How to put a GM V8 engine into damn near any car.

My apologies to all the Ford and Chryco guys out there. I am a Chevy guy, so I am writing about Chevy engines---Not because they are better, but because thats what I have experience with.
The easy way is to find somebody else that has the same car/engine combination that you have, and ask them. The hard (read normal) way to do it is as follows.
1---Before anything else. measure from firewall to inside surface of radiator core. Write that measurement down somewhere so you don't forget it. Remove car hood. .2---Pull old engine and ****** out, and unbolt driveshaft from rear universal and remove it.
3---If you haven't already done so, remove radiator and set it aside.
4---Beg, borrow, or steal an engine hoist of some kind, pick up new engine and ****** (as a unit)---tailstock of transmission should be angled down at about 30 degrees from horizontal when hanging free.
5---Lower engine/****** into gaping hole where old engine used to live. This ***umes that you have crawled under car and determined that the car does not have an X frame of some kind that would interfere with the new transmission.
6---Lower engine into place---if the car has a solid rear crossmember where the original ****** mounted to, either remove it completely, or at the very least ensure that the tailstock of the new ****** is sliding in over top of it---(this requires having at least one friend or else 4 arms). I prefer having the old crossmember totally removed, as they will seldom be in the correct place.
7---Have a block of wood, or a number of flat peices of board, to set under the oilpan of the new transmission---8" is a good starting height.
8---This is where luck comes into play. If you are lucky, the engine can be lowered untill the carburetor mounting surface on the top of the intake manifold is close to level. (2 or 3 degrees too high at the front of the motor isn't going to hurt anything)--the car is going to sink another 2 or 3" when the load of the engine is put on the front suspension.
9---Use a tape measure to center the engine in the car---and yes, the exhaust manifolds should be on the engine now, unless you really want to run custom headers$$$$$. If you have lived a pure life, the stock exhaust manifolds are not going to interfere with the steering box and the oilpan is not going to hit the front steering linkages.---If on the other hand, you have lived your life like me, there will be interferance, which will necessitate removing the stock exhaust manifolds, and fabrication of custom exhaust headers at a later date.
10--Now the painfull part---Slide the engine towards the rear of the car, as you lower it, untill you have about 3/4" between the firewall and the back side of that Chev engine rear mounted distributor. Again, if you are one of the lucky people on this earth, the engine bell housing is not going to interfere with the transmission tunnel and firewall in the car body--otherwise, its cutting torch time.
11---Now, the engine is centered side to side, and fore and aft, and reasonably level. Remember that measurement that you took from the firewall to the inside face of your radiator???---Well, set a 20" diameter peice of plywood against the front of the engine fan blades. and see what that measurement is from the firewall. In a perfect world, it should be about 1" less than the dimension to the face of the radiator.--You have a few options here---A--most chev engines use a spacer behind the fan blades, which can be shortened a bit (on a lathe). B-Chev engines have a long nose, and a short nose waterpump. which will both fit most chev V8 engines---that will buy you about an inch, by swapping from a long nose to a short nose waterpump. c---Sometimes, on some cars, the radiator support cradle can be moved a couple of inches towards the front of the car, for additional clearance. D--Getting rid of the mechanical fan completely, and going to an aftermarket electric fan can grab another 1 1/2" clearance. In a "worst case scenario" you will have to get out the cutting torch and cut the firewall of the car body away, and let the engine move rearward, untill you can get some kind of cooling fan in behind that radiator.
12---Okay, if the engine fits and doesn't require that you do major surgery to the car body, block the engine up from underneath (the old pile of boards under the oilpan trick) and level it from side to side. If you are lucky (again), the mechanical fuel pump, which is stuck out on the p***enger side at the front of the engine is going to clear everything. If not, you may get away with removing the mechanical fuel pump and putting on a cover plate and gasket, then running an electric remote fuel pump which is not attached to the engine.
13--- Now---Pattern making skills. I strongly recomend that you use a set of stock Chev motormounts, at least for the part that bolts to the engine---This will have the urethane anti vibration block molded to the mounts.---We are not planning on drag racing, so we don't really want a solid mount.---Trust me!!! Get out the construction cardboard, scissors, and pencil and make patterns from which you will cut 3/16" or 1/4" steel plates to attach these motor mounts to the frame of the car the engine is going into---(Yes, do use the side mounts, not the old Hearst style front mount, unless you want to flirt with broken transmission cases).There are about a million ways to make engine mounts, and I am not going to do an "in depth" on that---do some of your own eresearch.
14--- With the car blocked well so that it can not move, squirm underneath (this is the one time its nice to have a pit in the garage floor) and see what is needed for a rear crossmember/transmission mount. Again, use the stock Chev rear ****** mount with the urethane isolator block, and fab up some type of crossmember that will run from inside to inside of frame, with a plate in the center, offset to either front or rear of the actual crossmember that you can bolt thru into the Chev ****** mount from underneath. You may have to get creative and make a crossmember with a "dropped" center section to clear things. I prefer to use a 2" square tube with a minimum of 3/16" wall thickness. You could use round tube as well, but its not as nice to work with. Some people prefer to make these crossmembers a bolt in unit. I generally weld them solid to the frame at each end, because anytime I ever had to pull a Chev ******, it was easier to pull the ****** and engine as a combo, and in that case the rear crossmember does not have to be removeable.
15---Fab up your motor mounts, try them for fit---this step is real important---TRY THEM FOR FIT with the motor still blocked up and level, hanging on the chains. Get them perfect and tack them into place on the frame.---Same with the rear crossmember.-REALLY GOOD TACKS!!!
16---Now your going to hate me---Unbolt the engine mounts and pull the engine and ****** BACK OUT OF THE CAR!!! Get in there and weld all the new motor mounts solid---Get under the car and weld the new crossmember solid. Clean up you welds and paint the engine compartment----This will be your only chance!!!
17---Lift engine on hoist, put it back in car. Pray that your fabricated mounts didn't move when you were welding them solid (thats why we wanted real good tacks on them).
18---With full weight of car and engine setting on the suspension, insert the front universal joint yoke into the tailstock of the transmission---Push it in fully, then pull it back 3/4". the measurement from the center of this yoke (where the universal "spider" fits) to the same point on the yoke attached to the rearend will give the dimension required to build a new driveshaft.
18---Now all you have to do is fab up an exhaust system, run a few wires, and figure out a shifter and shift indicator to go with that new automatic transmission.

