Ok Monte Carlo people, got a question for everyone, feel free to flame or ridicule me, as i am a GM noob.

Now i have plenty of engine car experiance, replaced and rebuilt many Ford and MoPar engines, never done a GM car before, yes i know, hard to believe, sad but true. Questions for everyone though.

From previous posts, you may know that my son has a 79 Monte with a 3.3. We are going to transplant a 350 into it. Great father son project.

Now, i have read that the 3.3 is based on a 350, with 2 cylinders cut off, just like the 318/3.9 MoPar engines, is this true?

If so, will the 350 bolt to the transmission, not quite sure what the trans is yet. its a 3 speed, did they put TH350's behind a V6? If i have to change the trans, do all gm transmissions use the same linkage?

If i keep the manifold, carb etc stock, do i need new linkages?

What wiring harness should i use? Is it easier to use a HEI Dist?

If i can keep the same harness, can i just get a V8 HEI and use it with the same harness?

Or is it easier to use a earlier non HEI/points set up?

Havent looked at the rear end yet, should i replace it with a stronger unit? Does anyone know offhand what axle they normally put behind a V6?

Those are my first major questions, thanks for any input

 

im going to answer as many as i can in no particular order. to my knowledge the rears are all 7.5s 26 spline axles. being that you have a v6 it might have 2.40s/2.70s in it. at least mine did many many moons ago with an open rear. you can rebuild it with a 28 spline carrier of your choice with 28 spline axles and it should with stand 12 second passes on a radial. if your not looking to get wild with the car then just a 26 spline carrier and gearing is fine. they can usually take some punishment as long as they dont hook and your not making any power. you can usually tell by the trans pan what tranny your looking at. it might have a 350 in it but i believe mine had originally a 250 the pans look very similar. try and search for pics online. i wouldnt bother with points. just get a factory hei they work well and are butt cheap at the yard. i would have to assume you wouldnt need another harness considering that the v8 cars all ran hei from 74 forward but im not a 100% sure mine already had a hei in it. on the carb and manifold your probably going to want to swap regardless if your going to drop a different motor in. the linkage should be fine my only issue was headers on a column shift car but was remedied shortly after with a bm shifter and cable setup. hope i was of some help and good luck with it. and look on the super bright side of things now your a member of the chevy family where 90% of the parts are interchangable and affordable.

 

darn thing keeps saying my message is too short.

Thanks for the info MonteMan.

I will check the pan out and see what it looks like. So the 6 and 8 ignition harness is the same? R&R with a V8 HEI distributer?

Yeah, i was going to use the carb/manifold etc from the engine i get or buy them.

Just wondering if the linkages would need replacing. The 6 sits way back in there so it should work it seems.

If we put headers on it, i think i will just remove the Z bar and put a floor shift in it.

Thanks

 

np man. i dont really know what you meant about r&r on the distributor. just look for a v8 in the yard that isnt computer controlled. you want one with a vacuum advance. they can be had at speed shops for like 50 bucks or buy a new billet one. i got mine from petronix for 150. if i didnt ditch my hei i would have given it to you for the cost of shipping. ill give you a link with engine identification numbers for blocks and heads so when you go hunting you get something half decent. if you get a later motor i believe 85/86 and up it should have center bolt valve covers and a one piece rear seal, and roller cam. which would be good cause then you wouldnt have to waste money with a retrofit kit. you could also look for a motor with vortec heads which will have all of the above and the vortec heads that are pretty good. down side to them from the factory is that your going to want to machine the studs since theyre pressed not screw in. and the vortec heads require a special manifold. but theyre the best flowing gen 1s youll find in a yard. i think best bet if you just want a driver is find a iroc or gta with the 350tpi in it thats trashed and take that motor. the tpi is a pig after 4500 but with a rebuild and a little work would make a solid cruiser. or try and find a van or a pick up with a 350 and do a rebuild on it and throw a set of decent iron heads on it. anyway sorry for the babbling. good luck.
http://mortec.com/

 

Oh i just meant is it cool to yank the V6 HEI and get a V8 HEI distributer? Those TPI engines would be sharp looking under the hood.

