Bought a 83 Camaro today with the motor locked up (350). I took the engine out of my 78 Chevy (350) both four barrels. I was wondering if it is a straight forward install or is there anything I need to be aware of. Thanks.

 

Make sure you have the right size flexplate or flywheel on the motor that is going in or use the flywheel from the old motor. Also if the car is a manual and the old motor wasn't in a manual car, you will need to install an pilot bearing.

 

Both engines were with automatic transmissions, I was planning on using the torque converter and the flexplate from the old one. But the motor mounts and all of that line up?

 

All gen I SBC have the same mount locations and are externally identical when it comes to mounting and acc. and such.

 

A '78 engine will have the dipstick on the driver's side, vs. passenger side for our cars. The Camaro exhaust manifold and the '78 dipstick tube try to occupy the same space at the same time - kinda violates a fundamental law of physics.

If you install headers, you won't have a problem with the dipstick tube.

 

I looked at the engines and they both have the dipstick on the same side.

 

Then either one isn't an '83, or one isn't a '78, or one of them was a crate block with provision for the dipstick on either side.