'81 Engine Upgrade Question
Thread Starter
7th Gear
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
'81 Engine Upgrade Question
I recently purchased an '81 and am thinking about replacing the engine in 1-2 years. It will need to be completely re-sealed, but the expense is about half of what a new one would cost. How big can I go (displacement & horsepower) with the original transmission? Thanks for your help!
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 151
Likes: 1
From: Cedar Springs MI
I'm sure you will hear this a lot but it depends on how much you want to spend.
buy a Jegs catalog and pick. You can go from a the $1500.00 short block, 260 HP, 290 HP, or a ZZ4, or a 383 for around 5K. If you want to keep it stock looking and need all the pollution crap on it I would just get the 290 HP short block. If you can spend more and dont need top pass inspections spend about 3.5K and get a turn key. LS swap would be the utimate in cool but $$$$.
I dont need a new engine yet but I have been looking and dreaming of what I will do eventually.
buy a Jegs catalog and pick. You can go from a the $1500.00 short block, 260 HP, 290 HP, or a ZZ4, or a 383 for around 5K. If you want to keep it stock looking and need all the pollution crap on it I would just get the 290 HP short block. If you can spend more and dont need top pass inspections spend about 3.5K and get a turn key. LS swap would be the utimate in cool but $$$$.
I dont need a new engine yet but I have been looking and dreaming of what I will do eventually.
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 15,161
Likes: 17
From: coffee
Assuming you have an auto, they can handle a good amount of power, but if you blow it out, they are cheap to replace with parts that can handle basically as much as you could reasonably throw at it.
I agree with $pit, the faster you want to go, the more it costs.
I agree with $pit, the faster you want to go, the more it costs.
Thread Starter
7th Gear
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Thanks
Thanks everybody for your replies. It gives me something to think about. We need to pass a "smog check" here in Nevada, so I'll poke around and see if anyone's done a similar swap and been okay here. If it needs to be replaced, it'd be great to have something in the 350+ hp neighborhood!
