I bought an '81 camino about a year ago. It has an '83 229ci V6 in it from the previous owner. I was thinking of putting a larger V8 in it somewhere down the road possibly. I know enough about cars to keep me going (except for the larger jobs). And I assume many of the early eighties engines from malibus, chevelles, caminos, camaros, oldsmobiles, etc would be interchangeable. However I was hoping that someone might be able to give me some more specifics as to what engines are easily interchangeable with an '81 camino. Thanks.

I cannot tell you off the top of my head, but this has been discussed recently in this forum. Use the search feature to browse the engine topics and you'll find what you are looking for.

Thanks I will try that. However if anyone else has anything to add, it would be helpfull as well.

Hey, you can fit a 572 cubic inch 720hp big block in an Elky...anything bigger than that and your Elky gets reclassified as a jet aircraft. All kidding aside any Chevy small block or big block pretty much just bolts right in with out a lot of headache. It's the wiring and the type of fuel induction system (carb, fuel injection) that can be a little tricky to get to work right. Go for it...there's plenty of help available here on ECC! But please, use a Chevy engine, if you try to stick a Ford motor in your Elky, I'll have to hunt you down and...well you know what I mean...DON'T YOU? :lol:

I love rat motors, but nowadays you can get 400+ or even 500+ horsepower out of a very streetable smallblock; big blocks are not necessary. A 5th Gen Elky with 500hp is a rocking car.

My plans for my 78 El Camino are a built 327 (http://www.rebuilt-auto-engines.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=230&p_catid=&sid=1AlF2z0-9HgC0e6-56104263565.45) backed up by a 700r4 and a posi rear end with 3.73 gears.

Get a 350ci, it'l serve you better.

I had a 66 Malibu that had a 375 horse 327 engine in it and 3.73:1 gears. It also had a Muncie 4 speed :D

I sure did like that ride. It always seemed like it needed another gear but that was the 3.73 rear gears. It smoked the tires in any gear and out ran most anything that pulled up beside me on the street at the time. It was eating Olds 442s and others for lunch.

I sure do like the 327s but now I like the 383 more! :D GM Has a crate HT383 that is a super short block. If I had the cash I'd get the HT 383 short block, some AFR 195c or even the 200c heads, the RPM AirGap intake, a XE284, some good roller lifters a good built transmission and rear end, a Street Demon 650 or 750. This is what I have in my 80 only its a 350 converted to a 383 and I have an Edelbrock 750 and the AFR 195c heads and a Comp XE 268 not the 284. I had a 700R4 built for it. Mine only puts out like 400 - 410 - 420 something like that. I'm just not ready to run the XE 284 yet. Both my 76 and my 80 have almost identical engines. One has the AFR Heads and the other has the Edelbrock Performer RPM heads (76). The AFR engine produce more HP than the Edelbrock heads. Something like 30 HP more, stroke for stroke. That is latterly the only differences in the two engines, heads.

That is a cherry combo. My opinion. 8) a 350 can do almost the same thing but less torque but HP numbers would be very, very close to the same. I'd keep the compression numbers at or around 9.5:1 compression that way you can live with 89 to 92 octane gas.

No matter what you do, good luck.

I just did a 229 to 350 swap. It's not that hard. Just know that if you have an auto tranny and it looks like a 350 it's not, it's a th250c and not worth a core charge. That was my only surprise. I can tell you , you can get just about all the info here no matter what combo you go with. These guys proved to me they know what they are talking about.