Background/Introduction story:

I've had my firebird since my senior year in high school, 2008-2009. She had 170k miles when I first got her. Now fast forward to last year. A cement truck came into my lane and hit me while I was driving the bird.

After thinking about what to do, I decided that I was tired of spending way too much money on her at the shops. So we got the dent fixed for cheap, and I had a seller lined up, who didn't have the money just yet, but after meeting him and what not, I decided I could wait until he did get the money. In the meantime, I went a bought a fiero because I knew a great forum (Pennocks) and many locals around here if I needed help, and my boyfriend also has a fiero.

But now, my sellers mom passed away, and is not able to buy the firebird. I am happy because I did not want to regret selling her, so I decided to keep her, plus working on the fiero a little bit will hopefully get me the basic knowledge. So now here I am!

Engine Swap story:
Ok, so a few years ago, the firebird liked to die when she came to a stop (Once the RPMs hit 500 she's gone). So I got her checked out, the guy said that the problem was the fuel injectors. He replaced 2 of them, but said the others needed to be replaced soon. So now that winter is over, I am out driving her again, and she wants to die at every stop now and it is driving me absolutely crazy!!

I'm sure there is a lot more wrong with her, because my 86 Fiero runs SO much better than the firebird. With almost 200k miles on the bird now, and fuel injectors being $70 a piece (I'll replace all 4), I was thinking that just doing an engine swap would save me a lot of replacement and money in the long run.

Now, being new to the firebird forum, I don't know how similar the firebird and camaro really are. What type of engine would you suggest? Right now I have the 3.1 V6, and I think I want to put in a V8. I want to keep her as just a show-off/cruise car, she doesn't need to be super fast, but I would love her to be loud. Any good engines that would fit this?

Sorry for the long post, just trying to be as detailed as possible. Engine's are my weakest point on a car, so I really don't know much about the different types.

Now, this swap won't even happen until I have my own house (sadly I still live with my parents, working on buying a house with the boyfriend) but it would be nice to sort of have an idea, I know I am getting into a lot of work but I will seriously not drive this car until I get it fixed, she just isn't good enough to be on the road right now.

 

The most common swap would be a 350. Any small block chevy will fit in fine and has tons of threads already explaining the swap

 

Yeah I searched engine swaps, but I don't know about all the different types. I'm still learning the navigation around here too. Thought asking this would give me an idea of what types of engines to look into, thanks!

 

yeah just do any sbc bassically. you can find a good running vortec motor for fairly cheap out of a gm truck. switch oil pans and accesory brackets and that hing will drop right in then all you have to do it either run fuel injection or a carb on top

 

Just out of curiosity, do you have any trouble codes? I'm just asking cause it sounds like the car may be running rich due to a faulty o2 sensor, or perhaps suffers from a vacuum leak. Easy fixes that are cheap

 

I honestly don't know. I'm more familiar with my fiero than my firebird, as I have never worked on the firebird other than an oil change haha.

I have both cars down for the moment (fiero needs some work on the distributor) so I think I may just take my firebird to the shop for now, and at least get it checked out. If the problem is easy enough, I will look into fixing it myself.

 

Honestly i think if you are gonna keep that 305 you will not enjoy the car, i did a 350 swap into mine, its built for a lot more power but still, i think a 350-400hp engine would be good, even a nice 325hp/327sbc would be nice, these cars are gonna go up as everything is right now but nothing special.

 

This post is now 9 years old.

First off, this lady didn't have a 305; she had a 6-cyl.

Second, the last 327 produced was almost 50 years ago. 50 years ago. Let that number sink in. That's A HALF CENTURY. And even if it wasn't such a museum relic and not much else, it's STILL NOT a good choice for a swap in any case, given that the 350 is the same engine except with a longer stroke, and was offered in vehicles up until about 20 years ago, and is WIDELY available. More widely BY FAR than the 327 EVER was.

I hope she found somebody local to help her out back when she was wanting to do this, with some better choices than a 327.