Hey guys, im in the proccess of looking for a nice third gen camaro to do a 454 BB swap on. I might buy a '84 im looking at with a 350, TH350 and 10 bolt rearend. My question is, how hard is it to wire up the motor completely from scratch after ive swapped it in? Im looking to go with an older rebuilt 454
with hyperuetectic (sp?) pistons, forged rods, and stock crank and im looking to load up about 100 shot of spray afterwards. I want to know what years the 454 BB came with just a distributor and coil seperate, none of that HEI stuff? Also is there a company that makes specific headers for this swap so i dont have to notch out my frame or K-member? I want to get started on this swap no later than July or august and plan to work through the winter and have her done by next summer. Sorry for all the questions, im trying to do my homework before i get started on this. Thanks again,

Nick

 

HEI's been around since about 1975. Before that it was points and condensor and you don't want that. The year doesn't make any difference though anyway, because any distributor will fit any year engine.

 

Is that the stock 10 bolt or is an older beefier 10 bolt? If it's stock plan on changing it out the first time you launch with any enthusiasm.

 

There's a sticky at the top of this forum about doing a BBC swap.

 

If youre going carb then all need are these:

ignition power to distributor/alternator/choke/solenoid
bat power to coil and alternator/solenoid/starter
power to relay/electric fans

thats it

 

Don't worry about the distributor. HEI is actually more reliable and requies much less maintenance. If you want an external coil you can get a kit from MSD that will allow you to gut the HEI coil and use an external coil. I ran a setup like this on my '68 El Camino. But in retrospect I think a good HEI like that found on the ZZ4 crate motor is more than sufficient. You can spend a lot of money on a fancy distributor but how much extra power will it get you? Possibly none. Put your money elsewhere and maximize your bang for the buck.

 

Nick, a swap like this (considering you have everything ahead of time), should only take you a weekend. But if you're planning on rebuilding the engine yourself, and if money is a little tight right now, then I can see...

Good luck with the swap, you won't regret it... as both I, and other's on this thread, can definitely attest to.