I bought a 1981 camaro and I was wondering would a 455 pontiac fit in easy.
I used to have it in my 1979 trans am so I am thinking it would fit in. What I would like to know is if I would have to change the motor mounts.

thanks

 

for gods sake noooooooooooooooooo! dont ruin it. but yeah you can make it work. i think its more than the motor mounts tho. you will have to either get a tranny with a B/O/P bolt pattern or an adapter. i think there are some other things too.

 

I saw one in the junkyard last week. I had to stop and take a second look. Nothing special. Pontiac engine, cast iron exhaust manifolds etc. I never looked to see what tranny was behind it.

 

Easy as pie. We did this to my son's all original and all boring 1979 Z28. Made the car much more fun to drive compared to the pos SBC that was in it. A Pontiac 455 is a low rpm torque monster so you can't expect the crappy drivetrain that Chevy put in the camaros to stand up for long. With about 386rwhp/460rwtrq my son busted his TH-350 and 10 bolt pdq at the track. After we upgraded with a Tremec TKO and a Moser 9" the car ran mid 7s in the 1/8th mile, got 15 mpg on the highway and had ps, pb and cold A/C. And it would pull 1.60 60 fts. This from a very mild rebuild using a factory cam, smogger heads and factory cast rods. If you have a 400/455 you can make a very fun street car that will show its tailights to most LS1s and 4.6s out there for very little $$. Everything is a bolt in and all of the parts are easy to find. Go for it.

 

Easy as pie. I'm going the oposite route, removing the 400 Pontiac out of a 68 and dropping in a SBC 350 in. Why might you ask, because I already have one car with the motor wedged in and I'm tire of fighting tight places. The Pontiac will be an awsume torque monster. What ever you do, do not try and cam it like a Chevy, it will be a slug. Most of the later Pontiacs were low compression engines, large chamber heads. So earlier heads will boost the compression up. Pontiac parts are becoming hard to find and there are a lot of issues when building up the motor.
If you have to have any machine work done, then take it to someone that knows these motors. You can get bearing in oddball sizes but they will cost you an arm and a leg. So for crank work, the best bet is to have the bearings set, measure the bearings and grind the crank to fit.

 

I have a 1974 455, and I have a set of heads that came off a 400 ram air 111. I might try and get the heads to work but I think I have to buy dish pistons first.