350 out of a 3/4 ton van......will it work?

[1986Silverado]

Thinking of buying the 350 out of one of my companies wrecked vans. It's a '99 3/4 ton Chevy Express. If I buy it I will use everything but the fuel injection unless I can figure out a way to make it work with my th-350 and not having to dump a load of money into it. My questions are, do they make a carb intake to go with the vortec heads? Any other issues I should know about? Anybody else ever done this?

[1986Silverado]

May do that as I will be able to get anything off of it event he tranny which should be a 4l80E, and a 14 bolt rear.

[kevinr1970]

Why not take the motor and tranny? You should have almost everything you need from the van to make the conversion. Shouldn't you???

[Tom]

I have a 99 vortec 350 in my 79, about to go into my 78. Used a RPM intake, 600cfm carb, HEI with melonized gear from GM, ramhorn manifolds.

If you convert away from the FI you'll need to replace the timing cover and remove the ring from the crank snout that was used to trigger the crank sensor. Other then that its a simple bolt in. Enjoy!

[1986Silverado]

Originally Posted by kevinr1970

Why not take the motor and tranny? You should have almost everything you need from the van to make the conversion. Shouldn't you???

No time to do a conversion, it would be going in my daily driver so I would have to be able to pull the old engine, stab the 350, and get it running over a weekend.

[Greenlee]

Originally Posted by Tom

I have a 99 vortec 350 in my 79, about to go into my 78. Used a RPM intake, 600cfm carb, HEI with melonized gear from GM, ramhorn manifolds.

I was thinking about getting ramhorm manifolds instead of going with headers on my truck. I have a 76' Silverado with a completely stock 350 crate motor that was put in new a couple of years ago. Can you give me any info. on the ramhorn's with respect to performance and what will fit my truck? Thanks!

Scott

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Greenlee

Can you give me any info. on the ramhorn's with respect to performance and what will fit my truck? Thanks!
Scott

Well I used 2" ramhorns, which came on 67-72 chevy trucks among other things. They are just a step above normal manifolds. The good ram's were corvette pieces with 2.5" exits, but they are rare. They are still avalible threw GM at $200 a pair new, but you get two left side manifolds which have a bracket on them you need to cut off [I think its a generator mounting bracket] These manifolds are about equal to shorty headers. I've had mine for a few years now, and love em. No problems, and easy as heck to get to spark plugs.

[bigarmzz]

Originally Posted by Tom

Well I used 2" ramhorns, which came on 67-72 chevy trucks among other things. They are just a step above normal manifolds. The good ram's were corvette pieces with 2.5" exits, but they are rare. They are still avalible threw GM at $200 a pair new, but you get two left side manifolds which have a bracket on them you need to cut off [I think its a generator mounting bracket] These manifolds are about equal to shorty headers. I've had mine for a few years now, and love em. No problems, and easy as heck to get to spark plugs.

call me dumb here, but if you get "two left side manifolds"....wont the right side be pointing towards the front?

got a part # for these 2 1/2" rams from GM?...place to get em cheap?...sounds good, as long as there both pointing to the rear

[Tom]

2.5" ramhorns and about half of the 2" ramhorns exit directly down, not angled back like stock manifolds.

[pedrofixlater]

the cheapest way I know to do this is to use your current 350 intake but you will have to modify your 4 center bolt holes the vortec head 4 center bolt go almost straight no angle where your intake is set up on an angle. I did this to my sons 92 fire chicken. worked fine

[Tom]

Originally Posted by pedrofixlater

the cheapest way I know to do this is to use your current 350 intake but you will have to modify your 4 center bolt holes the vortec head 4 center bolt go almost straight no angle where your intake is set up on an angle. I did this to my sons 92 fire chicken. worked fine

Vortecs don't have any center intake bolts, only the 8 corner ones. You must have put a TBI motor in his car, not a vortec motor. Besides, this would create a huge mis-match between ports and hurt performance a bunch.

[Boog]

Someone posted this link sometime back when I was looking into horns.
http://store.yahoo.com/dpstore/repai...-350-5-7l.html. Brand new manifolds to fit a wide range of vehicles. Hope this link works.

[jimfulco]

GM part numbers for 2.5" Corvette ram's horn exhaust manifolds:
Left 3797901
Right 3814970