Since the motor on my '97 S-10 has been making noise, I have thought a lot about putting in a Buick 350 with fuel injection. To pass the smog test here in Ohio, I would need to have cats on it. It seems like the modern type cats require air injection to light off properly. I was pretty sure I heard that Buick used an air pump on some of the 350 motors. Which years would have it? I would like to find a rebuildable 350 with the air pump. I was also considering using an earlier motor for the higher compression heads (correct me if I'm wrong on that) and using the air pump from a later motor. I want to end up with around 9.5 or 10:1 compression. If the late model chevy V8's can pass the test, I don't see why I couldn't get a Buick motor to pass with mpfi and cats.
I know for sure the 73 cars did.Mine has one on it and it actually works.As for the 72 cars,I think only the California cars had them but not all the 72's did.Maybe ask Duane he would know. Pat
I think that would be sweet to put a Buick 350 in your 97 S-10. Even with the air pump, cats and fuel injection, I dont think it would pass emissions for the 97 model year When you do a transplant like this, I believe the donor drivetrain has to be the same model year or newer, UNLESS, you can get classic vehicle plates for it, that might be your one loophole:bglasses: The Cylinder heads for all years the 350 Buick was produced were basically the same, except for the air injection heads. Compression was changed strictly thru different pistons. Hope this helps, Mark
Yeah, the model year has to be the same or newer, but they don't ever open the hood and look. If they did, most of them wouldn't know what they were looking at anyway, and I could probably pass it off as a 97 Chevy 350 with the fuel injection. I think that if the tuning was dead on and lean, and everything was right in the motor, that it would probably pass with the cats. The test isn't all that strict.
Steve - What is the procedure conducted at the emissions testing facility? Do they actually measure pollutants coming out of the tailpipe, or are they just checking to see if the equipment is there? If they are checking tailpipe emissions, do they run the car at road speeds on a dyno, or do they do an idle test, or both?Do they hook OBD-II vehicles such as yours up to a computer to check for error codes? I would think that one of the more difficult aspects of this swap would be keeping NOx emissions under control. Getting the newer style EGR to work with the Buick 350 could get interesting. I would think that some type of adapter would need to be machined for this purpose. Also magnifying this problem, would be your intent to raise the compression ratio. Although when properly tuned, HC and CO #'s would probably be fine, but the higher compression would more than likely send NOx emissions soaring. Good Luck!
Scott, One good thing about Ohio is that currently they aren't measuring NOx emissions, from what I understand. This is why I think I could get it to work. It is a road speed test on a dyno. I'm not sure if they check at idle or not. They also look for a catalytic converter (with a mirror), and pressure test the gas cap. They just started using the OBD-II setup, but the dyno test is used when they can't get it to work (like, for instance, if it was not giving a signal because it wasn't hooked to anything? ) It probably would be complex if I had to use a modern type EGR setup. I'm not exactly sure where it would be appropriate to plumb that in. I have read that a compression right around 9.8-10:1 is best for emissions. I wonder if they were talking about HC and CO's, like you said.
It's not in all counties. Maybe he's one of the lucky ones. It's really amazing how the pollution won't cross over the county line like that! Ha ha.
It's called E-check and it's not currently in all counties. I hear that it might be eventually though. I recently moved from a county that has it, to one that doesn't. With most of my cars having wrong motors and so on, life got much easier...
Steve - If you happen to still be checking this thread, here goes. I think the LS1's run without an EGR valve(could be wrong on that). Either way, an LT1 or LS1 engine control harness & computer might be a good way to go. Just install all the needed sensors on the Buick engine.....a 350" is a 350" as far as the computer knows.:Brow: :TU: BTW......you can still get your Buick 'fix' over at www.BuickStreet.com/forum - plenty of former board members over there.:Brow: :grin: Take care.:beer :bglasses:
72's had air pumps for california cars only , i think . cars expected to canada had no air pumps in 1972 .
