now the time has finally come to start my v8 swap. i got the 2.8 and tranny out now im just looking under the hood at all the wiring harness and trying to figure out with i need and what i don't need. the car is gonna be a basic carb'd 350 nothing to special just want it nice and clean and minimum on the wires. couple questions, what can i remove and what cant i(wire harnesses)? it was originally a 87 2.8 mpfi. what about the fuel pump i want to switch to mechanically so should i leave the old one in the tank or drop it and remove it. and also what about the mounts do i need a special conversion kit or just regular 350 camaro engine mounts? thanks

 

Didn't read the V6 to V8 swap sticky, did you. . .

The engine mount part is covered in the sticky.

The wiring - hope you labeled things as you disassembled. If you didn't, well, perhaps there's still hope. Basically, anything that is part of the big harness bundle that comes from the passenger fender can be eliminated. If you take out the plastic fender liner, the connector that passes through to the passenger compartment can be seen - unscrew the bolt in the center of the connector, pull the connector apart, and anything on the engine compartment end of that harness can be removed. You don't have to cut any wires to do that.

You will need the ignition power wire (pink wire that went to the coil), tach wire (if so equiped - white wire that went to the other side of the coil), alternator wires (will probably have to lengthen them with the V8), oil pressure sender, and coolant temp gage sender.

If you run a TH700R-4 with the V8, you will have to provide a means of locking the torque converter clutch. That is something that is part of the computer harness.

If you want to only run a mechanical fuel pump, drop the tank and remove the in-tank electric pump. There is a sticky in the top section of the Carburetor forum that shows how to convert it to mechanical pick-up style.

 

Wasn't the engine harness ( drivers side ) and the ECM harness ( Pass side ) just one big harness from 87 and up ?? I thought that 86 was the last year Chevy made 2 independent wiring harnesses in these cars. If the car has a single harness for everything ( as my 87 2.8 did ) than you will either spend a lot of time/effort figuring out the wiring - or save yourself the aggravation and buy an 82-86 carb engine harness.

I'm swapping a V8 into an 85 that was originally a 2.8 right now. Some of the things I've done so far include:

Removing the in tank pump / pick-up and replaced it with a Carb pick-up.

Upgraded the front springs to V8 springs.

Removed V6 mounts and installed V8. ( any Camaro V8 mounts will work - this is MUCH easier if done without the control arms in the way ! )

Removed the original fuel lines and installed V8 Carb lines. ( the mech fuel pump is on pass side - FI cars have the fuel lines on the drivers side.


This should be enough to get you started on the project. There's a lot of additional parts needed to make the swap successful - BE SURE TO READ THE STICKY ! Hope this helps !

 

yeah i have some stuff labeled and others not, but for the most part i know what is what. im also planning on putting in new gauges so would it be best to keep the existing wires for the coil to the tach or just replace them? i just want the engine bay looking as clean and mess free as possible

 

subscribe.... because im basically at the same phase of the swap as you are pairtoe

 

well today i got the wiring harness out and i pretty much scrapped everything but the pink and black/white wire for the tach/coil and i saved the windshield wiper plugs. it was pretty easy, what can i do about the vacuum canisters?

 

The big line coming from your tank is the vent line. If you plug that one, you will need a vented gas cap or your tank will build up pressure. I have put a little filter on that line and left it under hood before, but I don't like that. It's best to take the line out and plug it at the tank when you drop it to remove the electric fuel pump and then run a vented gas cap.