I need some advice. My son and I are in the process of exchanging the motor and trans for his first car, a 83 z28. We have purchased a rebuild 305 and a 700r4 trans and are in the process of exchanging. In this process we want to eliminate the a/c and the emissions to clean the engine compartment up as much as possible. What can we remove and what should we leave alone? The motor we have is carbed so I am wondering what if any problems we may face with the ecm. Any help and advice would be greatly welcomed and needed.

 

As long as you use a stand-alone, non computerized distributor, your engine will run on it's own. The ECM, and all the associated sensors will not be used or needed.
Was your car originally EFI? Then you'll also need to bypass the electric fuel pump in the tank, if you're wanting to use a mechanical one. Or keep the electric pump and install a return style fuel pressure regulator before the carb.

 

I just completed a similar style swap. My car was originally a 305 4bbl "H" car, so I didn't have to deal with fuel tank/pump problems. I would suggest checking to make sure your area doesn't require emission checks. Even if they don't I wouldn't recommend removing too much of that stuff as performance won't be upgraded by simple removal of the cat/airpump, etc. Even with all a/c lines, compressor, blower and associated "stuff" removed, the bay will still be full of things. Just be carefull you don't remove stuff because you want a cosmetic affect. It will cost a lot of money and an amazing amount of time if you ever have to, or decide to put that stuff back in. Not to mention re-sale could be a huge hassle. Also, some collateral damage could occur such as removing vacuum lines for your heater control. If removed you'll only have defrost, and you'll no longer have floor or vent heating.

Will you be using an aftermarket carb, or the Qjet? Other things to consider is that if your manifold and carb are too high, you will need a modified hood, as the stock one won't close anymore.

 

Thanks to all that have responded. To answer some questions: car was not EFI and I know that it had a qjet carb with mechanical fuel pump, The motor that we have to replace the old one is a carberated 305 with mechanical fuel pump, a standard distributor, we plan to put a holley 650 with electric choke on when the engine is in, so thats about it.

I need to know what ( in the maze of wires and plugs) will I NEED to hook back up to complete the build? What could I do to make this transplant process easy and successful?

Also, no emissions in my state and I have no need or desire to sell to another person that could not understand the value of our hard work under the hood.

 

I don't know how far along you are but, what I did was to use small colored zip ties and then coded each zip tye to what it was for in a note book. Ex. blue to a/c compressor. blue/pink to fan motor.... This way they are "permanent" enough to get through the swap and won't be ripped off, or fade like tape would. Amazingly enough, things will sort of fall into place once the motor is in and all things are ready to be re-connected. I took a lot of care to put as much of the wires up and out of the way. I taped them to the windshield or roof during the swap so nothing would be crushed or ripped. The only damage I had was the 4pin connector to transmission broke when I pulled the trans out...it pushed up the disconnected switch into the tunnel. Other than that, I still have every single wire, unharmed. It is pretty much bulletproof this way. And, if you insist on removing the part of the harness for the A/C you will know what wire is for what. All said and done it really isn't as bad as you think it is.