So a little over a year ago I started the job to pull my old 350 for a nice built 383 in my 1974 small block auto. I've been working on cars for awhile, but I'm no great mechanic. Here's a few things I learned along the way and feel free to add for anyone else like me.

REMOVAL:
1. The archives for this forum will (not may) save your butt. If you're not sure on something, stop, look it up, or ask.

2. Be sure to check local city laws before performing "major" work on a car. I pulled my engine in a day under my carport at my house and by the end of the day the cops showed up to tell me that I had 3 days to get it running again or have it towed. I was NOT happy.

3. Before beginning removal of the old engine, take pictures of EVERYTHING. You may think you'll remember where it all goes, but good luck when it's weeks, or months, or a year later.

4. Get plenty of boxes and bins for parts. Keep like parts together and keep all the bolts in bins or better yet, thread it back into the part. Label EVERYTHING.

5. When disconnecting wires, label them on both parts. Even if not reusing the old parts you can use them as a reference for the new ones. Use masking tape or get wire number stickers from any hardware store.

6. If you have an automatic trans, remember that you have a removable crossmember. I didn't realize this til after I unmated the trans and pulled the engine.

7. Don't forget to label the shims for the hood so you know how many and where they go.

8. Use a cherry picker (shop crane, etc) and get an engine balancer. It helps getting the angle right.

9. Unless you plan on reusing your exhaust, just cut it off the manifold.

10. Make sure to remove everything from the old block. My new crate engine (which was broken in and dyno'd) didin't have things like oil filter adapter (didn't even know this came out), oil pressure sensing line plugs, flywheel, etc.

11. Do yourself and the vette a favor and clean up the engine bay. I tried using KBS coating (similar to POR-15) and what I found was it works really well at coating frames and things like that, but it doesn't coat perfectly even and something seen should just be wire wheeled, primed and painted. I had to go back and clean up all my brackets and pulleys I painted with that crap and almost had to replace my hood brackets. The only way to take it back off once you put it on is a braided wire wheel.

12. A wire wheel is the best way I've found to clean anything under the hood. It doesn't scratch much (unless it's a polished surface) and takes bulk dirt and grease off anything. From there use solvents. I used aqua clean that came with the KBS system to remove oil from parts to be painted, used two coats of primer and two coats of black paint.

13. Even if they didn't leak before, change the main seals in the trans and check all the bolt holes. I had a really bad helicoil job in one of my pan bolt holes that I had to fix.

14. Removal of the driveshaft is not required to remove the engine, just remember that if you move the car after removal the drive shaft will flop around so you need to support it with wire or something.

INSTALL

1. Check the new engine for any problems. Look in the valve covers, check the rockers for play etc, look in the spark plug holes, anywhere dirt / debris could have gotten in and clean.

2. Think about the order of install. I got gun ho and bolted everything to the engine (trans, starter, headers, intake, valve covers) and then it wouldn't clear going in. Do the things you can install because it's so much easier putting them on out of the car. Here's what I found you should do before installing: Install the intake manifold, put a little oil in each of the cyls and put in the plugs, balancer pulley(s), water pump and pulley(s), trans (if you have a removable cross member), check / install all the freeze plugs, and loosely bolt on the engine mounts.
Don't install the headers, carb, starter, valve covers, or distributor as these prob won't clear and/or may be damaged. The starter will affect putting in headers and have to be removed again later anyway.

3. Use the cherry picker and leveler to put the engine in. Take your time and make sure everything is clearing and no wires are being caught or pinched. It's really helpful to have the car lifted a bit on jackstands at this point.

SAFTEY NOTE: Never work under a car with just a jack. We've all had a jack fail at one time or another, bad idea. When using jackstands, I always push the car hard to make sure it won't budge. I don't want my car to fall off, but better the car now and not the car and me later.

4. While lowering the engine back in align the driveshaft back into the trans and keep lowering until just about in place.

