1st gen v8 conversions

hey guys, i've only been on the forum a couple months now. i've been looking for a van pretty hard. found one, now i'm about to restore/customize it. i want to put a 350 with a 700 r4 trans in it. i'm just wondering what you guys have done? what year motors are better than others and why. i've always been a vintage motorcycle guy and am just venturing into the van world so my knowledge in these motors is limited.
can ya school me?

Any small block can be done, you'll have to mod your 1st gen doghouse or find a 2nd gen one for the V8

The biggest problem you will have is the motor box the engine bolts right in and the crossmember on mine is a universal tube one from speedway motors and all you have to do is weld a coulple of steel plates to the frame to bolt it too with the th350 the original driveshaft bolted right in you may have to shorten yours for a over drive one. You can modify your original dog house but its still tight you can try to find a second GEN one 67-70 but there a quite of few people looking for them.The Radiator on mine is a factory 3 core and cools my 307 v8 just fine. Maby try to make a custom dog house find a good welding shop to help out. Check out Digz thread getting stoopid on ideas on the motor box.Try to find a pre 85 chevy van or car (caprice, malibu)??? 350 motor with out fuel injection. Carbs are much easer to work on and a lot less wireing also.......... ....JOE.....

Any talk of swaps requires talking about the owner's skill levels and budget.
No skills/tools/work area and no money = better to not start. Just get it running as-is. Otherwise, it often gets taken apart and not finished.
No skills/tools/work area and a TON of money = have a restoration or hot rod shop build it!
Some skills/tools/work area and 2K = can be done, must find everything cheap and make stuff work.

Major skills/tools/work area and some money = Get started after researching crates VS a donor.
A crate engine and trans can be great and have a warranty. They do tend to nickel and dime you on all the little add-ons, but working with all new parts is nice provided they all fit together nice.
A donor will have almost all the little stuff you need, will have a bunch of stuff you can sell/trade for the other stuff. But you will have to skin your knuckles, clean and paint all of it and it will be used and worn unless you freshen it.

In our archives - Gvans are many mods -engine boxes, driveshafts , motor & tranny mounts also.

I think Trevors van already has a 305 with the tranny sitting in it. So the commitment to a V8 is already there. The rest is a matter of details and what you want to end up with. Starting from scratch you have options you can consider depending on your resources like Rod says.
You might be suprised with the how the 305 performs in one of these. With the right gears it still could be a lot of fun to drive.

I had a 305 in a 86 chevy van and the thing screamed down the road. If it's already in there give it a try for a while

the 305 in it was just sitting on the mounts and it stays with the seller. theres no tranny mount yet either so i`m open to anything. he gave me another 305 but its crusty so i fugured if i`m gonna go big i might as well go BIG. i`ve never built a small block but i`m fully confident that i have what it takes. i`ve built countless motorcycle engines.i like the idea of getting a good condition doner engine and rebuilding it. i like to know how things work and it will make for easier troubleshooting if i break down.
i`ll check out some old threads and do some reading!

thanks for the inupt guys! and hey, did you here i bought a van!

Have a look through these pictures. This took about a year of spare time and about $7K doing everything myself and not re-building the engine or trans.

https://s119.photobucket.com/user/m1dadio/library/?sort=3&page=1

M1D

thanks for the link. nice build!

donivan65 wrote:here is a post on trans mounts,,,,


https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t17256p15-custom-700r4-crossmember

thanks for the link! i like the 3rd gen crossmember set up. anybody got a source for that?