Any of you guys removed the front clip to do a motor swap or just took it off for some reason? Is it hard? My buddy told me he didn't have much trouble on his 90 model chevy silverado. His headlights and all that had a harness that disconnected at the firewall, do el camino's have this same feature? I tried to track it down, but i couldn't see very well. Thanks again for the advice.

I have pulled a few but not an elky. The process is the same.
Remove hood and hinges
Drain cooland and disconnect hoses.
Remove and cap tranny lines.
Disconnect your elec harness from your headlights turn signals running lights ect
Remove or disconnect everything elec on your inner fenders being careful to mark everything so it can go back the same.
Put everything on top of your engine and do a double check for ground straps and anything else you may have missed.
Pull fan shroud if you need to go up with your front end instead of stright foward.
Remove bolts that hold your radiator core support to the frame should be two.
If bumper will interfear with removal drop it down.
Remove your rear hood adjusters close to windshield.
Remove fender bolts at lower rocker and up by windshield.
Remove rocker molding in front if you have them.
Check your inner fender bolts to see if any attatch to any framework of car.
Disconnect antenna.
Have two friends help one in front and one on each side go foward and up slowly.
You may want to tape up your doors edge to keep them from getting scratched up.
Hope that helps
I may have forgot something it has been awhile.

when i removed my engine i never had to take off my clip....didnt need to...i was able to remove it w/out taking off the hood also! i think removing the hood would of been easier but my dad wanted it his way! haha

-Anduh

I removed the front clip on the '79 that i am working on. as previously posted,disconnect headlights,turn signals,radiator hoses, etc. we left the
hood in place and took inner fender wells off,radiator and shroud out and of course front bumper. 2 of us (old men) lifted the clip at the fenders and carried it to a place out of the way so I could start loosening motor mounts and disassembling altenator,power steering pump,etc in preparation of removing the junk 305 and replacing it with a vortec 350 that was given to me(will be rebuilt).

Although not necessary removing the front clip makes engine removal a lot easier and you can also clean up the engine compartment if it is required. I would guess that it adds a few hours to the engine removal and reinstall. The only real problem occurs if you didn't properly mark alignment of sheetmetal and lost track of the shims, realignment could add some more hours. Personally I think it is worth it but I know some guys who would never even consider it.