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- Apr 13, 2012
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It has been awhile since I have done this.
Years back when I was short on cash, I'd swap in junkyard engines with no rebuilding done to them and have the car running in a day.
Back then, my cars were fun but not show quality. I didn't take the time to repaint engine bays, change anything or make upgrades except to swap engines. I've done several.
I had a 350 in a station wagon and a 305 in my Camaro. Both ran but the 305 was tired. I did a car for car swap and sold the wagon.
My brother had a Camaro with a dying 350, a buddy of his had a great 350 but his Camaro was a wreck. Nose to nose on the street, we swapped engines from car to car and the wrecked Camaro got junked.
I used to be able to do this in one day. This was with limited tools in less than ideal conditions.
Now I have plenty of tools and a roomy shop. I plan to do a 360 for 360 swap in a couple of weeks to this car:
The car will eventually get painted but not right away. If I did have a plan to "do it right", I'd strip down the engine bay, weld up any and all unused holes and paint it the color that the car will be. For now, I just don't know what color that I want to paint it so I won't do anything but clean things up a bit.
This time I plan to drive it into the shop....
.....Pull the running 360, install the rebuilt 360 and then drive it out.
The exhaust will stay in place. The transmission will stay in place. The 360 going in is a 9.5 to 1 roller 360 with #308 heads, 1.6 Hughes rocker arms, a mild roller cam, Air Gap intake....
Those headers came from FABO member @MidnightSwinger. They were test fitted to see about oil filter access. They will go in later, not the day of the engine swap.
The engine coming out is a late 70s 360 from a junkyard. In 2000 or 2001, I helped a buddy of mine and his kid pull this engine, strip it down and after he had it cleaned and honed, we screwed it together with stock pistons. He built a better engine later and I bought this from him.
It has about 8 to 1 compression, #308 heads, a MP 280/474 cam with a Weiand dual plane intake. The car runs pretty strong for being such a low compression mill.
I'm keeping the 8 to 1 360 for another car.
So what are your stories? Who has tales of their one day engine swaps? Maybe less than 6 hour swaps?
Years back when I was short on cash, I'd swap in junkyard engines with no rebuilding done to them and have the car running in a day.
Back then, my cars were fun but not show quality. I didn't take the time to repaint engine bays, change anything or make upgrades except to swap engines. I've done several.
I had a 350 in a station wagon and a 305 in my Camaro. Both ran but the 305 was tired. I did a car for car swap and sold the wagon.
My brother had a Camaro with a dying 350, a buddy of his had a great 350 but his Camaro was a wreck. Nose to nose on the street, we swapped engines from car to car and the wrecked Camaro got junked.
I used to be able to do this in one day. This was with limited tools in less than ideal conditions.
Now I have plenty of tools and a roomy shop. I plan to do a 360 for 360 swap in a couple of weeks to this car:
The car will eventually get painted but not right away. If I did have a plan to "do it right", I'd strip down the engine bay, weld up any and all unused holes and paint it the color that the car will be. For now, I just don't know what color that I want to paint it so I won't do anything but clean things up a bit.
This time I plan to drive it into the shop....
.....Pull the running 360, install the rebuilt 360 and then drive it out.
The exhaust will stay in place. The transmission will stay in place. The 360 going in is a 9.5 to 1 roller 360 with #308 heads, 1.6 Hughes rocker arms, a mild roller cam, Air Gap intake....
Those headers came from FABO member @MidnightSwinger. They were test fitted to see about oil filter access. They will go in later, not the day of the engine swap.
The engine coming out is a late 70s 360 from a junkyard. In 2000 or 2001, I helped a buddy of mine and his kid pull this engine, strip it down and after he had it cleaned and honed, we screwed it together with stock pistons. He built a better engine later and I bought this from him.
It has about 8 to 1 compression, #308 heads, a MP 280/474 cam with a Weiand dual plane intake. The car runs pretty strong for being such a low compression mill.
I'm keeping the 8 to 1 360 for another car.
So what are your stories? Who has tales of their one day engine swaps? Maybe less than 6 hour swaps?
