well im sick of my 2.8l in my 89 firebird so i called a few performance shops and found a place in glen burnie, MD that can swap a 350 in from a donor car for only 1300 dollers. i am only 17 so i really dont know enough to do the engine swap myself, but i was just wondering if that was a good price for them to do it for me.

thanks

 

Well maybe but I have a few questions?

How many miles on the donor engine?

Any knowledge of its history?

If its a good solid engine with low miles it doesn't sound all that bad to me.

Kevin

 

the donor engine has about 91xxx miles.

im not sure much about he history but the guy selling it claims he just needs the cash and that nothings wrong with the engine. my dad said he couldnt tell anything was wrong with it when he test drove it and that it only needs body work but ill just junk the body and take the engine

 

Is that including labor?

you've got to understand that you will also need to redo your exhaust, new transmission, new radiator etc. It doesn't stop at the engine ya know.

 

what is the donor vehicle, i'm sure someone wont mind buying it as a roller(car minus eng/trans).

 

i wont be able to take the transmision and radiator off the donor car? and yes thats all for the labor.

 

?

 

he wants to know what vehicle is the 350 engine comming out of thats being transplanted into your car...

 

No that was me re-asking the question!

 

Well its good that your dad was able to test it in the donor car and hear it run. Thats definately a plus.

Kevin

 

If I'm understanding this correctly:

The shop has a donor car with a 91xxx miles 350. You drop off your car, they pull your engine and transmission, they pull the donor car engine and transmission, and install it into your car. You pay them $1300, and drive your car away.

If that's the case, I'd be suspicious they don't know what they're up against. Which makes me suspicious they would be able to do the job properly.

Assume the engine/trans is worth $500 of the $1300, that's $800 labor and miscellaneous stuff (oil, antifreeze, hoses, engine mounts, etc.). Typical shop rates are in the $75/hr range now, that's only about 8 hours labor.

Even if they take your engine/trans as part payment, that doesn't seem like enough.

 

sorry was at school then straight to work.

the donor car is a 82 trans am that is a completely rusted but has a solid engine. its not from the shop, i would be buying it from craigslist ad.

and no, the 1300 is not including the engine/tranny that would be going into my car. but he said it would cost more for other parts. 1300 is just the labor.

 

if you dad knew what to look for while test driving the other car does he not have the ability to help you swap motors as a father son project? itll be a heck of alot cheaper.

 

swapping motors isnt that hard if you have the space and tools but the wiring and stuff like that scares people...if your car was a 305 then dropping in a 350 is almost a straight in swap besides the knock sensor, ecu and injectors...

 

im sure my dad has the knowledge, he just definately doesnt have the time.

and yah if it already had a 305, i wouldnt waste money taking that to the shop. i just dont have the time, the space, or the patience to do a v6 to v8 swap all by myself

 

V6 to V8 swap can be done in gee, I'd say 6 hours with two people who know what they are doing.

 

hey where do you live bro>? if you live close i will help ya put that motor and trans in. is the motor carbed? if so is the engine that is in it now fuel injected?

 

I assume you are from MD cause I saw you mention it somewhere in this topic.
Motor now is probably fuel injected based on the year, and based on the year his donor motor is carbed.

I'm actually passing through Maryland in a few weeks to put a motor in a Honda for my buddy, if you are interested I can stop by since I'll have my hoist with me anyway. Give me food for the day and I'll do it.

 

Right, and a house can be built in a week.

 

Fuel pump regulator, driveshaft, trans, trans mount, torque arm, carbed motor. Am I not thinking of some things?

It took me just over 45 minutes to unbolt my radiator and old motor, 5 to yank it out alone, 5 to unbolt the torque converter, and about 20 minutes to line up and drop the big block in with two other people. and a hour or so to put the motor mounts back on and bolt it in place.

I stand by my previous statement.

 

good god guys thats really generous of you, but my dad of course is hesitant of the idea.he said he would rather him help me pay a shop to do it so we would have someone to blame if something went wrong.

and if you both are correct(or even off by a little), 75-110 dollers an hour for 10-12 hours is still less then the 1300 the shop offered to do it for.



thanks alot for the offer tho.

 

Welcome to the internet,where everyone is an ASE certified mechanic,and it's easy to build a 10 second car.
You my friend,are full of ****.

 

You are telling me you can't unbolt a fan shroud, disconnect 2 hoses from the radiator, take two motor mount bolts out with an impact gun, and remove 6 bell housing bolts in under an hour?
Only thing I had taken off already that I didn't include in the time was the exhaust and headers. Yanked the motor out with the torque converter still attached and then unbolted it.
And after test fitting the big block several times it really did take about 20 minutes to mate it onto the trans and start putting the bell housing bolts back in. I have yet to hear anybody mention putting the motor in the way I do it.

I'm not saying my car was running in 3 hours but the old motor was removed and the new one was bolted in within that time range (I still have to wire ignition up, bolt up the torque converter, headers/manifolds, and exhaust). But what part of all that is hard to believe? How do you go about putting the motor in?

