What's it take to convert to a SBC?
 

I have a 92 camaro with a carbureted ZZ4 engine and auto tranny in it. Lately I've been playing with the idea of swapping this engine and its 4L60 into a 4th gen firebird. I would plan on buying a V6 model or one without an engine and tranny in order to save on price.

Those that have done the SBC swaps - what are some of your biggest problems? I am kind of worried about the electronics of the dash since I obviously will not be retaining the stock ECM.

Any input would be great. Thanks.

I converted my '94 S-10 over, and it was challenging sorting out the wiring. I didn't keep the stock gauges, so this helped alot.

But I did retain all the items needed for street driving, and it took a few days to go thru and make sure we had it right.

I guess, the more of the stock dash you want to keep operating, will determine your level of difficulty.

You will also need to address the very high fuel pressure built into the car, as you carb won't be very happy with 50 lbs!! LOL!!

Otherwise, it will just be alot of elbow grease.

You will likely need different k-member if starting with a V-6 model. As far as electronics go, I can't help you much with that. Standard LT1 headers should work just fine.

Well said,
electronics will be the most difficult. But as far as switching from a 6 cyl to an 8, it's pretty east to modify mounts compared to getting guages to function correctly!
Especially when your going the other way...(eliminating the ecm) Wow!
But there is light, just did a search on speedo conversions and found several topics and parts on it.
Good luck..

:offtopic: any pics of the '57? I've got one with Corvette IRS and a early style LT-1 corvette motor in it with a 700R4.

When I converted a 1992 TBI car to a carburetor all I did was hook up the oil, battery, coolant, speedo, tach, and O2 sensors to the ECM and programmed ECM so it did not show trouble codes. That way the stock ECM was still in control of the dash, just not the engine. That worked good.

I wonder if this would work on the newer OBD 2 vechicles? Can you tell the ECM to shut off all SES lights and have it still function normally to run the dash?

Also - K member swaps sound scary and expensive. Is that really necessary, or can you just drill new holes for V8 motor mounts?

Thanks for the help!

I'm doing the same swap right now, I got a 95 Camaro V6 and I'm putting a 385 CID small block in it. Instead of swapping the K-member I just used a front engine plate, but if you want to run any accesories you'll have to use the LT1 motor mounts. I have an electric water pump and an alt. only. I followed the wires to the oil pressure sensor, temp and tach and hooked them up (I don't have the car running yet to check everything). Then for the speedo I used a speedo buffer from like an 89 full size pick-up and recalibrated it to send the proper signal to the speedo ( I did this on a couple of other cars also). I used a speed sensor from Painless Wiring. When I get it running I'll let you know how it all works. After lloking at the wiring diagram you can even hhok up the low-oil light if you have a 1 piece rear seal and use the LT1 oil pan.

K-member swap is not complicated - If I remember correctly - it was 6 k-member bolts, 4 steering rack bolts, a few brake like clips, and 2 brake line bracket bolts. You don't need to disconnect the brake line, so you don't even have to worry about bleeding the brakes). A couple of sets of jacks and jackstands and you can do it in an afternoon - a helper is great, but I've done it by myself (when going to tubular).

If you are looking for a v-8 k-member, I imagine you can get one pretty cheap from someone who's gone from stock to a tubular - free to $50.00

I made my own mounts using LT1 ones and some 1/4 inch plate steel. As far as gauges go, all the gauges will work except the tach. You need the ecm for the speedo to still work. You will have to modify the under dash to make the carb fit and distributor.

I am also undertaking such a project in a '94 Camaro. I am still in the disassembly process, so information such as this is a big help and answers a lot of questions.

To get the tach to work I used a gauge cluster from a LT-1 car, I forgot about that. The speedo needs a 2000 pulses per mile, so I used the speedo buffer from a truck and calculated the tire size, gear ratio and pulses per mile to get the corrcet jumper settings and recalibrated the buffer to send 2000 pulses per mile to the speedo. I've used the speed buffer to make the factory cruise control work on one of the cars at work, and on a 93 Camaro I converted to a stand alone FAST system. Here's a link to the guy's web-site that shows how to modify the DRAC module (speedo buffer).Speedo Buffer Re-calibration
Since I'm running a TH350 I had to try and figure out the pulses per revolution, so I might have to re-calibrate it after I get the car running.

You guys have any pics of setups?

I have some pics during mock-up in my webshots photo-album, here's a link to it:
Pro Street Z28's Web-shots Home Page

How do run your Alt. with your engine plate? Is it a low mount? I will be running a Elec. W/P also just trying to figure out how to hook up the one wire Alt.

I made a low-mount bracket that is intergrated into the engine plate. Basically I duplicated a steel low-mount bracket in aluminum plate and made aluminum spacers for it. As soon as I get the engine back out for the head swap I'll post some pics of it. I'm taking Thursday & Friday off so that I can have a four day weekend to work on, I'm hoping to have it running for our Street Car Race on Nov. 19th. I'm using a Moroso electric water pump drive with my aluminum pump. The reason I went with the drive instead of a pump is so that if I want to take it on Power Tour or drive it to work I can change the pulley on the pump and drive it.

Yeah I would love to see the Pics of the Alt. bracket. you have an awesome car man I just hope mine turns out half as good. I am playing with the Idea of the Pro Charger carb. style S/C kits.

Thanks, I can't wait until it's finished. Man the Pro Charger blow-through system with the right carb is hard to beat. Try and take some pics as you go.
Jeff