BBC IN A 85 C4

[lilbob]

I HAVE A 85 C4 VETTE THAT THE MOTOR AND TRANS ARE BAD AND I ALSO HAV A 81 CHEVY TRUCK THAT THE BODY IS NOT THAT GREAT BUT IT HAS A 496 STROKER BIG BLOCK IN IT THAT IS NICE. THE THING I WANT TO KNOW IS IF I CAN PUT THAT MOTOR IN MY VETTE AND WHAT I WILL NEED TO MAKE IT WORK.

 

[grumpyvette]

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almost everything you'll need to know to successfully do the swap is in these thread,s after reading thru the threads please post detailed questions, as Ive done that swap several times and in most cases I know whats involved, and yes you best know how to weld and not every parts a direct bolt in. but its far from impossible to do the swap if you just think thru each problem and how youll get around it.
just a point I will post based on past experience
I had a radical 496 big block in my 1968 corvette
the 10 bolt rear differential held up ok UNTIL I installed slicks,
street tires act like a FUSE or shock absorber in that the lack of traction, greatly reduces the rear suspension torque loads and impact shock loads, once you learn how to apply power in a rational manor and stop the floor it and pray, aim and steer drive approach, you learn how to control and rapidly accelerate on street tires.
yes the addition of racing slicks, and the greatly improved traction, can and will most likely trash the rear differential , but street tires and learning to rationally apply power, won,t generally cause a rear differential to fail, but if you do learn to drive like a rational person with some understanding of the stress levels you can greatly reduce but not eliminate that potential problem


SIX SPEED MANUAL WITH OVER DRIVE
http://americanpowertrain.com/i-8521636 ... or-gm.html

I've been a fan of big block engines for decades and had a low 10 second 1968 corvette with a crower fuel injected 496 cubic inch big block engine with side exhaust,and a full roll cage.
Ive often wondered if I could use side exhaust on a C4 corvette

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=3814&p=43882&hilit=crower+corvette+1968#p43882

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crower mechanical stack injection.

if you can visualize a chrome bumper corvette similar to this picture with those stack injectors sticking thru the hood in a burgundy colored corvette with larger rear wheel flares a tubed rear with huge tires and a full roll cage you be visualizing something similar
Ive always just used the HOOKER or DOUGS side exit headers with the HOOKER or DOUGS side pipes, on my big block corvette,or other C3 corvettes I work on and Ive generally found side pipes provide the best power PROVIDED you fabricate a low restriction muffler insert rather than the factory inserts , and the reason was that the under the car clearance did not allow the use of a true dual 3" exhaust with adequate clearance, while side pipes use a free flow 4" collector which allows far less restriction. something any correctly set up big block you set up to breath would require! all the factory available muffler inserts are restrictive, so restrictive to flow that I've seen dyno tests where just removing the muffler insert in each side pipe was worth 60 plus peak horse power the real advantage of side pipes is that most factory headers have 26"-to_29" primary tubes to make the header fit easily in the area along side the engine, but if you understand the math of a tuned exhaust, it requires a 36"-40" primary pipe length to get the ideal cylinder scavenging, something that just happens to be similar to the length of pipe used in side exhaust set-ups, a properly set up side exhaust can be tuned to provide excellent results.
the muffler inserts vary a great deal in quality and how effective they are in reducing noise so you obviously have options, most of the factory inserts are far more concerned with noise reduction than maintaining peak power levels so I found I had to fabricate my own inserts.
what I eventually found, out was that I could custom fabricate (cut and weld) perforated steel sheet ,
https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.c ... &top_cat=1
into cones, similar to the expensive one pictured below and weld them spaced every 6" on a thread rod and make a baffle insert , for the side pipes that did not noticeably restrict flow, or power, but did reduced noise.

btw use poster board(CARD BOARD) and tape to make a pattern , to use before your cut perforated steel to make the cones, youll need a shape thats roughly triangular, the total open area of the holes in the perforated sheet exceed the surface area of the open 4" diam side pipe resulting in little if any restriction to flow

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=495']viewtopic.php?f=56&t=495

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=961']viewtopic.php?f=56&t=961

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=185']viewtopic.php?f=56&t=185

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1166']viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1166

http://forum.grumpysperformance.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7831']viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7831

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HOK-2224HKR/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HOK-2224-3HKR/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HOK-2233HKR/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HOK-2222-1HKR

these muffler inserts below help reduce back-pressure, over many inserts, keep in mind that the efficiency of the headers scavenging the cylinders , and helping to draw in the following intake charge,is almost totally dependent on maintaining a very low flow restriction or back-pressure in the collectors ,especially at mid and upper rpm levels

VIDEO SIDE PIPES HOOKER INSERTS VS SPIRO INSERTS

http://www.spiralturbobaffles.com/

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=495

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=7831&p=27049&hilit=side+exhaust+dougs#p27049

these baffles above seem to work reasonably well but IVE always preferred building a custom set of baffles using perforated stainless, for all the internal baffle components on my corvettes

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=495

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=496

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=961

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1166

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=1518&p=3473&hilit=preforated#p3473

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=1507&p=3617&hilit=baffles+exhaust#p3617

viewtopic.php?f=80&t=793&p=1150&hilit=baffles+exhaust#p1150

viewtopic.php?f=62&t=1518&hilit=perforated