I was looking into engine swapping, and i was wondering whether any of you would happen to know the comparitive engine weights of lets say 350-500 c.i.d chevy engines

 

A small block weighs about 500 pounds,Big block 750 best I can remember from some recent mags

 

All things being equal (both with aluminum intakes and water pumps) a big block is about 150 pounds heavier than a small block.

When doing an engine swap the weight isn't evenly balanced. Since the position of the tranny doesn't change, the extra length and weight of the big block has to go forward a few inches.

 

When I went from SBC 350/TH350 in the '57 to BBC 396/TH400, it gained 70 pounds (assuming you can trust the scales at Bandimere).

The changes:

Was: Cast iron intake, headers, factory engine mounts, radiator, battery mount.

Is: Aluminum intake, headers, removed tranny mounts from frame, added side engine mounts and rear cross member, aluminum radiator, battery moved to trunk.

Moving the battery to the trunk pretty much off-sets the forward movement of the center of mass.

I think the car actually weighs less now than it did from the factory (283, cast iron everything, including transmission). Probably weighs less on the front end to boot.

 

A small block with aluminum heads weighs about 450lbs,
A big block with iron heads weighs about 650 lbs,
From the lightest to heaviest setup, theres only about a 200lb difference.