289 chevy in a 67 firebird??

Here's my theory: you're on a budget, so don't go the the trouble and expense of swapping engines, even though a bigger SBC would be fine. I might throw a cheap intake and carb from ebay on, along with a cam. That would make the little 283 a lot of fun, for not too much money or effort.

Although small, the 283 does have a lot of potential. You can think of it as similar to a 302, which we all know is rev happy, because they both have 3.00" strokes. The 283 does have just a bit smaller bore, though, at 3.875".

If built right, it would be a lot snappier than a 305, as the 305 has an even smaller bore (3.74") and longer stroke (3.48").

Anyway, have fun with your cheap, mild 283 for a few years while you build up the rest of the car. Then, save some more money, swap a poncho engine in, and sell the SBC speed parts on ebay.

lol, better not ask this question on Fbody.com, you'll get your nuts ripped off!

The long and short of this car is that it has a chevy motor in it already. Here's my philosophy: if you have money and you want to do cosmetics do cosmetics. Don't kid yourself, swapping back to a pontiac motor just for the sake of having a pontiac motor is a cosmetic swap, and purely so, given the great difference in time and expense getting a pontiac back in there. And if you're goign to do that for the purpose of cosmetics, then you'd better have the money to do the rest of the car up too (paint, body, interior etc) otherwise, what's the point? I'd rather have a pontiac that looked ok and went fast with a chevy than one that looked like crap with a nice pontiac motor in it that went (if its lucky and you spend the money, which will always be more) just as fast.

Not to threadjack, but my rant comes from these dingbats at Fbody.com. These idiots have a bunch of clapped out 2nd generation firebirds (about the least rare car I can think of) and get their panties in a twist because people are driving these cars with chevy motors in them... even for those of us who had these cars FROM THE FACTORY with chevy motors. So you have some dill-hole with a rusted out dozen of crappy chevy-original drivetrain 2nd gen firebirds all with pontiac motors. Most of these cars have three wheels and no paint.

My point is that you should do whatever is best for your budget/endgoal. If, someday, you want to have a pontiac-powered, mostly original firebird (1st gen firebirds are getting rare, my friend) then by all means, don't waste your time, money and effort shuffling chevy motors back and forth. On the other hand, if you have this car because you like the way it looks, and you just want to go fast, then don't feel guilty about anything. That's what a hotrod is. If you want to put a damned toyota motor in it, do that (ok, well, maybe not that... lol). Do whatever's best for your ET and YOUR project. Don't let douchebags across the internet tell you what you should want and how to spend your money.

K

taylorpontiac said:

wow, alot of great responses already to my delema. I'm not too familiar with the 283 powerplant so I have it in the back of my mind that the 283 is similar to say a chevy 305/307, basically a non-performance engine. I would like an engine with some "get-up and go" to it. Is the 283 a worthy engine for performance? Maybe my approach should be to keep the 283 for now, I can always upgrade later. I thought I would have gotten responses to junk the 283 but maybe I was wrong?

Click to expand...

A 283 can be more than just "snappy". I had a 66 Chevelle that ran low 14s with one, and it had pump gas compression and hydraulic lifters.

The venerable 283 was a great performance engine in it's heyday. Alot of guys slamming them probably have never driven one unless it was a 2bbl carbed, three on the tree pickup truck.

I've seen many 12 second 283 powered older street Corvettes.

If you can scrounge up a set of 461 "double hump" heads, (worked over 601's would be a good substitute), you could buy an old 327-350 horse cam kit for about 75 bucks with lifters, find a clone Z-28 intake like the Performer RPM or the Holley version, a smallish carb of choice and small tube headers. I guarantee it will haul the mail. It will also reward you with decent fuel mileage, and there aren't too many engines that match the 283s smoothness, and revability. Very fun and very cheap.