Slow87

Hey guys I thought I would put a thread up of my engine swap. I need to share my efforts with someone who can appreciate them as much as me. heres A little back ground. Picked the car up 2 years ago from some kid who didn't treat it very well. Bought it for 2k which was all I had back then.
87 camaro lt with a 305 lg4 and a 700r4. 130k on motor and body.
Here are a few pics from day 1.

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The first thing I did was save up enough to paint the car. 500$ at maaco and I was pretty happy.



The next step was tearing into the 305. I removed the crazy rats nest and added a few parts.

Weiand street warrior intake
msd hei street fire dizzy
mcc quadrajet
air breather
hooker headers with a full 3" exhaust
and replaced the entire cooling system. It really looked a lot better.



I drove the car like this for another year and a half without doing anything major. Out of no where my car started leaking pretty badly so I decided to pull the 305 out to do a full gasket replacement. Something inside me told me not to put it back in so I decided to get a 350 off of craigslist for 200$
It came out of a 93 chevy 1500 with 106k miles on it. Here it is the first day I got it.


As much as I would of loved to have dropped it in right away something inside me told me I had to take advantage of having my engine out of the car. So I decided I would do a full make over. Here is what I started with.


My cleanup took a lot long then I had planned due to the fact I pulled the front suspension as well so the car was on jackstands. Things would of been a 1000x easier if I would of just used a power washer. Instead about 20 cans of brake cleaner, degreaser and a 100 shop rags did the job.

My goal is to keep the engine bay as simple and clean as possible. I pulled the ac stuff since it didn't work along with the heater (I live in a desert). Pretty much anything that wasn't required to run my motor was removed. After stripping down some of the front end I noticed that the front on my car had been replaced somewhere in its life. They did a hack job at welding it.

I had to find a way to cover the holes made by removing the blower motor so I simply used a thin sheet of metal and some sheers to make a cover. It did not come out as nice as I wanted but it did its job.



After everything was cleaned it finally became time for some paint. I used duplicolor aerosol cans with factory gm replacement colors. For about 9 bucks a can and 10 cans purchased, the job was done for under a bill.



Here is a close up BEFORE the clear coat!



A little before and after action



I chose this color hoping it would stand out but wouldn't be too much with me already having an orange car. What do you guys think of it?

Slow87

Back to the engine!
So my plans for this 350 Is 350whp and be able to cruise town. I wanted to go with a full drag motor but I realized that those aren't my plans for the car. Looking to get into road racing or autocross sometime in the future. So back to the build

-Comp Cams 270h flat tappet cam. Chose this at the time because I Didn't think I would end up getting a stall or new rear gears.

-World product S/R torquer heads. 67cc with 170cc runners. Picked them off a decent powered 327.The heads on the 350 were pretty messed up and I got this set for dirt cheap.

-Rpm Air gap intake

-Hooker Headers 1 5/8 primaries and 3" collectors.

-Mechanical quadrajet I got from Mountain man carbs



Tearing down the heads with this cheap tool,So I could send them off to the machine shop.
When I got them back.





The balancer Is from Summit racing, it's one of their house brands. It's a basic oem replacement but is much skinnier than my stock. I thought it sticks out awfully far but its seated properly.


Some valve covers I picked up on ebay for 70$ The quality is really nice for the price and they look sweet!


Finally throwing it all together.



This is how it sits as of now. Waiting to be hooked up to the transmission and dropped back in.

Slow87

The transmission was absolutely filthy! I scrubbed it as much as I could but I could only get it so clean.


An awful lot of degreaser, wire brushes, and elbow grease went into making it this clean.

Next the tranny got a little bit of maintenance done. Oil and filter change, ES polyurethane torque arm bushing and a summit 2600 stall.

Slow87

With my new stall I needed to run some better gears in the back. My stock rear end consist of 2:73 gears, open diff, and drum brakes. I was able to pick up this 3:42 gears, posi, disc brake out of a 2002 ws6 m6. On;y has 54k miles on it. 300$ was a fair price.


It still needs to be degreased, painted, and do a fluid change but that will be later.

Slow87

Just noticed my two pics from day 1 didn't work.

bone stock 305


before paint

9340Ruby

iTrader: (7)

Nice!

Slow87

Well, I finished doing the motor mounts and people weren't kidding. They sire are a pain. I manage to get them out with the suspension still in my way, so I figured I could put them back in that way too. I was wrong. Disconnected the strut and sway bar link so It could go low enough.

The nuts are no problem once you drop the a arm.


Do these look right? the shell only goes on one way but I can rotate the insert either way.


I am thinking of grinding down the gold tabs because the part of the mount that bolts to the block wont slide over this part of the mount. Ive used grease and plenty of pressure.







I figured while I'm in here I would replace the springs and sway bar end links. The stock suspension is so old I had to get something to hold me until I can afford my koni yellows. I picked up some moog springs for the front and the back. people have good luck cutting them so I want to do the same. Just some cheap kyp struts for the back along with new ES poly swaybar end links cause mine were completely blown.


old vs new BEFORE cutting them.



