Garage Inc.

I decided that it's worth it to keep the old '86...I was going to sell it for a 4th gen, but decided that I would throw a whole new engine in there. Now I need your help.

I'm confused about a lot of this...I want "everything new" under the hood as far as the engine is concerned. I guess I want a 350, but I know there are different compressions, brand parts, and specs and everything. I need a place to order the engine, and I need to know what I'll need to replace in order to make that engine compatible with the car...basically, put yourself in my shoes, what engine would you get? I can probably only spend 3K...specific links and everything is appreciated..

car is originally 305 carb...everything you know is aprreciated...especially if your someone who's thrown a new engine in their car...thanks

CamaroZ28Coupe

Wow man your lucky for 3gs you can make sick power, you can get a new goodwrench engine with a warantee for around 1300 and upgrade from there but you might not get as much perfomance OR as what i would do is use that cash to the best of its ability... bassically i would go used and remanufactured theres nothing wrong with that as long as you can decide on what parts need to be new and what parts can be reused. for under 2 grand you can build a REALLY fast engine and use the rest for a tranny. but you gotta do alot of it yourself. i would want to do as much as i can myself anyway becasue thats part of the fun. think about it : some "race car civic" guy wants to throw down, so you say HELL YEA!, then you totaly destroy him and his safe little grocery getter that thinks its fast in a blaze of speed and an all out roar that exits your american tailpipes, then he drives his car into the ground making a stupid farting noise just to catch you at the long light that you are stopped at, and then finally he says how did you do that, and you proudly show him your hands that are permanantly covered in grease and laugh that he paid five times as much for his melon canon exhaust and "super air flow kit" to be put on for him by some guy that said it would make 50 horsepower.
i just gave my opinion and i dont know what your goals are performance wise.
haha all i wrote was the first part and then i got off on a tangent with the story thing anyway thats what i would do

NOTHING beats the look and sound of an old car, keep the third gen!

CamaroZ28Coupe

oh yea links
heres one
http://216.157.36.177/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=242&p_catid=111&sid=1AlF2z0m KHbS9yi-40103293236.70

summitracing.com is good as is jegs.com

and ebay is good too if you go with my plans

your choice depends on emissions crap where you live too
if you dont have emissions and wanna go new try jegs or summit for a crate engine

i got an 83 only 10 more years untill it will be 30 and wont need emissions inspection, of course by that time we prob wont be allowed to drive cool cars anymore, FIGHT THE TREE HUGGERS THEY ARE GONNA SMASH OUR BABIES.

Garage Inc.

dude, you kicked major *** just now
thanks man

RadarRunner

You're looking at what I will eventually do with my 87.

Do an internet search & you will finds all kind of options for the motor. Just depends on how much & how wild you want to go. Also what do you plan on using the car for. A daily driver vs a weekend warrior can change things.

Talk to friends locally, not just on the internet, they will know people locally that build motors too. Take your time & do it right, & you won't have to go back & make changes.

I've cleaned/replaced my interior, wheels/tires, shocks/struts, LCA/Panhard bar & just put in my steering brace today & plan on getting SFCs welded in next week. Had my factory rear end swapped to a 90-92 to get rear disc & limited slip.

Good Luck & let us know!

Garage Inc.

I saw the one engine, 350 HO? supposed to be around 330 HP...pretend I wanted that I guess.....well, can I just simply "swap" my engines? Or are there other parts that are not including in the engine that I will have to change to accomodate that engine? I'm not even sure if it comes with the carb...As much as I want to do it myself, and I'm going to college to learn more about it, I just don't have the knowledge to do this on my own...I pretty much want to go to a business, ask them to order whatever engine they have to and make it run...I'll **** it up if I do it on my own, but I'm learning I guess

doug791

question: How much total do you want to have invested in your car and what is your final goal hp wise. I ask because if you want to get your car super crazy the money is best spent on a really strong platform that you can build on and not necessarily whats going to make you the fastest right now.

Couple things to remember. Your stock tranny and rear end arent super strong so if you run a lot of power (anything over 350 hp) they will need to be beefed up/replaced. Also remember things like exhaust...while its not technically part of the engine your stock exhaust sucks and will need a definite upgrade so have headers and a full exhaust planned.

Garage Inc.

thanks for the info Doug!

that's exactly the type of info I was looking for. I definitely plan on buying headers and an exhaust but the gears I forgot about! Tranny's getting replaced...What about sensors and stuff like that, the little things? Right now I just want a new engine stock, and it looks like I can get a 330hp 350 HO engine...By the way, I figured out something......


I'm doing this to save the car more than I want to have crazy HP..
In a sense, I don't want to dump the car I want to keep the car, the body let's say, and just throw a new engine in their like it's April, 1986 all over again....based on that, I would just get a 305 for the sake of knowing I have a near perfect 3rd gen I can cruise in, but I'm figuring why not buy a 350 engine if I'm gonna replace the stock one? Hard to explain, I just want to keep the car and get rid of the engine in it, the rest of the car is amazing...take a look at the sig...anymore opinions are appreciated!

doug791

shes definitly way too beautiful to sell. Heres my opinion on the best way to go.

