C3 Corvette Engine Swap - Transplant Surgery

With the car back in the shop, we were ready to install the new engine. We appreciate Inline Performance’s assistance with the project, and we plan to give them the first ride (albeit one at a time) once the car is roadworthy.

Since our car was originally equipped with a small-block, our new engine bolted right in with a minimum of maneuvering. It wasn’t even necessary to remove the hood in our case.

We’re replacing our factory starter with this smaller, high-torque unit from MSD’s Advanced Power Systems line of products.

The MSD uses less power to create more cranking power than the stocker, a critical upgrade on our 11:1, 427ci stroker.

We attempted to reuse the factory pulleys, but our Jesel beltdrive required a long-style SBC water pump to replace the shorter stock piece. Fortunately, Summit Racing Equipment keeps a full line of pulleys in stock, and we quickly found a set for our application.

The March pulley set included the crank, water pump, and alternator pulley, and was designed with the proper spacing for our water-pump configuation. The pulleys are machined from billet aluminum and clearcoated for a long service life.

The Hooker Super Competition headers we’re using give plenty of clearance around both the clutch linkage and aftermarket rack-and-pinion steering. These coated headers have larger primary tubes than the previously installed units, ensuring better flow.

Our Stef’s oil pan actually offers more clearance than the factory pan did on our old engine, while also providing increased oil capacity.

After fabricating new fuel lines to supply our Quickfuel carburetor, we reconnected all the wiring and sensors in preparation of initial startup. You’ll notice our Dart block requires a remote oil filter, which we located on the driver-side inner fender.

A nice benefit of dyno-tuning an engine is that once it’s installed, you simply turn the key and it runs just like it did on the dyno. Our 427 small-block fired right up, sounding crisp through the open headers.

Watch future issues of VETTE, as we install a new exhaust and put our LS7-killer through its paces. For now, we can tell you that a quick First gear blast revealed that C3 Triple-Ex now has plenty of power.