Help! Engine swap of L83 motor for X-fire 1982

[Tpolisjr]

I need to replace my moter in a 1982 Cross-fire VEtte. THe existing motor is trashed from a poor rebuild job. I am planing on replacing it with a GM Crate motor from GM.

Does any one have information on how to resuse the existing fuel injection system on the new motor. Since I have PA clasic tags that do not require emissions instection, is there a way to eliminate some or all of the emmsisions controls to improve perfomance on the new motor?

 

[bucket]

for the price of a motor you could almost buy another vette these days

 

[coffeejolts]

Ok, let me qualify this by stating unequivocally that I am not an expert mechanic. Maybe it could be done, and maybe it cannot; you'd need someone who is an expert on crossfire. But, why on Earth would you want to salvage the crossfire injection and put it on a perfectly good crate motor? I don't think it would be worth your time or effort to salvage it. GM Performance offers crate engines with fuel injection if you want that set up, or you can go with a carburetor and keep it simple. Either way, you'll be throwing away most if not all of the pollution control items from your old motor.

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Since I have PA clasic tags that do not require emissions instection, is there a way to eliminate some or all of the emmsisions controls to improve perfomance on the new motor?

Contrary to myth, the pollution controls on this era of car such as the AIR or EGR system do not hurt performance- they consume under 5HP total.

You can rebuild your car with a similar engine to original if you wish, or buy/build a modified engine with higher HP that will still look stock.

Either way will reuse many or all of the external components. There are many choices available. It would be helpful to know what went wrong with your existing engine. Are the heads reuseable? Block? Crank?

 

[6880 Mike]

FWIW: if your existing engine is original, rebuild it and keep it.

 

[Glensgages]

..... why on Earth would you want to salvage the crossfire injection and put it on a perfectly good crate motor?

unless your desire is to keep the '82 as-close-to original as possible, for value-purposes, I gotta agree:
putting a perfectly-good short-block below a Cross-Fire is like placing a great-tasting crouton underneath a dog-crap salad

:W

 

[GerryLP]

I need to replace my moter in a 1982 Cross-fire VEtte. THe existing motor is trashed from a poor rebuild job. I am planing on replacing it with a GM Crate motor from GM.

Does any one have information on how to resuse the existing fuel injection system on the new motor. Since I have PA clasic tags that do not require emissions instection, is there a way to eliminate some or all of the emmsisions controls to improve perfomance on the new motor?

What exactly happened to the engine? When you say "trashed" -what do you mean? A rod through the side of the block? Did they over-bored the cylinders?

A good, reputable machine shop will charge you between $900 - $1,200 to accomplish all the machine work. And an engine kit, good cam, and a little sweat will get you a rebuilt motor at around $1,500 to $1,600 dollars. That is much better than spending between $3K to $7K dollars on a crate engine (depending in choices).

I paid about $1,200 dollars for my Vette's engine work, and it included balancing of the moving parts, matching of bearings/journals/piston/rings/pins to the closest "blueprint" tolerances, 3-angle valve jobs (to assure unobtrusive valve seat surface for the flowing gases), and smoothing/beveling of sharp edges throughout the block.

If it is a numbers-matching block, it would be worth conserving. But, ensure that the shop won't erase the numbers, by asking them to only check the deck (top of the block at the piston bores) for squareness/flatness. Production line block squareness is from about 0.0015 to 0.0025", and if you won't be racing the engine, then this should be fine. Machine shops also use torque plates to simulate the forces acted upon the block when the heads are installed, so when they bore/hone the cylinders, the walls will be to closest tolerances in alignment or squareness under "installed" or "assembled" conditions.

Like Vettehead Mikey said, you should be able to retrofit the cross-fire components in almost any V8 Chevy engine. I am sure that we have some cross-fire owners here who have learned to keep them tuned just right, so these CAC members can help you along.

GerryLP:cool

p.s. You can spice-up the engine by bumping the compression ratio and stroking the crankshaft (which will give you added torque). Think about this, the difference in stroke between a 307 CI V8 and a 350 V8 CU is a mere 0.25" of an inch.