How destroyed my end links were. The bushing literally fell apart in my hand.




Today I will make my way down to autozone to rent a internal spring compressor. Even with the tool compressing springs enough without the weight of amotor and tranny on top is a pain in the ***!. I just did this a week ago and I had to have the 4 girls I live with stand on my k member. Hopefully I can get my suspension done tomorrow so I can bolt the wheels up and move it outside so I have enough clearance for the chery picker.

Slow87

Since my car is only equipped with dummy lights I had to hook up some gauges. I removed the hvac controller and installed my gauges there. Much cleaner look than under the vents on the dash. what do you guys think? sorry about the lighting I was so impatient I installed them at 3am. The middle gauge will be for my tranny temp.

Ghettobird52

WOW! that car is going through a transformation!! Great work so far!

Slow87

I appreciate the kind words. It's gone way beyond what I ever thought I was capable of. I've never built a motor or even pulled one until this. I've learned a lot and have grow to love and appreciate my car.

Slow87

I had to grind down the golden tabs on the ES mount inserts to get them to be able to fit inside the part of the mount that bolts to the motor. Doesn't seem to effect anything. I double checked the box and I bought ls1 inserts on accident. Either way I got them to work.


With my motor mounts finally fixed I decided it was time to drop the motor back in. It was a lot easier than pulling it. I was smart this time and decided to have my bumper and fenders off. Instead of bolting in two bolts to my head, I went and bought one of those intake plates you can lift the motor by. It was nice not having to worry about it spinning or slipping. It was funny doing it in my drive way, everyone stopped by to have a word about it.






Getting the motor in the bay was easy, but getting the motor mount bolt holes to line up is another story. It took a good 30 to 40 minutes of jacking up the trans or the engine and prying the hell out of the block. I was felt very accomplished after getting those 2 bolts through.

Since I didn't closely inspect my new Polyurethane transmission mount, I didn't realize that the new bolt was to big to slide through the crossmember. A little bit of grinding fixed that right up!



I am pretty excited to feel the difference in those two poly mounts' because both of the original mounts were broken.

Slow87

With the motor in its place I can finally start adding all the accessories. I decided to do headers first because they seem to be the most exciting to me. I purchase some copper moroso exhaust gaskets with the hooks on the end of them for easy installation. It sure was A LOT easier than the oem style gaskets. I was loving all this new room in my engine bay. It made tightening all the header bolts a breeze. I remember having a hard time with the back on on cylinder 8 but not this time!



Next was mounting my alternator. I bought a march performance bracket that is polished aluminum. It's much smaller and better looking than the stock bracket. It really helps to clean up the bay.


Next was swapping over my fuel pump. Something I had completely forgotten about. This motor came out of a fuel injected truck, So I had no clue what was behind the block off plate. Luckily it had the hole for the push rod. An easy trick I learned for installing mechanical pumps is to cover the push rod in grease and slide it up in there. It will hold it up in place while you install the pump.





Next was my power steering pump. God did I forget how ugly and huge this bracket was. It's designed for both the power steering reservoir and the smog pump, but since the smog is gone it just looks awkward. Since money isn't available for a new bracket I decided to modify this one. I went and cut off all the unnecessary parts to make it as small as possible.

I put blue tape to help me aim while cutting.





I still need to paint it but it already looks a lot better.

Fireblood83

Nice work

georgiaslim45

Looks great. I'm inspired!!!!

Slow87

I got a little bit if progress done today. Painted the power steering reservoir bracket and got that installed. I gapped all my plugs and put them in. Before installing the dizzy I added 5 quarts of comp cam motor break in oil and primed it with a tool I bought from summit. Put the dizzy in at 0* and hooked up all my Taylor spark plug wires. I ended up running them under the headers and was pleased with the look. I hope I don't cook any of them. Hopefully I get some more done this week. I have a busy schedule so I do what I can.

Pulled 60# of oil pressure during priming

jdreswick

Im just starting to do the same with my car. this is great motivation to start tearing into it.

'Jones82TransAM

That's great mate, fine job indeed I hope I can do as good as job with my 350 swap!

Slow87

Well I got a little bit done today. Decided to throw the torsen rearend in. First time swapping out a rear and was surprised at how easy it was. Hardest part was dealing with the brake lines on the removal. On the install I had a hard time balancing it on my jack while trying to bolt it all up. I soon figured out that a piece of 2x6 wood on the jack and it will prevent it from rotating. I'm still in the middle of the brake lines being hooked up. I went ahead and threw new kyb shocks, and moog springs in. I also added poly bushings to the rear sway bar that came on the rear end.

Part of me regrets being lazy and not painting it.



my stock shocks were so blown they didn't even expand anymore.



Pulling back my carpet was a pain in the but. I could tell my carpet has never been messed with because it was seated really well.