tersian

A little background:



I am the proud owner of a Yellow 1981 Corvette Coupe. I've had it almost five years now and have made little change to it mostly because I didn't think it needed much in the way of looks. However, in the way of power, it lacks plenty and it has over 106,000 miles on it's ticker. It's not really the car's fault, Chevrolet was just recovering from the smog era that pretty much killed every other muscle car. Now, after a long wait, the time has come to breathe life into this neutered beast and make it what it always should have been.

Just in case you're new to this project, I am swapping the stock engine from my 81 vette and replacing it with a 383 stroker that was built by AR racing in Sumerduck, VA. This is my first swap and my largest project of this type ever, so it should be interesting to say the least. In the picture above you see the car as it was, not as it will be, so below I am including a photo of what is headed into the engine bay of the vette. It's a beauty. The specs for the engine are below the picture.



383 Stroker
Trick Flow Kenny Duttweiler Signature Series Aluminum Heads
Keith Black 9.8:1 pistons
Eagle Steel Crank
GM Forged Rods
Custom Comp Cams cam grind
Comp Cams Extruded 1.6 Roller Rockers
520/532 Lift - 226/228 Dur @050

tersian

4-23-2005

Okay, I've had this engine for months now and have made little progress. Finally, and I mean finally got the hood off. My project is officially started. I have no pictures of it with the hood off but I just figured that was lame anyway. I also drained the old and coolant from the engine and removed the snorkel setup. I don't think I am going to be putting that back on when I put the new engine in. I know it really bring some good cool air right into the air filter, but it really covers up that beautiful engine and I don't think it really adds that much HP. I think it’s something like 1hp per 10 degrees above ambient(or something similar) I may try to make a custom cold air delivery system later, much later. Stay focused Luke. Next I will remove the radiator and possibly the radiator support. I did spend some time tonight looking up through the engine from the bottom of the car and I can't believe all the wires! This is not going to be the easiest swap in the world.

Here are some pictures of the stock setup:



This is my humble workspace, love it or hate it, it's all I've got.



This is the stock setup. It will probably be the last time I ever see this setup in this car.

tersian

Tonight I pulled the radiator, shroud and fan assembly out as well as pulling off the air cleaner assembly. No real problems here, but I'll step through it.



Here's what we'll be tackling. There are two bolts holding the shroud onto the radiator support, might as well take these off now. They are on the top of the support, holding the shroud in against.



You now need to unbolt the radiator from the support by removing the two bolts on the upper left and right of the support. The longer bolt is inboard. Make sure you rmember which way the support goes so when you reassemble you don't put it on upside down.



Here you can see the radiator resting on the back of the shroud, away from the support. You need to remove the sealing foam strips from the support(mine were just double side taped and completely rotted) so that the radiator will slide back far enough to pull the shroud out with the aux fan attached.



A heave and a ho, and voila! Remove the four bolts on the front of the fan clutch and remove the mechanical fan now.



You should have a pile of parts that resemble this by now. and an engine bay that looks something like this:

tersian

Electrical disconnect day! Now that the cooling system is disconnected, it's time to disconnect all that pesky power that seems to haunt us every time we think we are running right.

Let's start by getting under the car and disconnecting the starter solenoid and all the starter wires.



I know you see the large connection but wait, there is one more wire connected to a tiny nut where it's hard to see.



Yep, all the way back in there.



Go ahead and disconnect the ground strap while you're there.



Back up top, disconnect the generator/alternator spade connection. I hope yours looks better than mine did.



Remove the top bolt and all the wires connected to it.



Right in the middle of the picture is a sensor into the head that is the oil sensor, bubba had been messing with mine and was all taped up with bubba electrical tape. Pull both spade connections out.

tersian

Disconnect the choke/heat riser connection.



Idle air control solenoid



Mixture control solenoid



Coolant temp senson



Relax, have a beer, look what you've done!



Okay, done posting for now. Will complete this weeks progress later tonight.

stingraymaniac

looks good!

GrandSportC3

Thanks for the update!! I hope that you'll be as happy with your engine as I was/am with mine...

Pauld

Looking good, this is looking real familiar to me, I have just finished my engine overhaul to new heads, intake, cam and carb. Keep up the good work!

