n our modern times, upgrading a classic car with electronic fuel injection has become standard in the hot rodding world. There are a number of different throttle body EFI systems available designed to bolt in place of your carburetor, and while these systems are certainly worthwhile investments that do deliver driveability benefits, your engine still looks like an old carbureted engine.

FiTech Fuel Injection is one company that has made it easy and affordable to make the EFI swap and offers quite a few different throttle body systems. One newer system that caught our attention is their Ultra Ram EFI, which is a complete port fuel injection system with a slick sheetmetal intake system as a foundation.

The Ultra Ram places the throttle body vertically at the front of the engine, similar to modern muscle EFI systems. Rather than four injectors placed in the middle of the intake plenum, the port fuel design has an injector for each cylinder (a 39-pound injector in this case). With individual runners for each cylinder, throttle response is destined to be snappy with smooth acceleration.

swaps are so common these days that it’s easy to get complacent about the project if you’ve never attempted it. After all, swap kits are plentiful, with most tailored to popular A-, F-, and G-bodies, as well as vintage Chevy trucks.

“With all the swap parts available today, dropping in the LS engine and getting it running is the easy part,” Matt Gurjack, the man behind the welder at Detroit-area hot rod and Pro Touring fab shop Sled Alley, says. “It’s everything else to support it that can bog you down, cause headaches, and ratchet up the cost.”

He says that for popular vehicles, such as first-gen Camaros, the muscle car–era Chevelles, and some of the trucks, the aftermarket swap kits and correlating parts enable the do-it-yourselfer to install an LS engine and transmission without the need for a welder and little or no cutting. But there’s more to an LS swap than engine mounts and an oil pan. Regardless of whether you’re using a junkyard 5.3L out of an old truck or one of Chevrolet Performance’s crate engine packages, there are a myriad of details that have to be executed in order to make it all work out correctly. That’s what we’re laying out here—the general steps and helpful tips to make your swap go smoothly.

ne of the most iconic Beatles songs is “Let it Be.” Our car guy version of that is “Let it Breathe.” No engine creates a perfect seal between the pistons, rings, and cylinder wall. Some amount of cylinder pressure always leaks past the rings and ends up pressurizing the crankcase. If the crankcase is not properly vented, this pressure will do odd things like push the dipstick out of the tube, force valve cover gaskets out, and generally cause all kinds of oil leak–inducing grief.

This is why engine manufacturers always include a vent system. In the days preceding the positive crankcase ventilation (PCV), OE engine builders merely vented the engine with a road draft tube that dumped oil on the road and underneath the car. The PCV system began in the very early ’60s, which pulled a measured volume of crankcase vapors through the valve to the carburetor to be combusted. This is still in use today.

Modern car builders prefer to create a desired image in the engine compartment, and that often requires a custom valve cover. To give the builder the freedom, these covers are regularly offered without PCV or breather holes. It becomes the job for the car builder to place these breather/PCV valve holes in the desired location.

hen it comes to a classic Chevy that gets driven on a regular basis, it doesn’t make sense to go all-out on engine bay detailing. You can, however, make a huge difference with a few parts and some serious cleaning. Our 1964 Chevelle has a tired 283ci small-block underhood, and it isn’t exactly “oil tight.” It leaks a drop or two on the garage floor, but the main annoyance is the oil film that you have to wipe off every few thousand miles. Regardless of the fact that this engine is a little loose in the gasket department, we wanted to freshen up its appearance so that we wouldn’t be too embarrassed to open the hood at our local cruise night.

The general idea is to do this type of engine bay detailing while you’re working on other projects. For us, we had part of the engine disassembled for cooling upgrades and an EFI install, so it was the perfect time to make it clean. We used basic tools and materials—simple stuff that you can get at the local parts store. We used semigloss black spray paint for accessory brackets, Chevrolet Orange engine paint for the block and heads, satin black for the inner fenders and firewall, and we rubbed some Calyx manifold dressing to bring the rusty exhaust manifolds back to life. Eastwood and Speedway Motors also sell manifold coatings and other types of high-temp paint that work well for this application.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t a show car, so we didn’t do a show-car-quality engine bay. However, our rattle-can restoration and the addition of some nice, new components from Holley, Vintage Air, and U.S. Radiator really helped this engine bay look great. Even though the old engine isn’t perfect, we’re happy with the end result of our engine bay makeover.

n this world of mid-engine Corvettes that run 0-to-60 in 3 seconds in base trim, 198-mph ZL1 Camaros and Duramax Silverados with the torque of two LS6 Chevelles, the pair of vintage Bowties displayed here certainly won’t raise many eyebrows—but when they were new, they were the talk of the town. And now after nearly five decades of “ripening” on the vine, we dare say they’re worthy of a second look.

In the case of the 1977 Monza Mirage, while harsh critics may say the Monza’s only worthwhile contribution was its 7.50/7.62 rear axle (later used in millions of Gen III Camaros and S-10 pickup trucks), its Mirage graphics and bodywork set it apart as something special: A factory-authorized, street-legal tribute to the tube-framed, V-8–powered machines dominating the IMSA/Camel GT road race series of the day.