Hello all, new to this forum. Glad I found it; hoping to get some advice. I bought my 1964 Skylark about 5 years ago. It has the stock 300/2bl and switch pitch trans. Car has milage; odo shows 45k, so I assume the car has 145k on it. Been happily driving the family around in it for years, but recently the motor has been showing signs of being tired..smokes, lack of power, valve noise, etc. I have a chevy 350/TH350 that only has around 10k miles on it just sitting in my garage. Tree fell on the donor car years ago, and I yanked the motor/trans for a rainy day. Motor has been done right with hardened valve seats, mild cam, nice pistons, etc. I'm trying to gage how difficult it would be to swap the 300/switch pitch out for the 350/350. It would be really nice to have the aftermarket availability in parts for my car. If I could do it for minimal cost, might be worth it to pull the trigger and use the good motor/trans I already have. Thinking it would save me a lot of money down the road too. Any recommendations or advise would be greatly appreciated. I've attached a few pics of my car.
Great looking car, great color combination! If parts availability are your main concern, why not sell the car to a buick guy, then take that money and buy a chevelle so you will have great parts availability for the body as well as mechanical. Just saying, a chevy in a buick is nothing new, it's your car and your money.
You cannot put the Chevy transmission into the Buick motor,different bell housing.Both its OK,but why not sell the Buick and get a Chevy,as stated by Gary?Bruno.
It's not a difficult swap if you're familiar with mechanics. Things you would encounter would be the fuel line on the opposite side, frame brackets are different, some of the wiring will have to be changed, exhaust, you get the picture. Basically, just treat the car like a `65 Chevelle and buy the parts accordingly. The driveshaft should be the same length but you'll probably need a new one anyway because of the rubber mounted rear yoke in the Buick. It's 53 years old now and that extra power, depending on what 350 you have, will probably finish it off. If you do the swap, the benefit would be parts availability for the sbc. You can buy pretty much anything for it at pretty much any parts store. And if you do blow it up you can find a replacement on craigslist in a matter of minutes. The Buick engines, not so much. Still, if you're not building the car for ultimate performance then my suggestion would be to either rebuild your original engine or locate another one in better condition that someone has removed in favor of a 455. They're out there, you just have to look. They show up here in the parts for sale section from time to time. The next choice would be to locate a good running, reasonably low mileage Buick 350. It would be a much easier swap and there are more of them available because they were offered in so many Buick models for many more years. I have one with 53,000 original miles that I bought for $300, and it even has a TA intake on it. Not for sale at this time, just using it as an example. Not sure about your area but they pop up here quite often and don't seem to sell very well because not many people are looking for them.