5. My motor mounts were a royal pain, so do this right the first time. Big note, if you have headers, the motor mount bolt might touch or come really close if you don't point the bolt toward the front of the car. I did this wrong on both sides and the clearance from my header is about 1mm if that. If you're lucky and it slides right through consider yourself lucky. Mind wouldn't seat, then the ears weren't right so I had to use a small diameter bolt to pull it down, begin pushing in the mount bolt while removing the smaller pry bolt. Eventually you'll prob have the thread the mount bolt through. Then tighten up the loose bolts in the block and put on the nut and you're good to go. This took me for ever.

6. Think about what parts you're using and taylor the install process accordingly. I installed all MSD ignition which required installing the big 6al box that I made my own bracket to mount where my old coil was and mounted the coil on the other side. Be sure your components will clear each other.

7. I'd start from the back to the front, reinstall the linkages for the trans, the dipstick tube (use a new o-ring and lube with trans fluid), install a new modulator (th400) bolt on the cross member and trans mount, don't forget the pulley for the e-brake. I pulled the e-brake handle while the pulley was gone and you have to lower the handle, pull on the cable, lower it again (it does this in notches) to get all the slack out of the cable.

8. If you haven't done this already, remove the gas tank and have it cleaned. Blow out the fuel lines if you have a compressor. Don't forget there's still fuel in there. Disconnect all electrical and hose connections. Loosen the straps in the rear then remove the cross member. Buy roofing felt for the antisqueek pads. It's cheap, but you can only get it in big rolls so if you need some, let me know and you can have all of it you want.

9. I highly recommend going to pep boys or your local hardware store and buying a big value pack of grade 5 or 8 bolts. I replaced every bolt I pulled with new ones. You'll start to realize the bolts you use more often and buy LOTS of those in different lengths. This will come in handy soo much. It saves so many trips to the hardware store.

10. About this point I tried to bolt on my valve cover adapters to use the old style covers I had with my new style heads. The 1.6 roller rockers wouldn't clear so I had to take it off. I found one of the center hold down bolts sheared off in the head. They were barely more than hand tight. I was not happy. If you use an easy out, get a punch of something to give you a starting point. Otherwise you may slip and drill a little of the head Then when you use the easy out and notice that the head is square and doesn't fit well into a drill, THAT IS A SIGN! Not one of my brighter moments. I broke the easy out in my head. At this point I gave up and cleaned it all up. I'll have professionals fix this one.

11. The water pump rubbed a little on the pulley so I used washers to space out the pulley. I had to do this on all the other pulleys too. Looking back I prob should have just ground a little bit of metal so it would clear, but oh well.

12. Be sure to plug up the unused oil pressure sensing lines. There are two. One is on the driver's side directly above the oil filter and the other is right next to the distributor on the driver's side of it. If you don't plug these you'll have an amazing 60 psi oilfall.

13. Check the rockers for play and adjust if necessary. Since I removed mine, I had to reset them. Align the balancer to TDC. If there is no mark or you are unsure, use a piece of wire, or a zip tie, whatever to reach into the cyl and feel the piston move up until it stops and begins to reverse direction. Remember that this could be TDC or 180 degress off. Adjust the #1 cyl rockers and if they are not even or as you rotate the balancer the intake opens, you're 180 off and rotate the balancer 1 full turn. Rotate the balancer in 1/4 intervals and follow the firing order adjusting all the rockers for each cyl. With my roller rockers I turned the nut until I saw the push rod start to moved down, or felt resistance then turned 1/2 turn. One thing I didn't realize is that sometimes the push rods stick up a little so make sure to push down on them before adjusting to make sure. I had to redo all mine because of this.

14. When installing the headers, they may have to come up from underneith.

15. The stock throttle bracket for the carb won't fit on most aftermarket carbs and will have to be modified or replaced.

16. Be careful when installing new bolts. Very few bolts are fine thread, but some are, don't force anything. On mine, the balancer bolts, fan clutch bolts, and oil pressure sending unit bolts are all fine thread.

