82 chev elcamino v-6 to v-8 drivetrain swap questions!!

[joecamino]

first i would like to say the car has a v-6 with a computer on the passenger side kick panel. the car is from the us (oregon).
1-----can the computer run a v-8 or can i just replace it with a different computer?

2-----what would be the best donor car i can get to do the entire engine/transmission swap without giving me too much greif?

3-----my plan for this car for now is just the v-8 swap so i can have a really nice summer driver !!!

any help or advice you guys can give would be fantastic, pics or links would be great also, thanks joecamino.

 

[guitargoalie]

1-----can the computer run a v-8 or can i just replace it with a different computer? To my knowledge you can run with the V6 computer as long as it's Chevy v6 to Chevy v8. The computer only controls the engine timing and the primary side fuel mixture, so that means if you put on a q-jet that's computer controlled the computer will control the primary and idle mixture just like it did on the 2 barrel, the secondarys are still old school and mechanically run. That being said I would say if you can grab a computer out of V8 donor car because the timing and fuel tables are most likely different. I have a computer from my El camino sitting around if you end up wanting it.

2-----what would be the best donor car i can get to do the entire engine/transmission swap without giving me too much greif? I would say anything between 81-87, sometimes in junkyards you can find solid running G bodies and those would be a great place to start, but really you can source your V8 out of anything with a small block you'll just have to spend more time getting all the sensors and exhaust parts you need. As far as the trans your not just limited to what came factory on these. Some of the V8's still came with the lame duck Metric 200 transmission. With the stock crossmember you can use the stock TH200, A TH250 which is like a TH350 but slightly lighter duty, an adjustable band for second gear and usually are lockup transmissions which is perfect to work with your computer. You can also use a good ole TH350 on the stock crossmember and there are TH350C's that come with a liockup torque converter.

3-----my plan for this car for now is just the v-8 swap so i can have a really nice summer driver !!! This should be very doable for that and as time goes on and you get a "performance" buzz you can always throw the go fast goodies in as you go along.