You can buy a 383 assembeled short block (so block and rotating assembly) with all forged internals in the price range of 2 grand? Then just go on e-bay and buy a cheap *** set of heads and intake and obviously leave it carbed because you dont want to have to deal with wiring harnesses and computer's and junk. This way for probably 3 grand in engine stuff you can get around the 300 hp mark so you dont have to worry about your rear end yet. A little less hp then you probably wanted but then basically what you have is a short block that can handle 600 hp. This way when you save up down the road you can buy a set fo afr 195 cc heads and an intake (the two combined would probably run about 2 g's plus taxes) and a good carb to match you be hitting over 500 hp and be deep into the 11's.

So basically what you can get for 3 g's would be a super strong 383ci short block with probably like some stock 350 heads/intake. You could easily be pushing around 300 hp now and you would have a crazy platform to build on.

oh and before thegreatJ comes in and sees i forgot to mention GET A SET OF SUB FRAME CONNECTORS!!!!

just dont get the 305 its a waste of money

geeze i keep editing this as i think of more things. Do you have to pass an emissions test? because that can make a big difference in terms of what youre aLLoWeD to do

Blackbob

Go pull a Balckbob and first sell everythgin you don't need in the engine and some body stuff that you can sacrafice. Part if all out to brink of having no car. Then take the money you make plus what you alreayd have and build somethign sick and not done before. Me personally I'm seeing TwinTurbo small block with all the trimmings and some serious suspension upgrades. But hey,who said dreaming was against that law ?

~BB~

TheGreatJ

You caught that just in time Doug. SFC's are a vital necessity to any 3rd gen.

Here's what I would do in your shoes:

Since you're doing this more to save the car than for mad HP, stay away from the stroker. It's extra money that you don't really need to spend. Pick up a 350 shortblock and some worked Vortec heads, or just go to GMPP and pick up a Vortec 350 crate engine. Get a carb intake and stick your Q-jet on it to keep things simple. That way you don't have to hack the car's wiring, you can use all your original sensors (or replace them if you prefer,) and still end up making 300hp or so.

My $.02

Garage Inc.

sub frame connector

Picking up that Vortec 350 crate engine sounds like a good idea...stick the stock carb on it? It also sounds like I won't need a new rear end with 300 hp...what do you think about the stock tranny? What kind of carb intake? Thanks for the info GreatJ!

doug791

i would think that your tranny should be fine (will need to be rebuilt eventually and at that time it will be a good excuse to put a shift kit in) and your rear end should be fine although youll probably want some gearing back there at some point.

J's plans are probably a hell of a lot more sane but you did ask me what -->I<-- would do so i went nuts with it (i have a habit of going on tangents btw)

As far as intake goes im not completly sure as to what type of intakes bolt up to the vortec's but you will definitly need a new carb i dont know for a fact but i can virtually guarantee the one from the 305 wont cut it.

Then with any left over coin you can purchase some suspension mods, get a good set of tires and youre off to the races! keep your questions coming people on here are more then happy to help out.

EDIT: from re reading J's post sounds like you could use the stock 305 carb....could probably get a lot better performance with an aftermarket one tho.

TheGreatJ

I --think-- Edelbrock makes a Vortec intake that's Q-jet compatible for like $140-160...and since the smallest factory Q-jet was rated at 670cfm (and most of them were 750cfm) it will be enough to feed a light to moderate 350. It'll need some tuning, but it'll do the job. The trick is finding someone who can tune a Q-jet decently. If you're really ambitious you can get an aftermarket Q-jet that'll feed 790cfm and work with the stock computer controlled carb setup, but I don't think it's necessary.

Doug is right about the trans and rear....they should be fine but you'll want to rebuild the tranny sooner or later. Since you're gonna have the engine out anyway, now might be a good time, and a shift kit is definitely a good idea.

kraftopia02

I am assuming that you're stickin with a carb setup???

(I did a swap from 305 TBI to 350 TPI motors...was hell on earth)

I'd say that if you drop in a crate motor you should be fine. Since you already have a V8 you're radiator, brake cyl, a/c, belt stuff etc. etc. won't have to be changed out. I've found a couple of nice motors, complete with carb, from this site:

www.highperformanceengines.com

i like this motor for you're car...
http://www.high-performance-engines.com/ce02.html

Of course, dropping in a crate motor teaches you very little about the car and its motor, but is the easiest way to go.

If you choose to build one, i would steer away from vortecs. Unless it's already on a crate motor and matched with a cam and intake, i've found that they have a tendency to tap the pistons if you go with a real high-lift camshaft. Plus, i've not found too many vortec intake manifolds. Instead just go with some nice high-flo heads, possible porting, and you'll be fine. Just remember that there's lots of little things that you should do when you change the motor out, like mounts, and brake lines that are inaccessible when the motor is in there, etc. Take your time and do it right. I've been going with my swap for a couple months and it's still not totally done! haha.