17. When installing the battery again, look for arcing when you connect the negative post. Many things can change and look for shorts or mistakes. I hooked the points wire up to the starter instead of the ignition switch wire and up where the connecter used to hook into the coil it started smoking from the current. Oops. Keep a fire extingisher handy just in case.

18. Make those fuel line connections tight and use good (NEW) fuel line if using rubber.

19. The trans cooler lines are a pain to line up right. I removed the clips holding the lines together and then tried to line them up. It seems to help to rotate them backwards until you feel a slight drop, then forward. A little greese on the line where the fitting rotates will help it turn freely so you're not fighting it. This is also true on all your rubber hoses that just won't go on...

20. I know it's hard to slow down and do things right when you're firing the engine for the first time, but take your time. Wait a few more days if you need to to make sure everything's right. You'll be glad you did.

Well, it's 5:47am and I've been up all night at work and I'm feeling a little fried. I'll add more if anyone's interested later.

 

Wow! Good post!

 

Very Good Post........ I am sure it will be usefull for those that have never done it before. Only #2 I would have told the cops to go bother a crackheads and leave me alone.

 

You were up all night and took the time to post this valuable information? I salute you!

 

Nicely done....

 

Nice post!

I had to laugh because I did my first complete engine swap this year and learned most of the things that you learned as well. I did know that I had a removable crossmember but i didn't check to see if the rear main seal had been installed in my rebuilt short block

Amazing how much engine oil comes out during cam break in without a rear main seal.

 

anything difficult to get to during disassembly, should be replaced with a NEW part at assembly.

 

Ouch, I feel for you man. I was so worried that something like that would happen. I didn't check the rear main, I'm lucky I guess. The only fluid that came flying out of it's natural place was when the transmission cooler line popped off because I forgot to put the clamps on.

I'm on rotating shift work and have been for about 4 months. It's really hard to find time to work on the old girl and I've lost a lot of sleep doing it, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

 

A few more things:

1. I tried explaining to 3 different exhaust shops I wanted a custom 2 1/2" mandrel bent exhaust with an X or H pipe and most would immediately say "we don't do mandrel bends" and try to sell me on their crappy plain steel normal bent exhaust with flowmasters. Nope buddy... Not happening. I finally bought my stainless steel (409) exhaust complete from Pypes for $599. To me, that's a steal considering it is stainless, mandrel bent, custom, I can install it, includes all clamps and hangers, and mufflers.

2. Took me awhile to realize that all the accessories run off the connection to the battery at the starter. My wiring harness was swung out of the way and when I hooked up the battery I couldn't figure out why nothing worked.

3. Anytime working near the starter, disconnect the battery. I nearly knocked myself out when I accidentally touched the pos term with the ratchet while under the car.

4. I don't know how most people do it, but to set my first start timing I brought the engine to TDC, marked where the rotor on the dist was, set my #1 plug directly on top of it and worked out from there, then hooked up the vac advance then started it. If you do that without the vac advance hooked up you'll have problems. I have issues with the words advance and retard and don't get it no matter how many times I read it. I LOVE my digital advance timing light.

5. I replaced my radiator core support during the install because mine was rotted. I found a forum member with a 75 support for $150 because on of the studs was broken off the bottom. Mine were good and were removable so I figured I'd mix and match. They were not the same. In 75 the lower rad supports are welded, not bolted and have studs instead of bolts. They also have a different shroud so no bolt holes for the support. I remedied this with $35 to my local radiator shop. They drilled the holes, tach welded nuts in and cut off the broken support, bolted on the one from mine, and blasted / primed it. The bolt holes weren't perfect, I had to drill my support one size bigger so it would align right, but not too shabby.

6. When I pulled off the rockers, I noticed that a few of the nuts didn't sit as far down as the others when I put them back on. Turned out the roller pin inside the rocker flipped upside down. I almost left it like that not knowing.

7. The vette oil tube dip stick is shapped a little funny. If you buy an aftermarket, you have to position it oddly or bend it or the dipstick won't go all the way in because it hits the fender.

