I am trying to put a 79' Olds 400 small block in my 82' Trans am. I got the old motor out (piece of ___) and tried to put the 400 in but the motor mounts wouldnt line up for me. I just wanted to know if anyone knows how I can get this motor to work in my car. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Since no one in their right mind (no offense) would swap in an Olds motor where a SBC/BBC would bolt right up, there are no aftermarket parts for the conversion. Everything must be fabricated.

 

....Why is a 400 Olds that much different from a 400 Chev??? And before you tell the guy "out of his mind" may be you should ask some questions? May be its an 800 horsepower 400 Olds that he got for free??? Never know, do we??? B...

P.s when I put a 400 small block in my '84 Camaro I had to use big block chev. motor mounts. The 305 ones didn't fit..... Bill

 

So its an Olds 403 out of a 79 T/A? Id like to see one of those make 800 hp. Seriously, Id like to see that.

It much different than an SBC 400, because its a BOP block. Big difference.

As for having to use different motor mounts for the sbc 400, I was under the imperssion that BBC, and SBC had the same mounts.

 

...dual turbos....

 

With twin turbos, a small block 350 can make 800 horsepower fairly easily. And you don't have to fabricate every freakin thing in the engine bay.

 

You're going to need to find a tranny with a BOP bolt pattern. Chev uses a different bolt pattern tranny than Olds, Pontiac, Buick and Caddy.

If you're going to drop an Olds into the car, why waste your efforts on a 400? Drop in a 455. They're externally the same size.

 

There is an apapter plate that can be used to put a bop engine on a chevy trans...look at a jegs catalog. As far as a trans there are a few options...B&M makes a mount kit for the camaro torque arm that can mount a t350 or a t400, they sell for around 125.00, If you wanted to keep a 700r4, I have seen cars that some one modded to make the torque arm attach to the crossmember instead of the tailshaft, it was a simple piece of angle iron about 7 inches long bolted to the member then drilled and tapped to accept the factory mount..actually looked better than GM`s way of doing it. and of course you could always give to steve spohn`s retirement fund for one of his tubular third links. So it`s not that hard to do it, if thats what you want. use factory frame mounts that match the olds engine bolt em up to the motor and sit it down in the cradle (after the chevy pads have been removed) bolt up the trans and complete the swap, lastly after all fitment issues have been addressed go ahead weld the frame mounts in, or bolt in if you want. You will have to drill the holes yourself. Gm has done this sorta thing for many years...3.8 buicks have been in f-bodys for over 20 years and were right to the end. I bought a 77 ols delta 88 that had a chevy 350 factory. the 2.5 L4 in the camaro`s is a pontiac motor, see it`s not a new idea just an unmoral idea.. I most admit there`s no replacment for displacment, regardless of the division that produced it.

http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/487725

 

The replacement for displacement... Turbo.

 

Thanks everybody for the info. and as for the negative stuff I got the rebuilt Olds. motor from a boy for 125.00 because his 79 Trans Am got totaled. Im not worried about the horsepower because I have a 97 Heritage Addition Z-28 Thats got more than enouph power to outrun all the fords around were im at.

 

If you're not worried about HP why not just drop in another 305, or better yet, a 350. They can each be had for the same price as that Olds motor you got. Both will bolt right in with no problems, and make more power than that Poncho could ever dream of. In the end you'll spend a ton of money and god knows how much time to have a hacked up car that won't get out of its own way. But if you REALLY want that Olds motor, go for it