350 sbc v8 swap thread

[Marquisz3]

Hey there I’m currently in the process swapping a 350sbc and a th400 into my 1997 z3, here’s a write up of my process so far

got a 350sbc and th400 trans from a running 1975 corvette for a few hundred dollars

did a general refresh on everything , new gaskets, new oil pump, intake manifold, carburetor, spark plugs, wires and distributor along with just cleaning the entire motor with degreaser and repainting the block

got the motor running on the stand after setting the timing and wiring up my switch panel and started on dropping the z3 drivetrain

used a bunch of degreaser to clean the bay and installed my new sikky ls swap steering shaft for more clearance

got to work on the custom gauge cluster, cut the original housing and used a metal plate to give it an oem fitment

Moved the switching panels from the engine stand over to the center console panel

Sliding the engine and trans in

welded the motor mounts in and got everything mounted

finished the wiring for the inside switches and gauges and have everything from the engine wired up

Shifter for the trans is installed just need to add a plate in between it and the center console to clean up the looks

Now with the engine and transmission mounted in time to work on the cooling system, new crank pulley, and water pump pulley

 

[Zephyr]

WOW
Props to you! this is one of he coolest projects! Keep us posted and do share some YT videos. This is YT content for sure.
Thanks for sharing

 

[Duncodin]

Yes. As Zephyr said, Wow. Very interesting.

I'd love to drop a Rover V8 (Buick 215 ) in to mine. But I worry about the emissions regulations here in the UK. Very unlikely to pass with carbs.

What's the emissions situation like in the USA? Doesn't your car need to pass emissions tests?

Tell us about the prop shaft. Also, how.much reprograming of the engine control system was necessary? Sorry. So many questions.

 

[Zephyr]

Yes. As Zephyr said, Wow. Very interesting.

I'd love to drop a Rover V8 (Buick 215 ) in to mine. But I worry about the emissions regulations here in the UK. Very unlikely to pass with carbs.

What's the emissions situation like in the USA? Doesn't your car need to pass emissions tests?

Tell us about the prop shaft. Also, how.much reprograming of the engine control system was necessary? Sorry. So many questions.

Imho the sbc will never work with a BMW ecu. Its either a piggyback or carbs so not much left of the Z3 electronics.

 

[Zephyr]

Yes. As Zephyr said, Wow. Very interesting.

I'd love to drop a Rover V8 (Buick 215 ) in to mine. But I worry about the emissions regulations here in the UK. Very unlikely to pass with carbs.

What's the emissions situation like in the USA? Doesn't your car need to pass emissions tests?

Tell us about the prop shaft. Also, how.much reprograming of the engine control system was necessary? Sorry. So many questions.

I wanted to ask this in the other thread you mentioned it, why not an M62? Its done many times and many kits available

 

[Zephyr]

The question of 1.000.000 is what about that weak trunk floor that rips itself to pieces even with just an 1.9....

 

[Marquisz3]

WOW
Props to you! this is one of he coolest projects! Keep us posted and do share some YT videos. This is YT content for sure.
Thanks for sharing

I plan on making some videos once it’s all done for sure

 

[Marquisz3]

The question of 1.000.000 is what about that weak trunk floor that rips itself to pieces even with just an 1.9....

Doing some serious reinforcement next we’ll to it don’t worry

 

[Marquisz3]

Imho the sbc will never work with a BMW ecu. Its either a piggyback or carbs so not much left of the Z3 electronics.

The sbc runs off of 3 wires easiest swap of all time electrically and the th400 shifts via vacuum, I maintained the ZKE so I still have windows lights radio etc but the engine wiring is all on its own system

 

[Marquisz3]

Yes. As Zephyr said, Wow. Very interesting.

I'd love to drop a Rover V8 (Buick 215 ) in to mine. But I worry about the emissions regulations here in the UK. Very unlikely to pass with carbs.

What's the emissions situation like in the USA? Doesn't your car need to pass emissions tests?

Tell us about the prop shaft. Also, how.much reprograming of the engine control system was necessary? Sorry. So many questions.

No reprogramming in fact it doesn’t even have the ecu connected, maintained the ZKE to still have everything besides the engine, as far as the driveshaft I got a 1310 diff adapter and my th400 has a 1310 coupler so it’s just a normal 1310 driveshaft not anything super crazy, my county doesn’t emissions test at all, and most of the places I’ve been will just let it slide

 

[Marquisz3]

Here’s a photo of my wiring btw I figured I’d add that to clarify how it’s set up

 

[Duncodin]

Hope you don't mind me popping this back to the top.

How is your V8 running?

The sikky steering shaft - it's just a few mm thinner than the original, is that couple mm really necessary?

How did you route the exhaust manifolds especially the one on the driver's side? Any pictures of that?

 

[Marquisz3]

After getting rid of the fender dumps I switched to an exhaust setup where the drivers header wrapped around the front of the motor and collected into the passenger side in order to go back into a single exit, even with the steering shaft it becomes incredibly hard and not really doable to get the driver side to just go straight back (I'm sure there's some fabricators capable of it but it's an elite level job. The steering shaft didn't seem to be super necessary once it was all said and done though but any room
Helps. The site isn't letting me attach photos but also id note my headers were rams horn style headers which made it 10 times easier to build an exhaust around this chassis then trying to make some sort of long tubes work

 

[Marquisz3]

As far as how it's running I'm unsure because I ended up selling the car a while back, I drove it around 6k miles in the span of 2 months with 2 hour long trips and plenty of throttle, it's incredibly hard to kill a small block in my experience