 

a friend and I removed an entire drivetrain from an 87 iroc a couple in of hours using only a set of sockets and 2 random open end wrenches (none that fit anything lol)

I think if I had all the right tools and my car was where I pulled the motor I could have had it sitting in and bolted down in my car in less than 8 hours easily.

I ended up dropping the tranny and motor in at the same time (with an intact front end) the only thing we had to do was jack up the tranny with a rolling jack to allow it to clear and get the proper angle.

 

I never tried putting motor and tranny in at the same time, to me it never seemed like it would work as well. Plus I didn't want to crawl under the car and start disconnecting stuff.
I found out the fastest way is to take one motor mount off the block (I always do passenger side). Push the motor in place until it mates with the trans and thread the a bolt into each side of the bell housing (one passenger one driver). Then take a bar and pop the motor onto the driver's side mount. At this point I readjust the chain to pick up only the passenger side of the block, and throw the other mount on. Literally takes twenty minutes, have done it with both small blocks and big blocks. Only hard time I had was dropping a small block behind a T5.

 

Back to your 6-hour V6 to V8 swap claim:

How much time do you allow yourself for moving the chassis side engine mounts from the rear to front mount holes? Don't forget you need to move the brake line when you do that.

Rewiring?

Changing throttle cables?

Changing the exhaust?

Rerouting fuel lines?

Changing the in-tank electric fuel pump?

6 hours is total

 

I agree, there is no possible way you could get that job done in six hours. If everything went smooth you could get it done in a weekend.

 

heck I did a quadrajet 305 to holley 355 swap and swapped torque converters and fixed broken factory wiring at a shop on a lift and it took me almost an entire week there. Pulling the motor out took less than 2 hours, it was all the little BS stuff that took forever. Not to mention waiting on parts to come in, replacing old hoses, belts, etc.

 

There's only one way to learn. Do it! This site has all the knowledge you need if you're determined to get it done. There are plenty of teenagers that have taken on a project like this, so your age isn't preventing you.

Also, be aware that 1982 Trans Ams did not come with 350 engines, only 305s. That car either actually has a 305 or is not originally from that vehicle.

 

that is tempting, but i think ill keep reading more until i understand more

and ur right i called the guy and he said he must have forgotten to tell me that the owner before him took out the 305 and put in the 350 =/

 

Okay defiantly didn't think about half of that. I actually did this once to a V6, motor mounts alone took me atleast 4 hours... don't know if I did it butt-backwards or if it's really that big of a pain. We are talking about keeping the fuel injection or removing it? I would just get a regulator with a return if I went carbed. Never ran an exhaust on these cars, I've made my own to dump out under the side skirts and that's about it, took about 3 hours


And as far as age, it's not a handicap; starting young only helps you. I started very basic at around the age of 10 with oil changes, brakes, etc... pulled my first motor at 16 (first real hands on experience). I still have questions and get confused with things, the point is whatever you don't know how to do you ask questions.

 

I am 19 and today was one of the most exciting days of my life, because with my own two hands (and a couple of my buddies now and then) I made my beast come to life. It took a few tries at getting the distributor hooked up right but here is the sound clip of its first start... I don't sound that excited because I was shocked the timing was just about perfect for it to start. Mine is a TBI to carb conversion, and the first pic is my buddy Josh with it on the flat bed. After a few revs we shut down the motor because the water pump was not hooked up yet. (or alternator for that matter) Its all hooked up now though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZZKVciwFkk

Regardless of if you do it yourself or not, don't be afraid to tinker with your ride. These third gens are perfect, and most here on the forums can help you through everything.

It was nice to have a new challenge every time I ran into the next step of the process. I have worked on cars with friends but this was just a jump head first in project and its coming a long real well. Best of all is I have just under $1500 invested in the car total because I did all the work myself. (that includes buying the car for $600)

 

Dude for real if you can drive it away after $1300 thats a pretty good deal.....But I would do it myself and take the $1000 you saved and buy a good cam and a holley double pumper...........I have personally shoehorned a 360ci ford motor into a pinto in less than 3 days, for less than $200, and that includes renting the motor hoist..........I agree that V8 from V6 swaps leave a lot of loose ends, but if you go carb"ed you can avoid most of them......Especially if you have a donor vehicle, Most of the headaches like trans, Radiator and such will be able to be swapped over. Id never pay $ for what is easily achieveable with a little *****

 

*****, patience, and knowledge. i only have the first. not enough to finish the swap. thats why i like knowing that for a littl bit of money they can do all of that for me and they know aloot more then me. someday, when i know alot more, ill try it

 

I'm turning 21 been working on my car for 2 years and this weekend or next i'll be attempting my first motor swap from 305 tpi to 350, just trying to get as much research done now been trying to search for a step by step thread but I guess this is a good thread to ask some questions.My question is, is it easier to disconnect the tranny from the motor and then pull the motor out or just pull them out together, I have taken the tranny out before to put a new torque converter in was a big job for me then but I think second time around will be much easier.Any tips or suggestions will be appreciated.

 

i personally say its a ton easier to pull both at the same time but you will end up with some that likes to leave the tranny in. all just personal opinion i guess.