Old School v-8 swap into my son's car??

[Little6pack]

If anyone can answer some of these questions it would be a great help for me & my 17 y old son doing his 1st swap. the car is a 85 MC.

1) We are currently doing a 305 to 350 swap into my son's car.
The engine builder placed the distributor to fire at Number 1 cyl on the 350.
When we spin the flywheel to get the TorQ verter bolted up it should not effect the firing as long as we don't remove the distributor for the install.

2) We are also going from COMPUTER CONTROL to NON computer. Can we disconnect the comupter harness? What should we do with all the wiring that went to the engine & carb (Cut it out i hope)

3) Also the new dist will be run via vacum & we got an electric choke holly.

Thanks

 

[madhat]

the distributor is gear driven(assuming this is just a good old SBC...) - if its in there right, any time the crank moves, so will it.
You can pull out everything that was related to that system - you may keep it jsut incase or sell it on ebay to a restorer or something.
The electric choke Holley should be nice - I hated the old manual choked double pumper on my old 66 GTO - I had to open the hood, choked it, start it, rev it so that I could go turn of the choke before it died, get back in and take off before it would stay alive w/o assistance...I vowed never to own another Holley....

 

[John Larkin]

Do you already have the sparkplugs and wires installed? If not, it will not matter where he set the distributor unless he numbered the cap for you.

 

[Little6pack]

We only put plugs in but not the wires. The dist was set at 1 & is old style gear driven so if it moves I am sure it will have no effect. The re install went well we even got it in with the hedders pre installed. Man those carb plates hoist attachments work well.
This is a great lesson for a 17 year old gear head to learn.. We need more kids wanting to keep the American car culture going!

 

[sailbrd]

The only wire you will need for the carb will be an ignition hot wire for electric choke. I would suggest that you go with a 600 CFM Edelbrock carb instead of a holly. Tend to be a better street carb than low end Holly. Will start and idle better. Also very easy to tune.

Your firing order is 18436572, goes clockwise.

Is the motor a new rebuild with new cam? If so break in proceedure is very important. Should be able to a search here on cam break in.

 

[josh watson]

I

agree with the last post. Holley have always worked well for me....at the track. I seem to always be adjusting my holley style carbs.....demon carbs as well for that matter. It was never a problem for me(last car was solid roller cammed so the hood was always up anyway) but most people don't like to have to adjust carbs on street cars every weekend. Will be an easy swap. If you want to double check timing....timing mark on 0 on the timing tab. Make sure both valves on #1 cylinder are closed (this means firing position...otherwise you are 180 out) (just look at the rocker arms). #1 cylinder is drivers side very front. The distributer will actually be pointing at the number one cylinder if it is right. just like the last post..starting at 1 go clockwise 18436572 with your wires. it will be close enough to start then adjust with a timing light.

have fun