401 question

[my88wgn]

will a '78 401 bolt into a '88 wgn. with swaping flex plate or does the difference in year make a difference???

[ October 02, 2003, 05:25 PM: Message edited by: our88wgn ]

[mdill]

Use the 88 exaust manifolds, the 401 vib dampner, a 70's AMC car flex plate,
remove the crank sleeve from the 78 snout, there will be a few accessory bolt
size differances. other than that drop it in !

Oh wait a minute on further thought, there is no way it will work, drop it off at
you local frieght terminal, and send it up to Richfield MN.

[my88wgn]

:D yeah thats funny, nice try though gotta give ya points for tryn' :cool: . well that dont sound too bad,found a local 401 from a guy who has a couple wagons. he has a couple for parts & 1 has the 401. he's asking $400 for it needs rebuilt & missing the carb & dist. says it reads 90k on it when they parked it. sound like a fair price?? :rolleyes:

[mdill]

Sounds like a good price, if it is a good core and has not been opened up in the
past. Has it been stored dry ? Can you turn it over with a bracker bar on the vib
bolt ?

Mike D.

[my88wgn]

i thought it sounded fair smile.gif , he says it turns with a wrench, well guess i found my winter project ;) . now about the oiling issues,whats a good solution? :rolleyes:

[popeye44]

our88wagon:

go here parts 123 dot com (http://www.parts123.com)
click in the search bar and type oil line kit

the 2 just above the last one on bottom are the most common mods.. thanks to other forum member for link.. he supplied info when I asked.

[ October 02, 2003, 08:25 PM: Message edited by: popeye44 ]

[Rande]

There may be some interference between the driver's side exhaust pipe and the older engine's oil pan. When I installed a '72 360 in my '80 J10, I had to replace the older oil pan with one from a later engine due to the exhaust pipe hitting the oil pan. There is a notch formed into the later pan that the earlier pan didn't have. The exhaust pipe bends over near the oil pan to clear the front driveshaft.

Other's on this site have made the same swap of an early engine into a later truck and didn't have any trouble with that. My exhaust pipe is definitly an aftermarket item so not all are the same. Just look out for that.

I also had to deal with the fact that the long bolt at the top of the alternator was bigger on the older engine. I couldn't find anything to adapt from the bigger bolt hole in the block to fit the smaller bolt of the later alternator. I just drilled out the mounting hole on the alternator along with the spacer and brackets. After doing that, I thought drilling the hole in the block out to a larger size and using a thread insert to fit the smaller bolt would probably be better.

[ October 03, 2003, 05:57 AM: Message edited by: Rande ]