I recently swapped in a Chevy 350 to my 84 cutlass and I can't be any happier. Basically this thread is just in case anyone would like to know what I did or has any questions if they plan to do this. Feel free to reply or pm me with any concerns or questions. It's a lot of work but in the end it paid off
Buick 3.8 to Chevy 350 swap
- Thread starter Stuart
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Well first off I started with suspension in the spring. I put new front coil springs about $70. Then I found an engine from my dads friend out of a 93 caprice complete with whole wiring harness (key to have). Then I kind of just planned out everything including the swap and all that. I got an electric fuel pump and a new radiator. The hardest thing for me was finding the right fan shroud that wasn't on eBay for $200. Also bought myself a chilton book for both the cutlass and caprice to make wiring easier. Now the easy part is the swap. Took maybe 2 days. The new motor mounts only use 3 holes (they make adapter mounts I believe but this was easier for me). The bottom left hangs off the front towards the front of the car and the others are normal. Then it's just a matter of dropping the 350 in and there you have it. I did find out that the stock exhaust on the cutlass doesn't quite match the crossover from the manifold on the 350 for me so I had a shop do some fabricating. Um some other key factors are fuel lines. The fuel lines on the cutlass were on the drivers side and go to a mechanical pump mounted on the engine. So I opted to find some old fuel lines from a pickup that had a throttle body and get the lines from that. Worked out great as these were braided and not steel so they didn't have a definite bend to them. The wiring was the worst part. That took a few weeks figuring out where everything went and cutting wires to work for the fuel pump, distributor, ecm power and alternator. Long story short on the wiring part is having the chilton book helped a lot and plus having the whole wiring harness from the caprice also. Last but not least is making everything look nice. I had to cut a hole in the passenger floor pan to feed the ecm wires through as they would not fit in the existing cutlass hole. I did all of that so I could put the ecm back where it was supposed to be. After working all summer on this project it was finished and looks pretty much factory so I'm proud!
Nicely done. You're clearly qualified to give advice on the Forum! Looking forward to photos, when you can post them.
Haha well thank you! This site actually helped me through a lot of it. Through all the pain aching and not knowing if it would work 
and after about 2 weeks of driving it (so much more power and fun now btw) but I decided to get a set of vortec heads and a vortec intake and I'll put those in, in the spring time. I just have endless things to do and I wish I had the money. But regardless of how much money I spent, I'm very happy and proud to have swapped the v8 in
and after about 2 weeks of driving it (so much more power and fun now btw) but I decided to get a set of vortec heads and a vortec intake and I'll put those in, in the spring time. I just have endless things to do and I wish I had the money. But regardless of how much money I spent, I'm very happy and proud to have swapped the v8 in
The few purpose-built Vortec manifolds for TBI are expensive - you might save some dough using a 4-barrel and making an adapter plate that bolts between the throttle body and the manifold.
Ah. I think the 97 truck system used a CPI vs. a TBI. I think you will find the injection systems bolt on in a completely different manner. Please prove me wrong by figuring it out.
I did take a look and it is slightly different so I'm not too sure if going with this intake is really the right way but I'll look into it and see. The new intake has the head unit on it so I'll have to see if I can get it to work
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