more parts, this is getting expensive...I should have the block back on friday!

 

be ready to clearance that pan.

 

what happened to stroker-clearanced?? Have I been lied to??

 

yes but not by too much. i had mine off and no about 4 times to make me happy.

 

So you had to clearance for the rod bolts then? How about fitment in the car did you run into problems there or no?

 

yes and i actually installed a tubular k member at the same time. so not sure on a factory k member

 

This is where I am at now, the heads are on their way and should be here on thursday. My engine will not be back until next friday now due to some unforseen circumstances involving my machine shop. I am still waiting on the rest of the parts to do the swap but I have the wiring harness completed and am ready to cut the hole for the shifter. I must say that pulling the motor out of the bottom even without a lift is a piece of cake.

 

Heading up to the shop tomorrow afternoon to assemble the longblock, I still have some work to do on the intake and a little bit of wiring left to do inside the car for the swap. If all goes well I am hoping to fire it up next weekend, or the following week. After a heat cycle and some spirited driving to seat the rings and make sure I am not going to have any clutch related issues or anything else arise it is going up for a dyno tune.

 

looks great man

I want those heads lol

 

thanks! I must admit the heads actually looked better than I expected when I pulled them out of the box! I haven't seen any numbers or times out of these heads but if they perform as good as they look it should do well

 

Nice project going on there. Are you just going to bolt those TFS heads as is? or sending them for some porting? 185cc is kind of small for a 383.

 

I am going to try them out "as is" for a couple different reasons, money being the main reason. I am running a baby cam so I don't think the runners are going to be a huge issue. I am sure I am leaving quite a bit of peak HP on the table but it should be a fun car to drive with lots of bottom end. I figured I would send them out for porting next winter if I am disappointed with the results but I think it will be fine. Then again I have been wrong in the past

 

I have that same pan with a 3.8 eagle crank and 6inch rods. All we did is clearance the block.

 

thats good news, I am sure if there is any clearancing to be done it should be minimal. I have recently heard of some issues with splayed caps and the dipstick so I am going to bring the dipstick with me so I can test fit before I button it up. Usually that is one of the last things to get installed so I am sure that could have saved some potential headaches!

 

The only issue I had with the oil pan is that the oil cooler was a little hard to get on with the pan mounted. I had to bend the lip a hair to get the cooler mounted but it wasn't the sealing surface so it's no big deal.

 

Motor is longblocked, I should be finishing up the tranny swap and installing the motor this weekend!

 

JB

kudo's on the build. While my conversion is on a B-body what i did on tranny hole was lift the T56 up with a jack (after it is bolted to motor) and use a sharpie pen to outline the opening as the tranny was lifted in place. drill 1/4" hole at each corner and used a sabre saw to cut the sheet metal (cut it like butter). A Dremmel should also work. If you are using the HURST Pro Billet shifter cut 1/4" larger hole if shifter actually sticks through the hole. B-body does, don't know on f-body.

doing all this in a garage on jack stands.....been there and done that :-)

 

thanks, I did mock up the tranny and traced the shifter like you had mentioned but when the lower shift boot arrived I realized that there is a lip on the bottom of the boot that corresponds with the stock floor cut. Me being a bit of a perfectionist or maybe a bit of OCD I am going to trace out the lip on the shift boot and re-cut the hole so it looks like factory

 

Swap looks good so far! God i haited the T56 swap but the aftermath is worth it. Have fun!

 

Sounds like a fun car.

I know the feeling about "the ol' lady" being pissed, lol. You should see my spare room, I've been stock-piling parts over the winter. She gives me **** about it all the time. I don't care.