350/th350 going into 82 Cutlass supreme w/ 260

[DrRansom442]

Ain't that usually how it goes with hot rodding :lol:

true, true but This was supposed to jsut be a cheap motor swap. Heck I only paid $1500. for the car 3 years ago .... By the time I find a sturdier rear and get my engine and trans in ... I bet I've sank my purchase price back into it. (That's just this go around .... it's not like the car has been maintance-free). My bank account hates me right now.

 

[kortekusa]

i almost forgot what the thread was about
i got the car for 400 w/ a bad trans. i already had the 350 and trans. thats why i was asking. from what im hearing from friends that have done the swap it is a bolt in w. chev motor mounts and moving the tray and adjusting wires, as gs dewd said.

 

[DrRansom442]

i almost forgot what the thread was about
i got the car for 400 w/ a bad trans. i already had the 350 and trans. thats why i was asking. from what im hearing from friends that have done the swap it is a bolt in w. chev motor mounts and moving the tray and adjusting wires, as gs dewd said.

really is no moving the tray... if you take the charcoal can loose ... it's already there. You just have to switch sides for the can and the battery. But this IS a swap ... it is not just change motor mounts. If someone is saying it's as easy as changing 2 $15. parts ... they are grossly under-estimating. Granted it's one of the easier swaps, but it's more involved than mounts. I have a dual-bolt pattern th350 if interested. My trans is current in Lincoln county MO though

 

[gs dewd]

i almost forgot what the thread was about
i got the car for 400 w/ a bad trans. i already had the 350 and trans. thats why i was asking. from what im hearing from friends that have done the swap it is a bolt in w. chev motor mounts and moving the tray and adjusting wires, as gs dewd said.

really is no moving the tray... if you take the charcoal can loose ... it's already there. You just have to switch sides for the can and the battery. But this IS a swap ... it is not just change motor mounts. If someone is saying it's as easy as changing 2 $15. parts ... they are grossly under-estimating. Granted it's one of the easier swaps, but it's more involved than mounts. I have a dual-bolt pattern th350 if interested. My trans is current in Lincoln county MO though

Yes it is that easy. And no it is not a underestimate. It is a simple bolt in. You say I should have started with a Monte Carlo. Why? What the hell is the difference? What you think Monte carlo's and Cutlasses have different frames or something? They are the same car. If you pulling your motor to build a different motor for your car then I bet you it will be cheaper in the long run to build a chev motor. As far as the "extra parts" you mentioned, How many of us are going to build a new motor for our car and use a used water pump and such? I bet the majority will say they won't. I also bet the sm blk chev parts are cheaper. I gave a 2k price tag on my build because it is not a stock rebuild. It will be a 4 to 500 hp alum headed motor. Can you build and alum. headed sm blk olds for that? Nah didn't think so. Hey there is nothing wrong with someone wanting to build an olds motor for there car. If a factory correct car is what you want then an olds motor is the only way to go. But if you are building a car on a budget, and I know with the current economy many of us are then the chev motor is the way to go. There is a write up on here that list the steps and it is a good write up. It is nothing more the moving a battery to the other side of the car, changing to the apporiate motor mounts, and adjusting a couple wires. I know I have a 260 v8 cutlass and checked eveything more then once. I have done the engine "swap" more then a few times to other cutlasses. It is that easy. I will putting a v-8 into a orig v-6 car is harder, and it doesn't matter what engine you use wheter it is a old motor or a chev motor it will be difficult as the fuel line runs down the wrong side. Just take this little nugget of info in. Some people on here aren't as mechanically inclined as others. When you say that it's a difficult process to put a chev motor into a cutlass they think differently then we do. In there head it would be the equivalent of us thinking of dropping a v-8 into chevette. For us that have done this stuff and will keep doing this stuff, this is just another engine change. So you may have another half hour or so wrapped up in it. It not the end of the world and it is easy enough that most on here can do it.

 

[olds307 and 403]

If Olds would have built the 455 Hemi(650hp/575tq) like was supposed to in 1970, people would give Olds and it's nearly indestructable v8 some respect. Why use any ancient technology, get a junkyard LS engine.

 

[dan2286]

Im sorry to have to continue this thread hi-jack, but I just wanted to mention some things. In a perfect situation, going from Olds to Chevy can be very easy, but not always.

How many people buy engines that are complete?? Most engines that I see for sale are just long blocks with no accessories and no starter. You would have to get those items.

What if you are trying to use a stock exhaust system? They are different between Olds and Chevy powered G bodies.

If you are keeping the A/C you would need to buy different lines and lengthen the wires to reach the other side of the engine.

If you are keeping the car computer controlled, you would need a different PCM. You would probably also have to move/lengthen wires to a different location. Also, you most likely would need to buy the different sensors.

What if your engine did not come with a trans or you dont have one laying around? You might not be able to use the trans that came in the car because it might not be a universal bolt pattern.

I am probably missing some stuff, but I think I got my point across. Of course all of this stuff wont apply to everyone, but in most peoples case the swap does not just take moving some wires and the battery and buying new mounts.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

When I did my swap, I changed the engine harness too. That made it a bolt in. I also changed all the accessories, brackets, etc. My car is a hybrid of Camaro and G body as some of the G body stuff was not to my liking, so I used some HO 305 stuff from the Camaro instead. Mostly this was to do with my desire to use the dual snorkel air filter base, which meant I needed the A/C lines, condenser, dryer, and brackets for an HO 305 Camaro. The base 305 uses different stuff in this regard, but curiously, they all use the saem A/C compressor so long as you have a V belt and the R-4 compressor.

