Olds 350 to Chevy 350 Swap

[zipties]

did due dilligence and checked the bottom end of the motor. everything was in good shape, no sprinkles in the pan.

i already buttoned it up and its been sitting. gonna hit it with some black paint and get it dropped in today. I've said that like 5 times.

fortunately everything inside was good, i was ready to get pretty involved if needed but apart from some small junk in the oil filter housing it was good.

this is a decent motor and should last me a long time, definitely long enough for me to finish the 383 and rebuild a trans or source a new one. just donated my last th350 to one of our rigs.

 

[78Delta88]

Looks good

 

[zipties]

so close yet so far. off by a few inches from getting it near the mounts.

REALLY dont wanna try taking the front off. from my guesstimate if i took the bumper off i could inch the picker close enough to close the distance, but not sure. The bolts on that thing look like they haven't come off in a hot minute.

excuse my FedEx distributor special

 

[78Delta88]

Can you stabilize as is and lengthen the lever arm? I've had to do this before, drill another hole in the arm in effect lengthening it. I used good quality uni-bit.

Otherwise try an a frame and transfer load to the a frame. 2x6 or 4x4 is strong enough temporary basis.

 

[78Delta88]

Does the engine farther back? If not, you might need to relocate the PS pump. It looks like the pulley might hit the steering box. Won't know until you try, but put a SBC in a 78 El Camino and had to find smaller pulley to get PS pump to work.

 

[stew86MCSS396]

Was trying to scour the internet for reference pics but inundated with LSx swaps! lol Anyhoo...looked under one of my Montes and the crank pulley sits behind the sway bar so appears got a ways to go. Hard to see in your ^^^pic as everything is black down by the engine mounts. Looks confusing since it looks like engine mount through bolt is installed.

 

[zipties]

good news! motor is in.

excuse the dark pic, losing daylight real quick. turns out the real issue was the trans xmember. I'd pulled it forward a bit when getting the old motor out, and couldn't push it back. Got the four bolts off and slid it out, and then gave the trans a shove and the motor plopped right on the mounts. credits to my genius wife who always reminds me to work smarter, not harder..

been a busy weekend already, so stopping here with it all tarped up, got some cleaning to do. i still need to formally bolt up the torque converter and bellhousing bolts and get the crossmember bolted down.

once all that is done, time to just set up the accessories and get some fresh hoses and wires. I gotta pick up a new starter since the one i had for a 305 doesn't wanna do its thing. also need to swap the wiring for said starter...

 

[stew86MCSS396]

Np...good to hear you're moving along. I was going to update my last reply but I figured you were busy with other things. I was going to point out that I've never done an engine only swap before. I've done transmissions remove and install but never just an engine. With that said I just find it easier pulling the entire engine trans as an assembly. I know this is hindsight but with the trans connected makes it easier to set the engine down with the trans supported with a floor jack so you can reposition the chain that could possibly give you that six inches you needed.

I did want to point out that you're using a Chevy to BOP adapter plate between the engine and trans. I'm hoping this doesn't present any issues trying to start/tighten the hardware. The top 2, the nut is welded to the plate so that shouldn't be a problem. The lowest 2 is shared by both chevy and BOP so no issue there. The middle 2, I can't remember if you need to hold the nut from inside of the bellhousing or outside. I brow beat this for awhile when contemplating running a Chevy 4l60E behind a Pontiac 350. Wish you much luck that it doesn't present a problem!!!

 

[zipties]

Np...good to hear you're moving along. I was going to update my last reply but I figured you were busy with other things.

this has been an atypical job for me. usually I'll pull the whole driveline and service it all at once but my current lack of equipment has me making some compromises here and there. cutlass is in the corner of my driveway outside one of my garage bays.

both bays have been full for a while now (one is storage and one is being used for a variety of fab work and general groundskeeping stuff) so i been doing all my work on the gravel.

its gotten a little irritating at times compared to the awesome facility we were doing our work in last year. here's my wife in the middle of swapping the drivetrain in one of her squares in the place, the old place had everything.

we could have the whole motor (and transmission) swapped and kitted in a day in this place.

back on topic though- once the trans wasn't blocked up it was gravy. I did have to bevel out the holes on the BOP plate for the dowel pins just a bit, both other than that i didn't have any problems with fitment.

I was preemptive and mounted the plate to both the engine and transmission to make sure none of the bolts would be in the way, and took measurements for the actual mounting bolts.

this particular one, you use the two 'inside' sets of bolt holes to attach the plate behind the flexplate, and the bellhousing bolts use the two 'outside' sets.

not my best engine swap, not my worst...

 

[zipties]

getting confused and irritated. motor is in in, mounts are tight and as far forward as they'll go. distributor is on the firewall, like enough that I think i couldn't remove it if i needed to.

despite that, the rear of the engine seems too low? this is a pic of it currently:

the xmember is in but isn't tightened or anything. everything trans-wise is stock. i havent seen anything about needing to modify the xmember or get a new one for this, am i mistaken?

frankly I am about to rip this thing out and put a bowtie trans in here to just alleviate all of the *ss PAIN so far...

i may also grab the engine again and rip off the UMI mounts I used for a set of junkyard ones. They claim 'stock fit' but cmon...