The Camaro Club (UK)

OK guys, here's the thing, i have the opportunity of bunging a 472 caddy motor in the camaro, i know the engine, having built it a few years ago, (was going to put it in a 27 T, sold it instead, it has been sitting in my mates garage since)
The reason i'm thinking of this is that as stock, the motor puts out over 500 ft/lb torque and approx 370 bhp. As i'm running "Bonneville" gears in the axle, i feel this much torque would overcome the tall gearing issue, i know the caddy lump is fairly low revving, but then, how often is a motor spun past 5000 revs? (rarely, i know)
Do any of you guys think this is a good idea?

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I'M JUST TOO DAMNED TIRED TO BOTHER CHASING YOU !

Hiya Biff, do you know if it's an R or S code motor? The R code produced less power than the S code. Also do you know what year the engine is, as they dropped off in power from 1972?

from '72 onwards they were only producing 220 hp & 365 ft lb tq. It's a heavy old lump & tuning parts aren't that easily available in this country. If you just want an engine in a car to tool around in then it'd be fine, but for anything other than that, or for a bit of performance I'd pass on it tbh.

As to engines revving over 5000 rpm, mine does it somewhere everytime I take it out

cheers....Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

its the 10:1 compression version from 1968, and actually weighs less than a big block chevy.

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I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE......



I'M JUST TOO DAMNED TIRED TO BOTHER CHASING YOU !

In that case the choice is yours to make Obviously it isn't going to be a straight bolt in fit with things like headers, engine & trans mounts etc needing to be fabricated. Of course things like clearance of the sump to crossmember need to be checked, followed by clearance to the firewall, heater matrix, servo, steering box etc. Will it mate up to the trans ok or will you need an adaptor & will the prop need shortening? If the oil filter is front mounted on that engine like the 500's, then I believe it might have clearance probs with the front anti roll bar, so a remote one might need to be fitted. I'm sure I don't need to tell you,there's a whole bunch of things to consider when doing something like this, which is certainly not a common swap. Only you can decide if you feel that it's worth the effort. Anything is do-able with effort, time & money, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in I guess

cheers...Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

It'll be a lot easier than that Nige, the camaro is tube framed, therefore no crossmember, the firewall is about 10-12 inches back from the stock position, along with a healthy set back of engine, the steering is by rack and pinion, mounted in front of the engine, no heaters or servo, and the engine and box are on motorplates.
The headers will need fabricated though, (i already have a pair of flanges, and have built headers before on my tube framed 71 camaro that i had a few years ago).


The question i'm asking is, whether the swap would a good idea as i could do it for around £200?

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I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE......



I'M JUST TOO DAMNED TIRED TO BOTHER CHASING YOU !

Ahhhh!! now you didn't tell us that bit . Simple swap then without any clearance probs. If it's only gonna cost a coupla hundred quid then it's probably worth doing as it wouldn't take much to change it to Chevy lump at some time in the future if you wanted to. I thought the car had all the innerwings, bulkhead, steering etc etc. As I said though, really only you can make the decision as to whether it's worth doing, but i guess you've already made your mind up

cheers....Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!