters its going into a beater 83 camaro not like he paid 3000 dollars for the car...LOL

 

Yeah, but still, no sense in shooting yourself in the foot, if you dont have too.

 

very true but he needs to say what he is wanting to get out of this car in the end... if hes looking for something he can drop in and race around in then hes gonna have to shop around if he just wants to get it moving and be able to drive it everywhere then he doesnt have to be as picky.....