Eddie 70

Your workspace is way better than mine. I do have a 2 car garage but it is full of crap that I never use. Keep up the good work and be sure to keep us posted on your progress.

tersian

I have a little question... if the post asking how to remove an engine is in the tech forum, why wouldn't the answer be? Anyway, another update is coming next.

tersian

Okay, this session just consisted of removing more of the core components of the engine.



Remove the brake booster vacuum line(the chrome cover is not stock, it was a good deal[FREE].)



Disconnect the upper heater hose



and the lower hose... I hope your hardline connection isn't as ugly as this one is. I think that's a job for por-15.



Okay, back under the car, remove the 3 9/16th exhaust manifold bolts. I suggest soaking them in PB blaster or your choice of spray solvent. If you have air tools, this would be a good place to use them. I will be installing hooker cermacoat headers on the new engine, so I don't really care about the studs or bolts, but the ones I took off will never be put on anything ever again. They were rusted pretty bad.



This is the driver's side manifold.



Okay, unless you like a mid-afternoon sip o'the ol unleaded cocktail, I suggest you follow my lead and clamp your main fuel line before you take it off. You will get to wear a little delicious gasoline as it drains from the fuel pump, but nothing like if you were to just try and pinch it off or something. Nevermind the bolt and the hose clamp, that worked about as well as a fart in church.



take off the return line too.

This completes this week's 350 removal how-to. I know there are plenty of you that are thinking that this is real rudimentary stuff, but there are people out there who need this information because they are just starting. The reason I am doing this is because in the last week or two I have seen multiple posts about "how do I swap out an engine" etc. I just hope it helps someone.

Next time I post it will be disconnecting the vaccum lines and tranny and actually pulling the engine out. Hopefully.

GrandSportC3

I was surprised myself when it got moved...

tersian

I'll ask the mods directly, I really think it needs to go back, that's where people are going to get the best use of it.

79vetter

Thanks for the info so far. Its been really helpful to the us newbies. So please keep posting even the easy stuff because not every one has the know-how.

corvetteronw

I did this a few years ago when I owned (yes it was converted) an 81 vert with auto trans. I bolted a chain from the front of the passenger-side head and the back of the driver's side head. I did remove the shroud and fan but not the radiator. I unbolted the ac compressor and wired it off to the side. I unbolted the tranny and put the floor jack under it. I put the cherry picker on the driver's side and pulled her straight up and out after unbolting the trans and the torque converter. As I pulled up on the engine I pushed it ahead to unhook from the transmission. I did this with no help. Also installed it the same way after doing the Edlebrock intake/cam/heads/ distributor/355 thing. To hold the tranny up I put a couple of long bolts into it and placed a metal pipe across the frame rails. I jacked the tranny up a bit to install the pipe and lowered her back down. This allowed me to push the engineless car outside and clean the engine bay out real good. The car was an animal after these mods. I drove it another year and then sold it at Bloomington Gold in 2000 to a gentleman from Birmingham, Alabama. By the way, I snit-canned all the computer crap and let it run like my old 65 vert used to. If any one has questions I will be glad to help. I hang out in C4 so just IM me.Edit: Like a real tool, I did not measure the height of the carb and intake. Edelbrock advertised that it would clear the stock hood but it didn't. I had to cut a hole in the hood and put a cowl induction scoop on it.

CA-Legal-Vette

Don't worry about them. They can ignore it if they find it boring.

I'm very interested and thanks for being so meticulous in your pictures.

Pauld

Look forward to the next instalment

Jughead

Great documentation & pictures. Where's that guy who wanted a step by step instruction?

b-line

I have to tell you that is one of the best posts I have seen on the site. I have a 71 350/270 that is in need of a replacement. I have been wondering if I could do the change myself and your post makes me think I can. I really like that stroker set up and will probably do something very similar. Please keep us updated with pic's and comments.
I will be checking yor progress.

oregonsharkman

Lookin good tersian...

Your motor is VERY similar to the one I put in last summer from AR..

I think your have the same cam specs and 1.6 roller rockers, same crank/rods/---my piston are KB 10.3:1 and our heads are different your are Trick Flow and mine a Edel RPM.s

here's mine right before it went in the car:







Considering our spec are nearly identical your motor should sound just about like this:

http://home.comcast.net/~donjgraham/flowmastervette.wav

Have fun and keep posting the great documentation.