thinkin bout a motor swap..

[TJ79Cheyenne]

@ irishman, thanks anyways but im not gonna throw a carb on my tbi motor if its knocking in the lower end.. i was talkin bout pullin the whole engine out of my 79 n dropping it in my 87. I just wanted to know what had to happen to make the engine run since everythings computerized in the 87... As far as bearings go, how easy of a job is that? It can be done in the truck? Or easier to pull the motor? Im not sure if its a rod bearing or main bearing, hoping its not a main...

 

[TJ79Cheyenne]

Nevermind irishman, i got dyslexic for a second n read tbi to carb haha oops. But im more interested in keeping the carb

 

[Driver4r]

@Irishman what about egr? @Driver yes he may be able to use the 79 heads if he modifies the tbi intake, I agree with that 100%. If he does do the intake swap using the 4barrel intake with a tbi he might run into the problem of it not having enough manifold pressures to allow the tbi to work correctly. I did a lot of research on that before and I learned to not mix stuff on tbi units. @tj my fathers suburban used to do the same thing. Found out the HEI coil was bad. It did fine on ohm testing and stuff but when it got hot from driving it it would kill the engine and wouldn't start again until it got cold. But your saying it's not turning over.... That could be your battery is loosing it's cranking amps I've had a red top optima do that just recently. Don't just replace the starter that will get expensive. Have a local parts store test it. Autozone and oriellys does it free where I live. Once you do take the starter off make sure the surface where the starter touches the block is clean of paint and oils because the starter grounds out there. If not it grounds through the bolts which ain't good enough(learned the hard way). Make sure battery cables are all clean of corrosion and ain't broken or chaffed up. When you do get her running check the alternator just to make sure she is putting out the 14volts like it should.

Just a heads up, TBI BBC's are just 4 barrel intakes with adapters...

 

[Driver4r]

I call ******** on all you guys.

Original poster give me your address, I have a carb to TBI manifold adapter plate I ordered for my big block that I cant use. I will ship it to you for free, basically lets you put a TBI in place of a carb, all you would need is the gaskets.

I can relate here, Aftermarket does not offer anything good for a TBI big block. I ended up buying a carb intake and making the rest work. The only actual modification I had to make was drilling and tapping a hole for my coolant temp sensor. The rest of the TBI stuff was just kinda retrofitted on the engine.

Irish, thats kinda what i said right above your post about how he could use an adapter plate.

 

[72chevy2door]

@driver, yes I know the big block Chevys intake is the same but with an adapter but he doesn't have a big block. His first post said 350 with 700r4, same power train as me. A tbi intake is different from a carbureted intake. Everything is in the same locations except where a 4barrel carb will go a 2barrel throttle body will go. The other main difference is the center 4bolt holes on the tbi intake are at a 90* angle with the cylinder head's intake side mounting surface compared to carbureted intakes where the center 4bolt holes are at a 73* angle. @TJ, If it's all under warranty do it. Certainly won't hurt if it's free lol. As far as bearings I'm not sure if your oil pan will clear the crossmember on the truck. I've never tried to on a squarebody. You might be able to take out the two bolts that hold the clam shells to the engine mounts out and jack up the motor for more clearance but still I'm not sure if you will clear everything. Like I said I've never tried so I can't tell you exactly. Also when you do swap the parts and clean the engine block make sure you don't have any wires pinched when you throw that starter up. Makes for a nasty surprise when the insulation burns off the wires and shorts. Done that once and it ain't nice to see an entire ignition system fry but you live and learn.

 

[Irishman999]

@ irishman, thanks anyways but im not gonna throw a carb on my tbi motor if its knocking in the lower end.. i was talkin bout pullin the whole engine out of my 79 n dropping it in my 87. I just wanted to know what had to happen to make the engine run since everythings computerized in the 87... As far as bearings go, how easy of a job is that? It can be done in the truck? Or easier to pull the motor? Im not sure if its a rod bearing or main bearing, hoping its not a main...

I would suggest pulling it out so you can get the crank shaft out. From there you just pull your timing chain and flywheel or flexplate. Putting new bearings right back in might just be a huge waste of time. The right way to fix it is take the crankshaft to a machine shop so they can check it out, if it needs to be turned down you just get matching oversize bearings and thats about it.

Here is the catch, your half way to a rebuilt engine at this point.

 

[Thunder]

I have rolled bearings into a few engines with the engine in the vehicle. True it is a pain in the ass. the hardest part was getting the oil pan back in without disturbing the new gasket. Once you get the pan out of the way find the offending rod, remove the cap, push the rod up just enough to clear the crank. You can mic the crank and install the new bearing if the crank has not been damaged. It will buy you enough time to build an engine the way you want it and simply swap them out.

 

[72chevy2door]

With the 87 blocks they use a one piece oil pan gasket so he does have a better advantage than the other years. And they sell these kick-ass plastic things that screw into the corner four holes to hold the gasket up and you can slip the oil pan up on them too so you have both hands free to put the bolts in. They come with Felpro rubber gaskets. I thought they where pretty knifty. I'm sure they will screw into the transmission pan too so that will make it easier when you do your next fluid change on it so I wouldn't throw them away. You use a flat blade screw driver to remove them once the pan is on. But when you thread them in before putting the gasket up make sure it's by hand. When the gasket and pan get on it it becomes a little tougher to get them out and don't want to break them off in the motor it would be a pain to get it out

 

[TJ79Cheyenne]

Yeah Irishman i think im gonna yank the motor out. Seems way easier than just rolling the bearings in haha. How much do ya think a shop would charge to check the crankshaft out and everything?

 

[Irishman999]

Yeah Irishman i think im gonna yank the motor out. Seems way easier than just rolling the bearings in haha. How much do ya think a shop would charge to check the crankshaft out and everything?

The machine shop here is really fair on pricing, I got my crank micro polished for 40 bucks. I cant remember what he was going to charge me to turn the small block crank I had but you should be able to get the entire job done for a few hundred bucks.

Just remember, your half way to having a rebuilt engine at that point. You might as well pull it all the way apart and go through it.

 

[TJ79Cheyenne]

This ones already been rebuilt recently... I just didnt seal the valley on the back of the intake completely and she ran extremely low on oil bringin her back from the exhaust shop that was 35 miles away.. stupid i know, was pretty late and i wasnt watching my gauges..

 

[Thunder]

A few hundred bucks? You can buy a new rotating assembly for that. I assume you mean for the shop to assemble the engine.

 

[Driver4r]

A few hundred bucks? You can buy a new rotating assembly for that. I assume you mean for the shop to assemble the engine.

What rotating assy's are you looking at? The average ones i look at are 900-1k

 

[Thunder]

He said a "few" hundred bucks. I guess it depends on your definition of few. I think Scat or Eagle offers one for the small block for around $650.oo. It's been a long time since I've played with small blocks.

 

[Driver4r]

"Few" is 3, "couple" is 2

Callie has a crank ive been eyeing and it retails at 1500.