help me understand some things here

well my 86 trans am is in line for me to start working on it

i just did a motor swap in a 91 tempo
and it turned out to be alot harder than i thought
the nutz and boltz of it were easy but the electronics left me boggled
had to swap the entire electrical system
(one had cam positioning sensor and was mpfi and other didnt and was spfi)
never the less i got it done and its running fine

now back to the monster
i with help of family members dissasembled my entire engine and pulled the block out of my 86 trans am (lg4 305)
and its been years since ive done it
i remember nothing of the wiring and the block needs machined and rebuilt

with all it would cost to get that ****ty lil 150horse motor back together i would just rather go with something bigger
**** my ford taurus has more hp and its 3.0vulcan v6
its laughable

well after going through wiring hell with that car

i now understand more of what im looking into having to do to this to swap motors

question #1 what motors would direct swap with the computer system and or @ least be an easier wiring job than replacing everything

question #2 would it just be easier to go with something big and doesnt have all that computer garbage

question #3 how much horsepower and tourqe can the factory tranny in this take?

i realy need to get rolling on this project
but i need to understand what exactly im going to have to do before i go out and start buying things
dont wanna get everything in and realize it wont work

so share with me anything that you think can help me
its going to be a long journey but soon there will be another 3rd gen fbody back on the road in springfield illinois
its been about 5 years since its spun the tires on its own power
poor car

 

Any small block chevy motor will drop in the car. If you dont want to deal with electronics then go with a carb setup. The stock tranny "may" hold up to a stock 350 but not anything bigger or even a modded 350. Although if your not abusing the car and its just a daily driver then it may be fine.

 

Carb would definatly be the easiest to swap in. Second easiest would probably be a build sbc with a stand alone fuel injection. Third would be similar to your tempo swap with and lt1 or ls1. You wouldnt be able to use the existing wiring harness. You would need the original from the car or an aftermarket harness.

The tranny is rated for around 350 ft/lbs. Hard launchs and wot shifts are what kills them so if you can avoid those you could easily run more power than that thru it.

 

why on earth would butchering the wiring be easier?

consider yourself lucky, your car is going to be a direct swap. dont listen to the change this, install ls1 bull

go down to the gm dealer, look at the selection of crate engines they have pick one and stick it in under your carb. you have a qjet on that lg4 if its original, plenty of flow to support the engine

get a zz4, instant 355 hp, problem solved, 1 days work

 

so if i switch to a carb'ed setup with about anything that will bolt up to my tranny
it will be the wiring job of my dreams
none?

lol

 

Pretty much. With either the carb or the stand alone injection system the only wiring involved would removal. You will need a carb and distributor that are non computer controlled unless you want to try and "deal" with wiring of the old one. That carb wont just work with a bigger motor under it. You would have to tune it properly after you figured out the wiring.

 

i dont get why you need to switch to a carb? you have an lg4 right it has a carb for that year, use the cc carb, it has only a couple more wires, how hard can that be to reconnect them, if they only fit in one spot

though thats what i would do to save money, but if you dont care about money stick a holley on it and get a new distrib as mentioned

 

While the lg4 carb will bolt right up, it will not run properly unless it is tuned to the engine that it sits upon. Many of the connectors that gm used are the exact same so it can be difficult to find which go where. I was merely giving aleternatives to that route.

 

Im not disagreeing with you, maybe i didnt get my point across

correct me if im wrong, but the secondaries on these cc carbs are tuned the same as the non cc version? with rods?

as for idle and part throttle, the stock tune would work.

I have a good buddy not far from me who has a zz4 in particular under his crossfire on his corvette, yeah its down on power with the xfire and stock tune, but it idles and behaves well enough to pass emissions and use daily. Plus it still has a lot more grunt than the stock engine had.

I look at this as a similar situtation, luckily the power curve would be easy to tune with his carb, versus an ecm swap and prom burning with the crossfire, and i think the carb could compensate enough to idle and cruise well on its own.

Worst case is to hit a junker and get a 20 dollar qjet. Im just trying to find the most cost effective method.

I really like the idea of a cc qjet, with electronic timing, the power of a carb, but the ability to do some lean cruise/advanced timing programing for fuel efficiency, but ive based my career on programming computers.