350 Engine Swap
Since the 305 L69 overheated (still don't know why) I have been looking for a 350. Due to greasy hands I didn't get any pictures of the engine as it was being pulled. Below are pictures of the engine after it was pulled.
Here the oil pan is off.
Until I can find a 350 I've been cleaning the engine
compartment.
I painted about everything I can and have cleaned the rest.
There is a mess of wires and hoses. I labeled everything
so
MAYBE I can figure out how it goes back together. Hopefully
I can get an older engine that wont need them. I'm ditching all
the emission stuff to free up some room.
So far the only thing dropped into the pool was one of my dad's
crutches (broke his leg trying to beat me in a ski race).
Without the extra weight in the front it looks like it is
getting ready to launch.
Here's what I got: It's
a 350 out of a 1974 Chevelle. I has a new Edelbrock Carb and WEIAND intake
and also has CAMEL BACK 2.02 heads. Fresh Rebuilt. After I got it
all cleaned up I put it in to see if it would fit. Well, the wide sump oil
pan wouldn't fit. So I took it out and started taking the pan off.
When I got it off however I found a piece of PISTON IN THE OIL PAN.
One of the piston skirts broke off. I was pretty bummed but I was glad I
had a 30 day guaranty/warranty. So I called the place I bought it from and they
said they would replace ALL 8 PISTONS FREE. Now I just have to wait a
couple weeks.
NEWS (6-24-00):
Still waiting to get it back. My
glass packs are here and the headers will get here next week. (ordered
from Summit Racing)
NEWS (6-27-00): They got the engine
apart and found that some of the cylinders were scored. They also found
that it was bored .040 over. They didn't want to bore it anymore so they
got ahold of a newer bottom end. They will switch the heads, intake, and
carb all I have to do is pay for the gasket set. I'm supposed to have it
back so I can get it in over the holiday weekend.
NEWS (7-8-00): IT'S IN! Today I took it for a test drive. It ran good but doesn't have the power I was expecting. It still needs some minor tuning. I don't have the headers yet. Hopefully they will come Monday. Right now I have the manifolds on. The exhaust has already been removed so I'm dumping it out where the cat conv. should be. I found out that the heads are only 1.94. Apparently the place I bought it from only assumed they were 2.02. I put them on anyway since they have a higher compression ratio. I have yellow Accel Spark plug wires I will put on once I get the headers.
NEWS (NOW): Runs great. No problems. It's tuned great with lots of go. I had problems with the Camel back heads so I had the extra set rebuilt at Car Quest. They hot tanked them over the weekend, put new valve seals in, replaces two worn valves, and refinished the valves. There was a noticeable power increase over the old camel backs. Click here are head swap pics
