Which engine will fit 92 roadmaster wagon?

Will ANY tbi 350 5.7 litre engine fit into a 1992/3 buick roadmaster wagon? What am I looking for precisely for an easy bolt in? Is there a question I am not asking but should be?

 

Are you talking about the whole shebang from air cleaner to oil pan? If so, then the answer is 'not exactly'. That means that there are truck versions out there with different TBI units and cams than the car ones. These will be incompatible with the RM ECM. You can, however, put the RM specific parts on another TBI 350 and bolt it in. Engine and accessory mounts as well as the transmission patterns are all the same.

 

Oh....dear. So what you are saying is that if its a truck engine it will be a much more labour and time intensive swap as opposed to a car engine swap. And certain engine parts from the truck won't be compatible.

 

That's what I'm saying.

 

tell us what parts you actually posess for example, breather, exhaust manifolds, intake manifold or does your roadmaster have everything except your engine is broken?

 

I know it isn't a TBI engine but that '91 Custom Cruiser for sale with the Corvette LS-1 is pretty nice.


http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/3718421468.html



The only thing I know is that the intake manifold and distributor for a B-Body are different for distributor removal and installation service clearance because of the firewall inset.

 

It's a bad knock when hot. The car runs and possibly drives but the owner said when the car reaches operating temp it knocks bad. I have a video of start up and running but I don't know how toots videos...

I have no parts other than the bad engine and a good engine that I am not sure if its from a car or truck. That remains to be confirmed.

 

a truck SBC from 87-95 should fit if you use your exsisting intake and exhaust manifolds.
i have had a 74 lesabre that i used a 92 old Custom Cruiser engine with the intake, fuel injection ECM & wiring, throttle body and transmission from a 1998 silverado pickup.
it all worked fine together.
so basically you are doiung just the oopposite.
some truck & car throttle bodies are made a little different. if you tried to use a truck one on a car it would be a pretty big pain trying to get the fuel line to correct input on the throttle body.
so keep your complete intake/throttle body/etc. with the car and i think you will be fine.

 

Thanks all. The info was very helpful.

 

Actually, in almost all cases (there are caveats, so be aware) most all 2 barrel V-engine TBI's injection units are the same, different calibrations, settings, injectors, but fundamentally the same. Including how bolted down and how fuel is run into them. One difference I have seen is a V6 TBI (60* GM V6, 2.8-3.4 I think) had a slightly different throttle arm.

Anyway, a car/truck/van TBI 305-350 should bolt right in place of a B-body TBI motor and work well. Use your sensors, exhaust manis, maybe intake (altough those are mostly generic) and accessory units and brackets and go.

3 major items to worry about if switching motor sizes (305 to 350 or vice-versa) would be getting the computer chip and the detonation sensor calibrated for the motor installed, and getting the injectors sized for the motor installed.

There may be differences in the cam specs for a truck motor as compared to a car motor, but I imagine these to be minor. The most popular swap 350/5.7 truck motor was called a "K" motor by my friends, came out of TBI trucks with a "K" in the VIN. Flat tappet cam, one piece rear main seal, nice motor. Install in anything with the correct intake; one of those should bolt right in and run well. While Vortec (or "L31" motors) are a great engine, greta power and potential, there is more required to get them to work in a TBI application as the heads don't accept a standard TBI intake and the heads don't have an exhaust cross over, so no EGR, so can't run with smog. There are workarounds for trucks (special intake, exhaust mani, and a pipe to supply EGR gases), but I don't know if it would work in a passenger car.

A while back some of the GM parts houses (Pace Performance maybe?) had a TBI motor for Caprices and trucks that had the Vortec bottom end (roller cam, higher compression, better rods and pistons) with the "K" motor TBI heads. Just looked and couldn't find it, but that may be a way to go. Or get a nice Vortec short block, a nice pair of TBI heads, and put one together your self.

Good luck,
Tom

 

engine swaps

I know, that over at Ford, the difference between trucks engines and car engines, since 1969, when smog regulations kicked in---and trucks and vans were exempt---was that the truck engines could have more horsepower and torque than the car engines. Because the more power meant more smog. And, that in the mid-80's, when the 5.0's in cars started getting aluminum heads, the truck versions still had iron heads. The full size wagons, however, had iron head 5.0's all the way to the end of their run, to avoid problems associated with over-working the puny aluminum head 5.0's. Early Explorers with 5.0's have iron head engines in them, if you're looking for a swap or parts. Have never swapped any 5.0's. Had two go get an iron head off an Explorer to replace one on my Colony Park, as I was told "all replacement heads are going to be aluminum." at a world famous car parts store and a local fix it shop.

 

once the roadmaster engine is out it should be placed next to the truck engine.
there will be minor things that need changed like the truck oil pressure switch is usually at the top/rear of the engine and the roadmaster needs it next to the oil filter. the wires on the roady wont reach the top.

also the oil pan from the roady may need to be swapped if it has an oil level sensor built into it.

just little things like that.

 

That's all you have to do. Set them down on pallets (or bolt to a pair of $50 engine stands) next to each other and swap over anything that doesn't match. Much easier to do outside the car of course.

 

Yuk and Occupant are right, but you may find that even the oil pressure switch location is the same, as on my TBI motors the one behind the dist is for the fuel pump cutoff and the lower one is for the gage/light.

As a note from what I have on my 84 Monte Carlo (305 4BBL) and have seen on other V8 cars over the years, on a carbed car with idiot lights, the switch behind the dist controls the light and the choke 12V supply (with oil pressure you get no light but a heated electric choke); if the car has a real gage (no light), the switch is down by the filter, but the other above behind the distributor is still retained to control electric choke.

Had forgotten about the oil level switch in the pan, I don't deal with "high end" cars, heh heh. For that the pans would have to be swapped.

Good luck

 

I'm not aware of any stock production 5.0 aluminum head. They did sell a GT-40X head through SVO. I'm 99% sure even the stock GT-40 and GT-40P heads were all cast iron. You could have easily taken an E7 head from a Mustang and put it on your wagon. You need to find a new world famous car parts store and local fix it shop.