i hav a 1992 camaro rs. i plan on doing a 350 engine swap with an automatic trans and i was wondering if ne one could give me an idea on how much im looking at for the motor and trans not the work... i want a motor that is already rebuilt as well and needs little work. any ideas? under 2 g's? prices would be great thanks

 

some of us could do it for that $, but it's from experience with finding deals, trading, et cetera. The first thing is research. Do you have near you a pull-your-own-parts type of salvage yard? Or can you find an '87-up donor vehicle that already has a 350 and transmission? But you can't spend all your budget on that, you still need stuff like an exhaust system, and what else depends on what you take the engine and trans from. figure you're going to need at least half of your budget for the installation, so your engine and trans, or running-but-totalled donor vehicle, can't run you more than $1000, and should be possible for under $500. Don't be afraid of used engines, but you can forget any transmission from any 4WD pickup.

 

I just did mine this past winter for slightly over 1500. That included rebuilding the engine and transmission(manual though) and all the parts I needed for the swap. Still need a better exhaust from the headers back, that is going to set me back about another 250-300 this winter. I did all the work myself and used a lot of used/salvage yard parts in the process. I also went to a carb, which is much cheaper than FI. Especially when the carb is free.

If you're paying someone to do the work, you can pretty much forget about it for 2k. At least where I live, most of the mechanics around me would charge a lot more for that in parts and labor, and I know several places that would charge you 2k just in labor.

Atilla is right on the money though with the salvage yard being your best bet for parts/donor vehicle. Make sure its a u-pull yard though, or you'll pay 3x or more for the engine and trans. Again, just going by prices around me, but an engine/trans combo in decent drop-right-in shape would run me close to 1400 and that doesn't count the FI setup or the exhaust system.

You'll also need things like new shocks/springs in front and probably the rear as well to balance the car out.

 

Buy a donor V8 car. Wrecked, no title, whatever reason it isn't a candidate for putting back on the street. Doesn't necessarily have to be an f-body. Use the parts you need from the donor car, figure on new belts, hoses, etc, sell off what you don't use.

 

you can run the V6 suspension without issue. Even running up the canyons just for fun, it's not dangerous to keep the V6 parts instead of buying V8 parts. I've done the V6 to V8 in more than one third gen of my own.

 

No problems with the front end bottoming out? I figured with the weight difference it would nosedive pretty good in turns and bottom out over bumps and potholes. Potholes in PA can be big enough to swallow my K1500 in some places.

 

My suspension, in both cases, had new balljoints, new poly bushings, and new TPiS struts. I did slow down for speed bumps, and I did cut the coils a half coil in front. The handling wasn't equal to an IROC-Z on identical tires, but it wasn't scary or anything, either. Potholes, in my state, they seldom become an issue. We spend more time dodging orange cones, orange barrels and orange signs. So I'd guess not cutting the V6 coils would be wise for you.

 

My Berlinetta #1 had new springs all around when I bought it. I figured new V6 front springs would be better than old V8 springs. I was wrong.

With new front struts, V8, automatic transmission, air conditioning, and the V8 front sway bar, the ride was bouncy, and I was constantly bottoming out the front suspension over speed bumps and going through intersection dips (like turning into my neighborhood every evening). After 2 months of that, I took out the V6 springs and installed the old V8 springs from the donor car. The ride evened out, and I can take speed bumps and go through dips a lot harder before bottoming out.

 

Coil springs don't sag over time the way leaf springs do, and I too would prefer used IROC-Z / Formula WS6 springs over any V6 springs. But not all struts are gas struts, and not all gas struts have a high-pressure charge. High pressure gas struts are a good idea whichever springs you use, but they're not cheap.