I dont mean to steal your thread, but im thinking of swapping my dads 350 out of his 1973 blazer also his tranny and rearend into my 82 camaro. The engine in the blazer is not original, so im not sure what year the block is. My camaro has a 305 in it. I was wondering if there would any problems doing the swap.

 

No, you shouldn't hijack threads, so now you have one of your own.

'79-earlier SBC's had the dipstick on the driver's side. If you use your stock exhaust manifolds, they and the dipstick tube try to occupy the same space - that doesn't usually work too well. Some have bent the tube to get around the manifold, some have used a flexible dipstick from Lokar, those who use headers don't have any problems.

 

You better be a great welder to swap an 8.5" into one of our cars. You'll have to fabricate all of the brackets on the thing. Torque arm, shock mount, spring pocket. And a welded on torque arm mount doesn't like sticking to cast metal very well from what I read. That blazer most likely uses leaf springs too. This part will probably not be worth it.

As for the tranny, well, we don't know what it is. How many speed, auto/stick?


The engine is the easy part. And I use the term easy lightly.

 

Thanks for making me my own thread. Thanks for the dip stick comment, i think it might have headers on it already, so if they fit ill use them. The tranny is a th350 with a slap stick shifter. I think getting that shifter to work should be interesting. Anymore suggestions will be appreciated.

 

ok so next week is my spring break, and since im broke im staying home. So I wanted to at least pull my 305 out. What kinda things do I need to get prepared before I pull it? What stuff should I leave in the car for the 350?

 

Where abouts are you at? I don't know how busy I will be but maybe if you're not too far and want/need help I'd be willing.

 

Unhook all wires & hoses. Take out the radiator, take off the pulleys, alternator, water pump, distributor, carburetor, and hood. Take out everything you can, it'll make reinstalling things easier. Its easy to take an engine out, getting one back in is a lot harder in my opinion.

I got the 305 out of my car in a few hours by myself, it took me almost a day to get my new engine back in by myself.

 

What all is involved in putting a 8.5" into a third gen? If I take the axles to a machine shop do yall think they could get all the brackets mounted?

 

There's this little problem called a torque arm mount that you can't really cut off & weld another one on.. If you haven't already get under the car & see how the rear is mounted. Its more than just replacing a couple brackets... One big downfall of these cars...

 

The one picture I have taken out of the Strange Engineering catalog and circled the torque arm mount, while the other is of a standard ten bolt. Notice the lack of torque arm mount. As said, it's not something that can be easily welded in, and welding one on to a cast iron shell generally doesn't last very long, and can even be outright dangerous.

If you want a different rear end, either you're spending $2k+ for an aftermarket 12 bolt, Dana 60, or Ford 9", or you're using a factory rear end out of a 82-02 Firebird or Camaro. 93-02 rear ends are wider, and if you use 82-92 wheels, they will stick out more than stock.

 

Is there some way I can get out of using a torque arm? Im getting this stuff for free, and the whole drivetrain has less than 1000 miles on it so I want use as much of it as I can.

 

If your goal is to keep this cheap, then no. You'd have to change the rear suspension completely with fabricated parts. You'd have to make a four-link, or something similar, to get rid of the torque arm. They don't ride good on the streets, are pretty much for drag racing only, and unless you know a master fabricator who owes you a favor, are gonna cost you a LOT more money than using a stock rear end.

 

damn thats what I was afraid you were gonna say. There isnt a way to make this thing leaf sprung is there?

 

http://www.g-forcesuspension.com/pag...og/i.php/81/55

We'll see soon if they can change the application to '82-'02 f-body.

 

sweet do you know how well it works for the 4th gen?

 

I've seen video of a 4th gen pulling the front wheels about a foot with that set-up.

 

that should be easy to figure out, open the hood and look. If you were refering to the blazer having headers and not your car chances are they wont fit your car without dragging on the ground.