Hey everyone,

I'm sure some of you have seen me around the boards, probably most in the parts wanted area, I am very very close to having all my parts that i need to start putting the motor in the car, but missing a few little things, like motor mounts, and hoses and stuff, but anyways. I'm going to be taking you guys along step by step, showing you what im doing, and how its coming along.

my car came with a 2.8L V6, so i pulled that hunk, and got a 350, nothing special, just a 89 Silverado truck block, this engine was TBI, but im going carb'd, I got a stock intake, with a stock quadrajet, a HEI distributor off of Ebay for 60 bucks, awesome deal it was a no name brand, but looks pretty high quality, its even billet aluminum. stock style mechanical fuel pump, and a performance starter, stock exhaust manifolds(for now) and catless exhaust, probably. transmission is a 700r4 that came out of a camaro, and same for the radiator. the engine has a cruddy truck serpentine system, im pulling that off, and getting a camaro serpentine system, springs and sway bar from a z28, and a b&m megashifter to top it off.

any input from you guys would be awesome, keep checking back, and ill post pics. thanks for all your guys' support, and im sure im gonna need more as i start the swap. also the reason im going with stock stuff, is cuz im trying to see the cheapest / budgeted engine swap i can, so far its actually pretty cheap, around 600 bucks for all the parts excluding antifreeze,spark plugs, SP wires, oil, trans fluid, diff fluid, misc connectors for under hood, hoses, and brake / fuel lines that will need to be replaced.. but anyways.. its starting to come together, and its making me happy, because ive never driven a thirdgen, ive had mine for almost a year now, and im hoping to drive it in may.

ill keep you all posted.

 

"Stock" for what?

I bought mine in May '99 and drove it for the first time in August '99. That was simply going V6 to stock '86 305. It seemed long enough for me at the time, esecially since the donor and receptor cars took up a garage stall each, and my wife got tired of having her car parked outside.

 

its a stock camaro intake, and its just a 650cfm quadrajet carb.. stock 350 exhaust manifolds for a camaro iroc

 

As long as it isn't a stock 3rd gen Camaro q-jet, it should be fine.

There really isn't such as thing as a "650 cfm q-jet", but no biggie.

 

ahh.. well thats just what my buddy told me, its the first time ive had to deal with a carb, i know very little about them, my brother gave me this carb from a 350 that he dropped into an old cutless, dont really know too much about it.

 

ok everyone, today after i get off work here at two, im going to go an pick up my 700r4 trans, and the exhaust manifolds, 2morrow im picking up the rest of the exhaust, it coming together pretty quick, and after income taxes, im sure the car will be finished.

 

Be careful with the transmission throttle valve cable mounting. An older q-jet may not have the correct throttle arm for a TH700R-4. Not that it can't be overcome, but you need to mimic the factory geometry.

 

i have a 82 berlinetta to, what did it look like when you first got it, mine was red/black, t-tops, auto, any pics

 

here ya go

 

 

This may or may not be useful at some point.
https://www.thirdgen.org/carbswap

 

ok, time to update, got my block all painted up and looking good, gotta put in my oil pump and pickup, and put the pan on. then i can mount it in the car.

its getting pretty exciting. i took a quick snapshot with my cell phone to show you all... its gonna have nicer valve covers, and a different intake.

 

is that the finial color, or just a primer? if so what color is that? looks good

 

thats actually gonna be the final color

 

well, just got the trans all bolted in and sittin pretty last night... its coming along smoothly. the hardest part is gonna be swapping my springs, sway bar, and motor mounts for the v8... not much past that.. its not the impressive, so once i get more progress i will snap some pics.

i changed the filter and pan gasket before bolting the trans in, gotta do a couple more things to my motor before i can bolt that in, but everything is coming along smoothly.

 

Ok everyone time for another update.