8. I wired my 6AL ignition to the resistor wire figuring it wouldn't matter. It caused the car to stay running when I turned off the key. I ended up running a wire from the fuse panel ign to the dist.

9. My engine didn't come with an oil filter bypass adapter (the part that the oil filter screws into). I pulled the part from a junkyard. Good luck finding a gasket for this. I had to make one.

10. As soon as you know you want to swap out your engine, start buying parts. I bought parts months in advance and if I didn't, my swap would have taken a lot longer while my funds caught up to my parts needs or I would have cut corners I didn't want to.

11. Check the oil plug before filling the oil for the first time. I know dumb eh? Mine was just a little loose. I filled it and left. The next day I had a HUGE slick on the floor. The coolest part was I had lucas in the oil for startup and that stuff sticks to your shoes and doesn't just quickly rub off.

12. Decide how far you want to take the restoration before you begin and stick to it. While cleaning the tank I noticed there was light surface rust on the frame and a few other things. I found a lot of areas where there was stuff that was ok, but could be fixed and I almost got caught up in it. If you find something big or structural, by all means fix it, but if it's nothing, just take a note and leave it otherwise you'll end up with a full frame off without even knowing it. (Not that it would be a terrible thing, just I don't have the time or money)


You know, I think I'm turning this into my ranting about all the things that just ticked me off during my install I'm ok with that. Oh, and BTW, it's 2:36am and I'm at work again. Yesterday I got out early and started working on the vette at 3am. I had to be real quiet because I rent the garage from a woman in a residential neighborhood and couldn't wake anyone up.

 

Since I’m in the middle of swapping my motor this thread was a real help

Thanks
-Scotty

 

I replaced an engine in my 68 Skylark conv and my 69 Impala conv when I was in my mid & late 20's, back in the 80's. This sure brings back fond memories. You did a great job with this post and I did it pretty much the same way.
I had to draw diagrams of where wires connected, hoses etc, label things with masking tape, no digital cameras back then.
How many cups of beer, I mean coffee did you have to stay up all night?
Great post, thanks.
Glenn

 

Thats a great post. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

 

Lol, I think the navy would be a little upset if I used beer as my wakeup juice! Actually I can account only about a 6 pack to the entire process. Not that I didn't want to, but since the Vette is in a garage nearly 20 miles from here, I don't drink out there because then I'd have to drive back home...

Right now I'm working mids schedule 10pm - 8am. I get out early sometimes and just head out there to work on it and be quiet. I just got my exhaust from pypes and hooked up the power steering so after I get off work tomorrow I'm going to work on it some more and take it to the exhaust shop to weld up the flange.

I'm just glad I can actually contribute for once instead of asking for help

 

AWESOME timing on this post. I'll be pulling my motor next week and swapping in a crate ZZ4 and 2004R tranny. Thanks for all the info!!!

Merry Christmas!

 

Yep, still more...

1.) When I installed the oil sending unit just above the oil filter, I needed an adapter that wasn't included in the block. I believe it's a 3/8" fitting that adapts down to 5/16"?. I couldn't find the adapter at any of the autoparts stores and ended up buying a sunpro mechanical oil pressure guage for $16 because it includes the fittings and adapters. It was good because when I started my engine up the first time, for some reason the oil guage pegged and I had to hook up the mechanical guage. Still trying to figure out what happened to the guage.

2.) I installed the power steering pump back in today, I accidentally left or lost part of the bracket and had to order a new one. When you remove the bolt on the engine mount, it becomes really hard to get to, even with a wrench so a good swivel will do wonders in tightening it back down. Also it can be a pain to start with the bracket attached, start the bolt without the bracket and feel the angle, then put the bracket on and try again. It helped me. It also took me awhile to realize that there's only one bolt on the lower bracket to the block. There's a notch in the block that looks like a bolt hole, but it's not. I dunno if there is one on the original block, but not this one.

3.) When removing the gas tank, be careful with the fuel shutoff inline with the vacuum hose. This device prevents fuel from being sucked up when the tank is full and the angled down or sideways (or upside down ). This piece is plastic and old. I cracked the 3/8" connector and used epoxy to fix it.