 

A footnote to the above----In a perfect world, the centerline of the crankshaft should be parallel to and in line with the center of the car, when veiwed from above.---However--If buying an inch or 1 1/2" can save you a world of pain in terms of custom fabrication, then it is okay to offset the engine a bit to one side or the other. the universal joints will accomodate this with no problem.---In fact many vehicles actually come this way from the factory.---Brian

 

Well now, that seems simple enough. Seriously, an excellent post and easy to understand, but because you make me pull the thing back out, I can only give it a 9-1/2.

 

Great post, Brian. Thanks.

 

That's pretty much how we did it in 1968... except we cut a big access hole in the floor-pan. A little extra work, but it came in handy in the (2) later engine swaps and (3) trans swaps. Its more comfortable working from above than on your back.

 

Thanks. Cool tech post.

 

That was a good post.

 

I hope Santa brings you a camera. You write excellent articles, and they would be even better with photos. I like your computer illustrations, too.

 

You're my hero. And you saved me another 4 hours of reading 100 different tech posts and "how to" articles i found on google.. hopefully start my swap next week!!

 

I'm dropping a 350SBC into a 71 Mercedes for a mate....what a ***** of a job!. i wish someone would make a oil pump for a SBC that fits on the front of the engine!.
Theres plenty of room in these cars for any size engine,but the steering is in the friggin way.
I concur with everything you say,except that this is a hard conversion in that I cannot chop the crossmember etc .

 

great post