i am going to go down and sign some papers on a 1991 camaro rs next week. its got the 3.1 v6 in it and im already pretty sure i'd like to swap it for a 305 or 350.

now someone at work told me that i could leave the manual transmission in it and swap out the bail housing (i think) with one from a 305 and swap the engine to a 350 without much problem. is this correct?

what do you guys think i should do? i have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT TO DO OR HOW TO DO IT!!!! however im a fast learner and with enough youtube and research im sure i can do it.

but what i need from you awesome 3rdGen'rs is for you to tell me EVERYTHING that will have to be done in order to do this swap. and tell me what would be the best swap.

my real goals with this car is to have something with some power and fun, but not a race car. i dont need that. and i want the v8 sound. SO HELP ME OUT!!

 

read the v6 to v8 sticky at the top of the forum all your questions will be answered lol

 

lol ok. i didnt see that. thanks bud

 

is this going to be your daily driver? If so, why buy a sixer when you want a V8? Borrow your folks car a little longer and save your cash. It's cheaper to buy with the powertrain you want than to buy and then swap.

 

Hey man, I just got out of a nasty relationship with an 86 rs (V6 5spd). LOL... Its not worth it. The time, money and opportunity costs are way to high. I was almost halfway to finishing, when I realized how hard it is to do most of the work you are tlking about. But to answer a few of your questions. You can do the swap. I would suggest maybe going the 3.4 swap first, as you can get some more power. But my best advice is keep the 3.1 car you have. drive it. save parts. keep driving it. and when you can take a week or two vacation, go ***** out and get as much done as possible. Also, wiring is a total nightmare, you have to remove all the wiring from he V8 car and swap it into the V6 (the computer and all). If you are going to go this route, buy a V8 parts car, I bought a V8/auto car to do most of the swap from.

After I had most of the work done, I ended up parting ways with my first camaro, scrapping my parts car. And going out and getting a V8 5spd car (what I actually wanted)

Now I am left with a ton of parts, (I gutted my parts car before I scrapped it).

Also, this isnt for the amateur weekend warrior. It takes a lot of knowledge, and lots of tools. I consider myself a quick learner as well. I learned quickly that building something fast, isnt cheap, and takes lots of time. Go on CL and buy another camaro, or sell the V6 and get a 305 5spd car. They are somewhat hard to find, but they are worth the wait.

 

well the point of this thread is for a swap, so just give him a chance to learn the hard way lol. The hard part is about to come for me and the wife since we are about to drop the V8 and auto tranny in her car to downsize our cars to one car. It's cheap for us because everything is right there ready to swap.
But if you wanna spend money go ahead and do this swap if you want it a bit cheaper then use the transmission that comes with the donor car so you dont have to fumble around with bellhousings and finding the right parts.

 

thanks for all the replies! im not totally sure what i want to do. its gonna be a daily driver so i want decent-ish gas mileage but i also want it to sound good and respond powerfully