4.) The lower radiator hose I got from autozone fits in really close with the fuel pump outlet. It actually got in the way. You can either use a straight fitting and bend the fuel line 90 degree's after the rad hose, or cut a little off of each end and use a little grease on the radiator to ease sliding the hose on since it's a tight fit. It will fit a little better then. My water pump is aftermarket and I believe it's pointing like stock, but may be adding to the problem.

5.) If you're running a new edelbrock carb, put a piece of wood or something on the top near the back of the carb on both sides and give it a whack with a mallot or hammer. It's really common for the float valves to stick when new and will cause it to flood very quickly. This has happened to the last two I've gotten from Edelbrock. Overall, I'm not very happy with edelbrock carbs. They do ok in giving you raw power, but they don't idle very well and won't help at all in the MPG dept. Quad's seem to give the best MPG and properly setup can yield good HP, but Holley DP's with a good setup seem to be the ticket.

6.) Speaking of the last one, buy a good fire extinguisher and keep in the car and in the garage. Look for what it's rated for and make sure it's rated well for class 'B' fires (liquid fires). Ask around how many people have experienced engine fires in vettes and wished they'd had one.

7.) When replacing the trans seals, be very careful as the case scratches very easily. I used a seal puller and gouged the case. It wasn't bad, but it could cause leaks.

8.) I've heard from several engine builders that especially on startup to use an upper cylinder lubricant. I'm using lucas fuel treatment and upper cyl lube now and prob will the life of the engine due to the results I've seen published about it.

9.) When I pulled the gas tank, I had it cleaned and chemically lined. Looking back I wish I hadn't gotten it lined due to people saying that it leads to gunk in the fuel system later on. Even the POR-15 rep said not to use their liner for that reason and he's trying to sell it!

10.) Don't forget that you should use a grounding strap on the engine, overall it's better for your entire electrical system and engine performance.


Feel free to add more stuff or hijack this forum. I'm just trying to help out people like me that are doing this for the first time (or 50th )to make fewer mistakes.

 

This is REALLY a GREAT asset and a good read.

Did you do the radiator as well while you had the motor out or is your good?

 

You should make this a sticky. Great work! Why did you pull the gas tank? I forgot the rod that hits the fuel pump and had to go back to AutoZone to get my old one. The harmonic balancer does not go down as far as you would think. Borrow the tool from AutoZone to pull it. Don't forget the shim behind the transmission. Use lock washers on the U-bolts that attach to the trannyside U-joint (you should buy new ones). I think I used 12 degrees of advance for my distributor. Flush the radiator before you do anything. I spilled oil the same way you did, but saw a the leak before I was done and tightened the plug. I had one neighbor call the cops and another neighbor tell the cops that I was a good kid and leave. I did my entire swap on a col-de-sac with the full force of the summer heat and uneven pavement. Hope I added to an already great thread.

-Adam

 

cduemig... Outstanding effort and the Forum members owe you a vote of thanks. You didn't write that up for your own benefit...only the benefit of us Forum readers. My suggestion is that you have someone in the "book editing" business do their "thing" with your write-up and publish a pamphlet of "Tips for Swapping out Your Engine". You could probably market it to all of the aftermarket suppliers. Great, concise, but thorough advice. THANKS!!!
7T1vette

 

Yes. People say that your crazy to put a brand new engine into a dirty engine bay so clean it up at the same time. Yep, that's true, but I think it's even more crazy to put in a new rebuilt engine that's perfectly clean inside and reuse the dirty radiator, dirty heater core, and dirty gas tank. The radiator will throw rust and gunk into your coolant system and the gas tank will gum up or put rust particles into your brand new or rebuilt carb. Not for me. I decided to pull them all and clean everything. I had the radiator tanked, pressure tested, and painted. Wasn't that much. They also told me I had a 4 row radiator and shouldn't have any cooling issues will my new high performance engine. Didn't realize that.

 

Smart move.