350 engine swap help

[Jcrane88]

I have a 1984 Camaro with a 2.8 v-6 , well the engine is shot. My dad has a 350 c.i. 5.7L from his 1983 Chevrolet truck. Anyway we would like to try to make the Camaro run with his 350.

Would the 350 bolt onto the transmission in the camaro??
What all would i have to change in the coolant system?
What else am i looking at?
Will i have to change tranny's??

Anything else i would have to change i'd like to know

Thanks
John

[Morley]

Originally Posted by Jcrane88

I have a 1984 Camaro with a 2.8 v-6 , well the engine is shot. My dad has a 350 c.i. 5.7L from his 1983 Chevrolet truck. Anyway we would like to try to make the Camaro run with his 350.

Would the 350 bolt onto the transmission in the camaro??
What all would i have to change in the coolant system?
What else am i looking at?
Will i have to change tranny's??

Anything else i would have to change i'd like to know

Thanks
John

You asked for it....
The trans would have to go, won't bolt up and would never hold up.
Cooling system is the least of your worries, change the radiator.
Now the other things:
1) Engine mounts
2) Springs
3) ECM
4) Drive shaft
5) Differential...yours won't hold up.
There are other things...smaller things.

[V8s Rule]

you need to have maybe a new rear end, drive shaft, definitely a new tranny, a new possibly entire front end after the firewall, new ignition system, a new electrical system, possibly a new speedo. it may be cheaper to find an IROC Z for a few grand around your town because it may be cheaper!



good idea of thinking about a V-8. theres no replacement for displacement.

[89IROC&RS]

whoa whoa guys, thats not all entirely correct. the springs, driveshaft, and rear end arent any different than the V8 cars, well the RS anyway. The IROCs had different spring rates but that was for handling, not supporting the engine. Now i admit im a bit hazy on the early third gens, so maybe they used a TH200 or something that required a diff driveshaft and all that, but to my knowledge that rear end is no different from the V8 cars and will hold up just fine.

[Jcrane88]

What tranmission did the 1984 2.8 have? 700-R4?

[Morley]

The V6's had a different bellhousing on their transmissions..it won't bolt up to the SBC.
The differential was the weak saginaw unit, it can't take the abuse of a SBC, they tried and the IROC's all trashed them. GM replaced them with Auburn units.
Driveshaft...I don't believe the splines on the yoke were the same..may have been.
Springs..the V6 cars had weaker springs in the front because of a much lighter engine. A "cheap" way of lowering your V8 camaro was to install springs from a V6 car.

Also...your tach won't work correctly with a V8.

[89IROC&RS]

..... still dont know if i agree with ya about that rear diff problem, but i dont have my sources here to find out for sure so ill back down.

[Jcrane88]

I have a th350 would that bolt on?............Also what gears does the rear end have?

Actually it's my brothers Camaro but i talked him down to $200 so before i buy i wanna know if i can make it run. the 2.8 run but has a knock. it had a blown head gasket and i rebuilt the top end. found out that it had been running in the antifreeze/water/oil mixture for a while

THIS IS TIME SENSITIVE

[Morley]

Originally Posted by Jcrane88

I have a th350 would that bolt on?............Also what gears does the rear end have?

The Th350 should bolt up to a SBC...The gears..could be any number of options. It isn't the gears that are weak, its the carrier that is weak. The Saganaw units were designed in the day of econoboxes with no HP, they can't stand up to anything over 200 ft/lbs of torque for long.
If you have a 305/350 to drop in there, get some engine mounts for the K member and give it a try. The worst that can happen is that the rear end will blow up when you romp on it. That and the front end will sit a bit lower than is normal...but you can fix that easily after the engine change.
Monitor its running temp to see if you need to step up to a bigger radiator. The drive shaft may need a new yoke (front) for the TH350, dunno, but that is a small problem.
I assume you are going to carb the engine? If so you won't need an ECM, and since you are going with a TH350 you won't need to wire up a lock up.

[Jcrane88]

I need to know the gear ratio for the rear end. and it is a carb v8
i'm not worried about the sbc not bolt up to the trans . i need to know if it would be hard to mount the transmission in

[harleyman02]

you need to find a donor car

[Morley]

Originally Posted by Jcrane88

I need to know the gear ratio for the rear end. i need to know if it would be hard to mount the transmission in

You'll have to figure out the ratio yourself, either look at the RPO sticker in the center glove box or check for a metal tag bolted to the front of the dif housing, it should have a number like: G92 stamped on it..that is the RPO code also.

Yes the TH350 will bolt up...people do it all the time.

[Jcrane88]

ok, I'll buy the car for $200 put the engine and tranny in and see if it tears the rear end apart if it does i'll know i need a new one!

Thanks for all of your guys advice if you got more post them so i dont have to find all this out the hard way

Thanks
john

[Jcrane88]

Update: My brother came into my bedroom this morning and said he would take $150 for the car, so i bought it. i figured if i cant make it run i can sell the pieces. I'll start swappin soon, i know of a iroc i'm gonna try and get the rear-end off of.

[stephenp]

Originally Posted by Jcrane88

I have a 1984 Camaro with a 2.8 v-6 , well the engine is shot. My dad has a 350 c.i. 5.7L from his 1983 Chevrolet truck. Anyway we would like to try to make the Camaro run with his 350.

Would the 350 bolt onto the transmission in the camaro??
What all would i have to change in the coolant system?
What else am i looking at?
Will i have to change tranny's??

Anything else i would have to change i'd like to know

Thanks
John

i did a swap to an 86
not as much as they say
i pulled the electric fuel pump out the tank
new motor mounts mounted in the v 8 position
tranny choices on the stock drive shaft are stubby 4" nosed th 350 or the long (i belive its 7 or 9 ) th400 tranny
and i removed all smog and dropped in the 350 then slid in the v8 radiator
thats all i did and she was a bad a$$ car

for perfiormance i bolterd the rpm performer intake and double stacked the filters and cut a whole in the hood put a high performance coil and module
and an exhaust

also probably want to free up the exhaust for the v8 in general