Those Vortec engines had Throttle Body injection didnt they?

wow great site, got some research to do

 

oh. well yeah if your going to run a v8 grab a v8 hei. points suck and dual points are twice as bad. theyre not worth it. i never had one but my buddys firebird did and he was obsessed with setting dwell and constantly wanting to throw new points in it. like i said just try and avoid the computer controlled stuff.the vortecs should be tbi but i would swap to a carb personally. the intakes are only like 20 bucks more than a standard sbc manifold and like i said theyre the best flowing factory gen 1 sbc head. obviously if your going to run a tpi motor just make sure you take the computer too. oh and be careful if you pull one from an iroc z cause they also had a tpi 305 that looks the same. honestly prices are so good on sbc parts that your probably better off just trying to find a 350+ block and get a set of iron eagle or sportsman 2 heads, or even vortecs that have been machined. heres a company with rebuild kits for a absurdly good price. oh also if you find a 400 which is unlikely but possible its the one time you want to avoid the 4 bolt mains. allegedly the 4 bolts are weaker than the 2 bolts in the main bearing web. im running a 4 bolt 400 and have yet to have an issue. quick external identification is 3 freeze plugs. if it doesnt have three it should have two and a clear boss for a third. also theyre known to run hot and warp heads that arent drilled for steam holes. they have a long stroke though so they dont need to rev to go and are guaranteed to be the torquest of the small block chevys. plus as we all know theres no replacement for displacement. oh and post some pics of your sons car. im a fan of the wrong year montes.

 

I agree, points are a pain, i went to put Pertronix ignition on the Super Bee and got it all installed, started the car, and the timing was no where to be seen, i am talking 40-50 degrees off.

I mess with it for a hr, just not working, finally call Pertronix. We try some things, finally we look at the part numbers, the box was marked wrong, they sent me a unit for a GM engine, just waiting for them to send the right set.


I had no idea there were so many different versions of one engine.

Back in the day, everyone wanted "camelhump heads" then it was Bowtie heads, whats the difference?

Think i will pass on the TPI stuff, i dont want to deal with the computer. Is the throttle body stuff worth messing with or should i just go with a carb?

I remember back in the day, everyone hated the 400s cause they suffered from cracked blocks, cause they were a 350 bored out to 400, true??

I thought i had some pics of the Monte Carlo on photo bucket, guess i didnt, i will take some.

 

nope the 400 is a different block. different bore and stroke. i know people hated the way the water passages were in them. you could always get a stroker kit for a 350. which is the 400 crank in a 350 block which will give you a 383 or you could go the other way around and do a 377. i personally like the 400. i have had cooling issues but only in bumper to bumper traffic. and ive got a little cam to mine. im also running a clutch fan. so once i switch to electric im sure ill be fine. personally i dont think the tbi stuff is worth messing with. im a carb man myself. im not sure about the bowtie heads but the camel humps are extremely dated 40+ years old and most arent drilled for accessories.theyre probably pretty hard to come by and once there all said and done will probably cost as much as a new pair of heads. im sure they flowed well for the time but now a days you could get a good pair of vortecs around the same price ready to rock that will blow them away. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-151124/ theyre not the greatest heads in the world but are a good price and a good factory upgrade, and can be found in most junkyards if you didnt feel inclined to buy a new pair.personally im running these. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WRL-011250-1/
thats the one great thing about the sbcs is that you dont have any of the **** going on that ford and mopar had. where theres no interchangeability,bell housing issues, and everything is overly expensive. also since you have a gbody car you can pretty much find parts everywhere. 78-88 cutlass, grand prix, regal, malibu, and monte carlo are pretty much the same. different dash boards but everything else is just about the same. oh heres that link from my last post but im sure youve heard of PAW.
https://secure.pawengineparts.com/sh....cfm?catid=158

 

So i found a 350 for $50, they guy bought it from a NAPA store, a core motor it sounds like, he was going to put it in his 55 Chevy, but decided just t buy a crate motor.

He thinks its mid/late 70s. I found a machine shop just around the corner from my house, had no idea it was there. Stopped after work but they were already closed. Got a idea what a .030 block clean up may be on a 350?

 

should be pretty cheap. if you look on the top rear driver side of the block youll find the casting numbers. and on mortech they have all the numbers on there. it should tell you what year and what motor it is and what car it came out of. did you get just the bare block or is it a complete short block or long block?