I am wanting to pull my nutless v-6 and drop im a heavily modified 400 inplace. Some people say its easy some people make it sound easy, but not to my ears. where should i start(other than I already have the carbed 400 and 700r4)? what needs to be done to the car in order to support this small block. Then once the car is complete what needs to be done with the engine bay. Im looking for basiclly a list of what has to be done. Any help at all will be great

 

read teh sticky above, and also checkout the couple of threads below on the v6 to v8 swap.

& welcome

 

Motor mounts. Radiator. Wiring. Front springs. For starters..

 

Welcome aboard.

The sticky (Important/Useful Information) above covers most of it. A healthy 400 will need healthy support, including transmission, rear end, and suspension. Our sponsor Spohn (radio button at top of page) can cover a lot of that for you.

Subframe connectors highly recommended (even if you have a V6, for that matter).

 

the springs arent realy a must have, if u have been in Louisiana u know how the roads are my friend has v6 springs in his because he never changed em when he put the 350 in. the only prob he has is when he has 5 or 6 peeps in the car the back tires rub when he takes turns.

 

The best way to start would be by selling the existing car and buying one that already has a V8. Just my .02.

 

I disagree. If you're putting in a healthy 400 you'll probably end up modifying/upgrading most every part that would be different between the v6 and v8 anyway. Why spend more when the extra parts you get will be replaced anyway. Unless you just need it as a guide to where things go and how it goes together, or want to upgrade a little at a time in stages.

 

305 to 400 doesn't involve a lot of changes. V6 to any V8 does. As 305q_ta86 said, motor mounts, radiator, wiring, front springs: Factory V8 to 400 doesn't require any of those to be changed. The upgrades are subframe connectors and drivetrain, but that's true if you upgrade a 305.

That said, a few years ago (as in, when I did mine), it was unwise from a money standpoint to do the V6 to V8 swap because V8 cars were plentiful. In just a few short years, that has become less so.

Go ahead and do the 400. The best way to do it is with a factory V8 donor car, even if you don't use the engine or transmission.

 

I swapped mine from a 2.8 to an LT1 and it wasn't as difficult as people let on. I'm still running the V6 springs front and rear, I had to move the brake line going across the crossmember to the back side for the 350 motor mounts, put an LT1 radiator/fan setup in the car, wired up a V8 dash from a 91 Trans Am and happily getting 27 MPG while whopping up on a few Mustangs and Camaro's as well. I put a new set of struts and shocks on the car while I had it down and it rides where it did with the 2.8. Now it's true that the LT1 has aluminum heads which lightens the motor up, and the T56 is aluminum case and supposedly lighter than a 700R4 so in my situation, it's probably the same weight as the 2.8 that was in the car.

 

Yes, same for guys who have done LS1, eliminated AC, swapped from auto to standard, etc.

My car had springs changed all around by the previous owner. The car sat up high with the V6, I figured the springs would be okay with the V8. They were not.

If you put together a full-up driver with standard iron heads, change out the V6 springs. Especially considering the condition of the roads around Albion.

 

And thus, one reason I bought a GTA to transplant everything into, that and the uni-body on the old 'bird was beat up more than I thought when it got hit.