Trans am engine swap

Alright, well myself being a mechanic, but still relatively new to swapping engines on cars anyways.. am looking for some advice. I'm looking to get a late 70's trans am and swap the engine. My primary choice would be to use a 505 cu in viper engine, however i'm aware that this might be more that a tight fit. What would my next best bet be, as well as what else would i need to be replacing here. It'll have a manual transmission too. Thanks guys!

Sounds to me like you are looking for performance!

To avoid all kinds of headaches, I would go with a small-block Chevy. You can certainly get gobs of performance out of one in a relatively economical way. If you really gotta have more, you can go with a big-block Chevy, but they are not as flexible and forgiving as a small-block (or cheap to build).

I suggest this because all you have to do is round up GM parts and they'll bolt right in, as far as just making things fit. Even if you could get the Chrysler engine to fit, and you may not, there would be no end to the fabrications required and the attendant headaches. Besides, it's really hard to beat a well-built 350 or one of its derivatives in terms of performance and reliability, and they're easy to set up.