S10 V8 Engine Swap - Put Your Dime On Steroids

Part One: The Teardown
1. Obviously, we can't put in a small-block until the stock 2.8L is out of the way. Mike got started on that while I assembled the new motor. One thing you have to dig about Mike is his willingness to exploit his family. His wife Gina not only does all of the upholstery for the shop, she also stepped up and helped rip out the motor.

2. Here's the 2.8 and transmission out of the truck. Just being curious, I made a quick measurement. From tailshaft to water pump, this setup is approximately 54 inches. Our new 355 with its TH350 measures about 56 1/2 inches with a long water pump. The two units aren't that much different, but that's because we're going from a short V-6 with a long overdrive to a long V-8 with a short, non-overdrive trans. We will need to cut the firewall, but the driveshaft won't need to be cut (more on that later).

3. Mike even had his daughter Kyra crawl into the engine compartment to remove stuff. The motor came out pretty easily; the only hassle was the wiring harness. Since the motor is going to be carbureted and devoid of all of the sensors, most of the wiring won't be needed. Therefore, Mike decided to cut the harness and deal with it later. It won't take much for him to build his own engine harness because he'll only need to hook up a few things like the starter, distributor, and alternator. When Mike completes that, we'll give you an update.

Part Two: Pre-Assembly
1. To get the motor ready, I gave it a fresh coat of black paint and then ripped off the stock oil pan. Once the pan was out of the way, I took off the stock oil-pump pick-up by twisting it back and forth till it came loose.

2. The new pick-up slid into the oil pump and is held on by two of the oil-pump bolts. Because of the extra length, Hamburger's uses the two bolts to make sure it stays in place without the necessity of welding the pick-up to the pump.

3. Even though this pan looks huge, it is made to fit the confines of the S-10 crossmember. After I installed the provided gaskets, the pan dropped on without issue. A note from Hamburger's on the oil-pan gasket reads: "As tempting as it may seem to use a one-piece or thicker oil-pan gasket, they are not designed to be used with a stroked engine pan and will be sucked up, causing oil leakage. Additionally, using thicker gaskets will permanently deform the mounting flange on the pan, rendering it useless." So make sure to use the stuff you got in the box.

4a. The pan has some very cool features built in like flapper doors in the sump to prevent the oil from moving forward under hard braking and letting the pump suck air.

4b. There is also an integrated windage screen for maximum oil control and more horsepower.

5. Because this pan is designed for stroked motors some of the factory bolts are not used, so this spreader-bar kit will provide better sealing distribution along the perimeter of the oil pan.

6. The new valve covers from T-D come with baffles to prevent oil from getting into the breathers.

7. The valve covers fit like a glove, and the strong steel-core, rubber design of the gaskets reinforces the frame to ensure alignment and a long-lasting seal. The valve covers look great with all of the classic styling we needed for this retro build. We also added a set of T-bar fasteners for a more complete retro look, plus we can remove the valve covers without any tools.

8. Next in line were the Elite Hedders. These are no wimpy pipes: You can tell they are stout just by picking them up. The mandrel-bent tubes are 14-gauge, and the flanges are super-thick. All the additional meat of the Elite Hedders means that they can handle the additional muscle that your transplanted V-8 will put out. I used the provided gaskets and hardware to hang them on the motor.

9. The headers use a 2-1/2-inch-diameter, ball-and-socket-type collector hookup. This allows for a little forgiveness on your exhaust system, and since there is no gasket there are no parts to buy later.

10. I had initially installed the motor-mount plates on the block, but then I read the instructions and noticed I was wrong. Because of how tight things get during install, T-D recommends hooking them to the motor mounts. Before that can happen, there are two very small ears that need to be cut off the motor mount.

11. With those cut, the plates slipped right on. We tightened the hardware until the plates would still move a bit but wouldn't flop around.