mferreira

Im just curious, has anyone ever managed to get a carbed small block to fit in a 4th gen without cutting the cowl up? Maybe it would fit with a really low profile intake? I was also looking at the MSD front drive distributors, anyone ever use one of those setups in a carbed 4th gen?

HotRod H269

i just built a 02 camaro. it was a v-6 car.I bought a bmr tubular crossmember with the small block mounts.I installed a 96 vortec engine and used a compcams thumper camshaft. cut the vortec heads for bigger springs and installed a performer intake for vortec heads.a quadrajet carb fits without any cutting.The only way to do it was to leave out the bottom bushing under the engine mount that bolts to the k-member so that the engine set a 1/2 lower.i also installed a 350 turbo transmission and used a bmr transmission tubular crossmember.i moved the engine back as far as i could get it.i also used pacesetter headers for a 93 to 97 lt1 car and they work fine.also had to change out the pedal assembly from a 97 lt1 car and used a 85 S-10 2.8 V-6 throttle cable and used a 79 corvette throttle cable bracket,it's still available thru G.M.
I installed a 85 camaro 7.5. 10 bolt,its 4 7/8" shorter than the factory rearend.I can run 15/8 wheels with 4.5 backspace and they are tucked. the car runs 7.60's in the 1/8 at 90 m.p.h. and 12.10 at 113 in the 1/4. it's a fun car and i usually bracket race it weekly.

HotRod H269

i forgot i use a hei distributor it will fit with no cutting.I put the engine in from the top,less intake.it has to be turned side ways with the balancer turned toward the driver side.after i got the engine bolted in i then put the distributor down in the intake and then,less distributor cap and put the intake and distributor on at the same time.It's nice to have a extra pair of hands to do this.the distributor cap will go on but you have to leave the transmission crossmember off and tilt the engine back a little.it not that bad but it can be done. hope this helps.....jeff

mferreira

Jeff thanks for the info. Im thinking of doing the swap on my 94 v6 firebird if/when the motor or trans ***** the bed. I think it would be nice to have a v8 4th gen that I dont have to send to someone else to tune. That being said, Im not too keen on chopping up the cowl to get it in there. Do you have any pics of the car/engine bay? Id like to see how everything fits in there.

AutoRoc

I've seen some with the carb mounted SIDEWAYS. I'm guessing that gets the bowls out of the way at least... hehe Air cleaner would still be in the same location.

Victor Junios intake is probably the lowest available. You could possibly mill it even lower... shave a 1/2" off of it maybe..

cambirdracing

iTrader: (4)

Don't count that 3.4 out yet. I have 266,000 miles on mine and drive it 115 miles everyday.

mferreira

Holy crap thats the highest Ive ever heard, thats awesome. Have you had to do any major repairs to it?

cambirdracing

iTrader: (4)

The most major was having the tranny rebuilt after my teenage son drove it. I put a 3.42 posi out of a 96 LT1 M5 Bird and had to rebuilt it once. Rack and pinion and p/s pump. Getting close to changing the ball joints. Countless window motors, at least they had lifetime warranties on them. the most major on the engine was the intake started to leak oil at the rear of it. Can't think of anything else. I bought it october 04 with 165,000 and I put the rest on there.