The Engine is in the Car!... kinda.. well our cherry picker is holding it in there right now, but as soon as i get off work here today im gonna go over and get it all bolted in, gotta tell you guys, its starting to feel really good, seeing this whole thing come together, we were up pretty late the other night to just get the engine to sit there, so it was kinda dark, ill take some snap shots today let you all see my progress, we were having a problem with one of our clamshell mounts being a little difficult and bent. i think i got that pretty much taken care of.

today i wanna get the engine and and bolted to the trans, get the trans all hooked up to the torque arm and driveshaft, get my exhaust bolted in, bolt on my serpentine setup, run my fuel lines, bolt on my intake and carb, hook up radiator, i still have to wait for my trans cooler lines to show up, then after all this i can finally start adding my fluids and stuff to see if she'll finally run. i think the electrical will be the toughest part.. but im still confident.

 

Hmmm, missed this when first posted. Black, crumpled R/F fender & passenger door, hardtop, 3-spd auto, etc. I didn't take any "before" pictures. Current look is in my vbgarage (although the paint has suffered in the last 6 years).

hectre13, progress is progress. But how did your clamshells get bent? That ain't easy.

 

well, its bent inwards.. like the clamshell is too tight to fit over the mount, not sure how it got that way, but its not all that big of a deal.. just annoying.. heh heh..

 

ok, time for another update for anyone who is interested, the engine is bolted into the car and is looking pretty nice, we bolted the trans up to her, and the driveshaft and torque arm are connected. i gotta trim down my torque arm a little still, its from the th200c, i got a 700r4 now and it sticks out too far, so i cant connect my speedo cable..

also another problem with the trans is that i didnt decide to hook up my tv cable until everything else was already bolted in, so now im having a little bit of difficulty getting that in place.

the serpentine setup is all bolted on and looking good, the intake and carb are on, the exhaust manifolds are on, the radiator is in and all hooked up... fuel lines and trans cooling lines are in..

i have my electrical pretty well figured out.. just gotta get a dipstick tube and dipstick for the trans so i can fill it, and i think im ready to start her up.

 

ok its update time again, electrical is finished, i think... well i figured out the wiring and bolted in the distributor and everything, the only thing that im not sure about is the TACH wire, was wondering if anyone might be able to shed any light on that and what the plug looks like for it...

turned her over last night, but seems that she dont wanna go, i believe its a carb problem with some vacuum issues.. i posted in the carb forum for that, hopefully we can resolve that and get her on the road and start having some fun, stil hafta get under the car and trim the torque arm, but other than that im pretty sure im just about ready to take her for a spin...

 

im not really any further, but i snapped a few pics, you guys can see how the car sits now with the suspension.. and a shot of my crappy lookin engine bay.

 

Hey my engine bay when I gor it looked like total crap. I went to the car with a can of gunk and a pocket of qauters and you will be set. Keep the car running when washing, better then hanging out waiting to dry. Is it running?

 

nope not yet.. friday when my next paycheck is in, gonna buy me my battery and see if we can get her started..

 

SHE RUNS!!!??

we got everything hooked up and decided to start her, she didnt wanna stay running, we messed with the timing a little, and kept doing it, and it started to look like we couldnt get her to idle..

my girlfriend walks up.. and i try and start it for her.. bada bing, bada boom.. it starts and idles.. wow huh?

it idles around 1000 rpm's, maybe a little lower.. is that normal for a carb'd vehicle?

also it's getting low oil pressure.. but ive been reading that i might need thicker oil, or a new oil pressure sending unit.

I got a clip of it running, ill upload it as soon as i can.

 

idle is adjustable, should be aroun 650-700 rpm, looking good

 

so how is it runing now? Did you fix the deal with the oil pressure???

 

i actually just got home from vacation, before i left i unbolted my oilpan, to get under there and see if i can lift my oil pump pickup about half an inch, so we will see if that fixes the oil pressure problem.

after thats fixed, the engine will be pretty well set, because the engine runs nice otherwise.. i got a bad pump in my transmission tho, which means i have to drop that again. which will suck, but.. ive did it once, i can do it again..

i cant wait for this thing to go, so i can finally drive her.