Engine Swap

 

 I been collecting the parts for the V8 swap for a few years. I added the belly bar a couple year after I got the car.

After getting the engine out the engine bay was pressure washed and touched up the spots that I missed years ago when I did a rattle can paint job with the engine installed.

I purchased a BluePrint dressed 302 crate engine to replace the 250 six. I had to swap the 60's style water pump that came with the engine to a 70's style for driver's side lower hose. I used a 60's style alternator bracket and 70's style adjustment arm and it worked out great.

The fittings on just about everything aftermarket had bad threads. The oil pressure switch bottomed out before the threads got tight. Temperature sensor bushing in the intake ran out of threads before it was tight. Ace Hardware was my hero that day

Aluminum crank and water pump pulley and a 0.97 in. crank spacer got the belts aligned.

The transmission is sitting about 1/2 in. toward the engine from were it was with the 6 cyl requiring the hole in the floor pan to be enlarged for the shifter. This also required a new transmission cross member.

An aluminum 2-core Champion radiator and fan shroud with a 16 in. Flex-a-lite 3000 cfm fan replaced the factory stuff.

The electric fan switch is located in the thermostat housing coming on at 185* and cutting off at 170*.

Relay was added for the cooling fan. I spliced a wire on the ingition switch side of the plug to bypass the resistor wire going to the coil to get full 12 volts.