hey guys! :welcome: just wondering if anyone knows what it would take put an old chevy 5.7 350 in a newer Chevy camero or Pontiac firebird (like 94-98)?
got a motor i built just looking for a car to put it in and its cheaper to get a high mile newer car than old school. i put all my money in my motor. now im broke. i know some come with v6 and some with v8. does this change motor mount location or the way the frame is made?
hey guys! :welcome: just wondering if anyone knows what it would take put an old chevy 5.7 350 in a newer Chevy camero or Pontiac firebird (like 94-98)?
got a motor i built just looking for a car to put it in and its cheaper to get a high mile newer car than old school. i put all my money in my motor. now im broke. i know some come with v6 and some with v8. does this change motor mount location or the way the frame is made?
What about the rocket science. These cars are highly electronically integrated, things don't work as things any more they work as part of a integrated system.
If one assumes that an older 350 also means a carbureted engine, then the transmission and instruments are left hanging in space and to get them functional you have to purchase special computers and resolvers, not an inexpensive adventure.
If on the other hand you're intending to put factory injection on an older block using new heads of course, then the factory sensors and computers will function as long as this is a V8 to V8 swap. A V6 to V8 swap is a lot more complicated as the wire harness and specific sensors and computers will not be totally compatible.
There were two different V6s used in these cars which use different bell housing bolt patterns. The 60 degree V6 uses a different pattern from the 90 degree V6 and V8s. Additionally, the flywheel/flex-plate between older two piece seal and newer one piece seal engines is different requiring the purchase of the fly/flex appropriate to the crankshaft end of the engine your using.
The mounts are unique to the engine being used, the frame will accept that which is required for any of the optional engines available for the car.
All in all swapping an older engine into these newer Camaros is not for the faint of heart or wallet. These are pretty involved swaps that will take you places you never thought you'd have to go to. This is especially true of V6 to V8 swaps as you have to add those issues to the other systems problems.
Also keep in mind that the later-year F-bodies ('93 - '02) have the engine set way back in the bay - like half of the engine is underneath the cowl. Now I have seen someone who put a 383 SBC into an LT1 style Trans Am ('93 - '97), but the distributor was *all* the way in the back, and in order to remove/install it you had to tilt the whole engine down to get enough room.
If you still want to go the Camaro / Firebird route, then I'd bet that this swap would be a lot easier to accomplish in a 3rd gen ('82 - '92) - partly because the engine isn't set as far back, and it's not as computer-oriented as the later versions.
hey guys! :welcome: just wondering if anyone knows what it would take put an old chevy 5.7 350 in a newer Chevy camero or Pontiac firebird (like 94-98)?
Well, if you live in Davidson County, the first thing it takes is an exemption from this:
TN Dept of Environment & Conservation said:
The State of Tennessee developed more restrictive regulations to control air pollution from mobile sources in counties that were not meeting the new 8-hour ozone Federal Standards for air quality. As a result, certain vehicles registered in Hamilton, Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties are required to pass a vehicle emission test. Gasoline and diesel vehicles with a model year of 1975 and newer and a Gross Vehicle Weight Rate (GVWR) of 10,500 lbs or less must pass an emission test before the vehicle’s registration can be renewed. Motorcycles are exempt.
The biggest hurdle installing and old school motor in a newer car is the law. If you have to have it tested then it will probably have to have all of the emission equipment of the same year as the car. So the carburetor is out for a lot of states.
With a welder and some wire diagrams I don't see why you couldn't install an old school SBC in a newer car as long as its rear wheel drive and the trans and engine will fit. You can wire a carb setup with 5/6 wires if you just want it to go down the road.
Ground
Hot wire to starter
Hot wire to ignition
temp gage (add extra wire if you want an idiot light)
oil pressure gage
I have a SBC 350 in an 86 Fiero, I used 8 wires to hook mine up but I also used an electric water pump and I hooked up a tach. The only thing the stock computer does is connect the wires, I removed the power wire and I don't even get an engine light on the dash. I used an adapter plate and the stock 5 speed.
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