I recently paid for an ASE certified, BBB Accredited engine company near where I live to do a swap for me. I strayed away from the original 305 4 BBL because of numerous issues with the block itself, and saw it more cost effective to go with a crate ATK SBC350. Well, I started going through carburetors like crazy, so I kept taking the car back since it was under their labor warranty still, and they eventually had a Quadrajet that (kind of) worked. However, with very little time, the car progressively got worse at idle and acceleration. So, I strayed from my usual mechanic and took it to an impartial shop to get a second opinion of what was wrong, since the labor warranty has expired. Low and behold, the shop that is responsible for the swap had completely bypassed the EGR, ECM and various other electronics. There is (yet again) a fuel leak in the carb, the fan clutch is disabled, and they had replaced both my factory carb and distributor with the wrong style, off of an older Chevrolet. My impartial mechanic said that had I kept driving it, and had taken it for emissions this year, not only would I not have passed, but I could have caused more damage to a brand new block that what it could already have. This car is my daily driver, so it has to pass emissions for Colorado, but I would really like some guidance as to what I need to do parts wise to get the thing running again. It is currently at a local Chevy dealer being inspected, documented, and given a value as to how much it will cost to fix. I plan on going to the engine shop and having them pay to fix the issues, since the premise of me getting this done was to have a LEGAL, STREETABLE, RELIABLE car, which it currently is not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, in terms of what I need to look at getting to make my poor slow-maro a proper Camaro again.

 

In a swap like that, what SHOULD HAVE been done, was to unbolt all of the "dress" items on the outside like carb, dist, accessories, wiring, etc. from the old 305, and simply bolt them to the new 350; of course, repairing / rebuilding / replacing whatever was broke, wore-out, used-up, or otherwise not suitable for "like new" service.

ATK, BBB, etc. has little to do with any of that.

The shop that did the motor swap had no obligation to warranty your carb, unless they replaced it at the same time. Which if they didn't but were generous enough to help you out anyway when your old one failed, was pretty kind of them, and going above and beyond their duty. OTOH if they DID replace the carb, then they have the obligation to get it right; which would simply be, get a rebuilt one and put it back like it belongs.

If that's NOT what done, i.e. if the carb dist etc. were ALSO swapped, then all bets are off; we out here have no way to even begin to guess what happened. Since there is NO OTHER carb that could possibly be put onto the car besides a stock replacement that would retain the ECM's control functions, then if it's some other carb, that's where you should start; locate a stock replacement (or a rebuildable core) and just start putting things back like they belong.

Never heard of "disabling" a fan clutch; generally those either work or don't. Pretty straightforward though: about $35, 4 nuts, and 4 bolts, and it's taken care of. Would have been one of those things that would have just got transferred over from your LG4 to the new 350, unless you paid for a new one on the invoice.