Im looking at a 91 Camaro RS with no engine or Trans. I know a guy who deals in C4 corvette Parts and he has ALOT of Corvette L98s laying around. Would puting a Corvette L98 be any different than a TPI motor from another 3rd gen Camaro? Will there be any accesory issues?

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

The oil pan, and therefore the oil pump/pickup, don't fit in a 3rd gen. You need 3rd gen type parts there.

 

Thanks. Anything else I should need for the TPI motor to work?? This is a 305 TBI car

 

Fuel pump, throttle cables, hoses.

Not sure about the Vette accessories, but I don't believe they fit f-body very well.

 

The EGR system on the Corvette L98 is unique because of the aluminum heads. You'll have to use the Corvette EGR setup, not the Camaro setup.

 

I'm going to add to the list of things that others have mentioned:

Intake bolt angles on L98 aluminum heads is different that F-body ones; they are typical SBC pattern. This means the TPI baseplate intake is totally different.

Corvette accessories probably wont work, but not 100% sure. Its a matter of clearance to a camaro engine bay of course.

EGR is different, but if you have visual inspection, you will have to either plug up the new EGR or make it appear like a Camaro one.


I also have a few suggestions that will cost you a few bucks, but will work in your favor later:

Since you will have to change the oil pan anyway, go for a large capacity pan (like canton) with a crank scraper. While you are under there, change the stock mains bolts with ARP ones.

Pull the heads off the motor, change the springs and reatiners for aftermarket high lift ones and titanium retainers (if you have the $). Make sure you use ARP bolts and a bood set of gaskets.

Since the stock cam sucks, replace that with a high lift, but moderate profile roller cam and a good timing chain.

You can always change the intake and rockers later as they are easily accessible with the motor in the car. Not fun to do a cam swap with the motor in the car.

Oh yeah - get headers regardless what you do.

 

Not true. As long as the engine/emissions equipment came from a passenger car of the same year as the chassis or later, it is legal to swap it in.

 

Correct. Use the Corvette parts, and it should pass just fine.

As for the intake bolt pattern thing... they are not "totally different". The pattern is the same, just the angle of the 4 center bolts is different. A Camaro intake can have the bolt holes ground out a little bit to make it work fine on the Corvette cylinder heads.

 

Not trying to steal any ones tread but I am currently switching my 305TPI to a L98TPI from a corvette. I did not know about the oil pan issue. I will buy a new oil pump but is there any issue with using my oil pan from the 305? And as far as I can tell the EGR setup is the same. I did get the same year engine. 91 to 91. I am trying to keep as much of the corvette stuff on there as possible. I did notice that you are better to keep with the Camaro pulley setup. Although I think the corvette pulley setup would fit you would have to rearrange a lot of things. If I am missing something with the EGR please explain. I am glad I read this though. Would have sucked trying to fit the L98 back in to find out the oil pan would not fit.

Thanks Everyone

 

If they're both '91 engines, you can use the 305 oil pan.

The Vette engine should have aluminum heads, and a tube running from the exhaust manifold to the TPI base.

 

Yes it has the aluminum heads and I did find the tube you are talking about. If I am going to put headers on it what would you do with this tube? Would headers with the emissions on them have a place to reconnect this tube?

 

I don't remember the part # of the headers I put on mine but they had the air tubes attached and a flexable metal tube that after you install the headers you have to install the tube to the intake with two bolts and then drill a hole into the pass side header and weld the tube into place. I opted not to do it and always wondered what it was all about. Now I know it was a Corvette thing, glad I didn't go through the trouble to install it. I can look up the header part # if you need me to.

 

Well if you can find the part # that would be cool. If not I can just cut and weld an extension onto the factory tube and weld it to the header if that is all it takes. Thanks

 

Which headers doesn't matter much. You can tap off of one of the A.I.R. tubes if you like, but it's just as simple to weld on a fitting to which the tube can be attached.

Hooker 2055HKR is always a good choice. Or, PM TGO member Dyno Don, who custom fabricates 3rd gen headers. If you have dual cats, the Hedman dual cat headers are a good choice as well.