 

[Blake442]

After I blew up my 307, I had a Chevy 350 in my 442 for a couple years before I built my 455.
The 350 swap was a huge learning process for me, as I was only 18 and had never taken on something like that by myself. Now that I know more, it's truely very simple to do, and I had my wagon swapped over from a 3.8 to a SBC in about 5 hours.

The 350 I had was in my running and driving '85 Blazer, so it was nice and complete. I drove the truck into the shop at 5pm, yanked the motor, and pushed it back outside at 6:30pm. I replaced valve cover gaskets and that's it. Cleaned it off, painted it, and dropped it in after I swapped out the motor mounts in the 442.
I didn't even move my battery or vapor canister, I just lengthened the wires to the alternator. I also had to lengthen a couple wires for the starter.
I ran my original carb, still hooked up to the computer, and got an electronic distributor that worked with the computer as well.
The 200-4R didn't need to be changed out, so I got lucky there.
Swapped the motor mounts, got some new radiator hoses, an alternator bracket, and that's about it...
Oh yeah, and I had to slightly shorten the rubber fuel line to the pump so that it didn't curve so much and pinch itself off.
I had already removed all the A/C stuff from the 307, so that wasn't an issue.
I also had to modify my exhaust so my new SBC headers would mate to the pipes I had for the headers for the SBO.

One thing I didn't do was to get the proper brackets to hook up the P/S. I just had the pump tied up against the frame rail. That's the only thing I would've done differently. It was hard to turn, but I got pretty strong in my upper body pretty quick, since I drove the car as much as I could back then, since it still got 17 mpg.

It's really not that hard of a swap.

 

[gs dewd]

Im sorry to have to continue this thread hi-jack, but I just wanted to mention some things. In a perfect situation, going from Olds to Chevy can be very easy, but not always.

How many people buy engines that are complete?? Most engines that I see for sale are just long blocks with no accessories and no starter. You would have to get those items.

What if you are trying to use a stock exhaust system? They are different between Olds and Chevy powered G bodies.

If you are keeping the A/C you would need to buy different lines and lengthen the wires to reach the other side of the engine.

If you are keeping the car computer controlled, you would need a different PCM. You would probably also have to move/lengthen wires to a different location. Also, you most likely would need to buy the different sensors.

What if your engine did not come with a trans or you dont have one laying around? You might not be able to use the trans that came in the car because it might not be a universal bolt pattern.

I am probably missing some stuff, but I think I got my point across. Of course all of this stuff wont apply to everyone, but in most peoples case the swap does not just take moving some wires and the battery and buying new mounts.

Yes you have a valid point but if one is planning on retaining the computer, a/c, and such then they wouldn't be planning on "building " a engine for there car. They would be rebuilding the stock engine or replacing with a stock engine. Can't use the stock computer with a built 350 olds motor either it is not calibradied for it. And such people probably wouldn't be using the a/c either. And the ascessories will probably be replaced with any new engine you put in. Because if the engine is wore out most likley the ascessories are to. And the remainder pulleys and such are cheap enough that it isn't cost prohibitive. Also if you building a perfomance engine for the car you are not going to use the factory exhaust. What I am saying is for someone who is building a performance motor not a completely stock rebuild. If I was just planning a stock engine build I would keep the stock engine. I don't want to step on anyones toes but it is a very easy process. Just to make myself clear if you are planning on a non computer controlled engine, having a trans built to handle the new power output, not using the a/c and using a true dual exhaust then this engine change is very east to do. And you basically just need to change the motor mounts, move the battery, and adjust the wiring to work. Which the mounts being probably wore out to would need to be changed.

 

[gs dewd]

After I blew up my 307, I had a Chevy 350 in my 442 for a couple years before I built my 455.
The 350 swap was a huge learning process for me, as I was only 18 and had never taken on something like that by myself. Now that I know more, it's truely very simple to do, and I had my wagon swapped over from a 3.8 to a SBC in about 5 hours.

The 350 I had was in my running and driving '85 Blazer, so it was nice and complete. I drove the truck into the shop at 5pm, yanked the motor, and pushed it back outside at 6:30pm. I replaced valve cover gaskets and that's it. Cleaned it off, painted it, and dropped it in after I swapped out the motor mounts in the 442.
I didn't even move my battery or vapor canister, I just lengthened the wires to the alternator. I also had to lengthen a couple wires for the starter.
I ran my original carb, still hooked up to the computer, and got an electronic distributor that worked with the computer as well.
The 200-4R didn't need to be changed out, so I got lucky there.
Swapped the motor mounts, got some new radiator hoses, an alternator bracket, and that's about it...
Oh yeah, and I had to slightly shorten the rubber fuel line to the pump so that it didn't curve so much and pinch itself off.
I had already removed all the A/C stuff from the 307, so that wasn't an issue.
I also had to modify my exhaust so my new SBC headers would mate to the pipes I had for the headers for the SBO.

One thing I didn't do was to get the proper brackets to hook up the P/S. I just had the pump tied up against the frame rail. That's the only thing I would've done differently. It was hard to turn, but I got pretty strong in my upper body pretty quick, since I drove the car as much as I could back then, since it still got 17 mpg.

It's really not that hard of a swap.

Thank-you Blake for the backup there. You explained what I have been trying to say all along. For a novice this may seem like a huge undertaking but it's easy to do. And for the more experienced it's a piece of cake. Some of the novice people on here look to the more experienced for guidence and we have to be careful how we explain things. I didn't want this guy to get the wrong impression in thinking that this a very complicated and intense swap when it's not. It's a simple bolt in.