Sticky Suggestion

[GPX]

I'd love to see a sticky about engine swaps into 1st Gen cars. You know, something that covered engines and transmissions that are feasible and the relative ease or difficulty of and expected gains from each swap. For instance, I'd love to have an LQ1, but swapping one into my '95 GPSE is probably a stupid idea, but someday, I'd like a motor in there that can generate some serious excitement! It is a Pontiac after all.

 

With these cars all being so old, and newer, better engines available for relatively cheap, it would be great if a person could find all this info in one place to help with decision making. I know I've read threads touting the merits of LA1 and L67 swaps, but there's the LX9 to consider, and probably others. And is turbocharging a complete custom (read: cost prohibitive) proposition?

 

I once again look to the wisdom of the many gurus on the forum...

[GPX]

So is this a bad idea? I can't believe NO replies!

[Nas Escobar]

It's not that,... all the folks that swapped engines on this forum aren't frequent fliers here.

 

The most common swap around here is the L67 into a 1st gen. There's a couple Cutlass Supremes and Monte Carlos running around in that set up.

[rich_e777]

I`m hoping to drop a 3400 into my Cutlass one day and will document the whole thing. I may change my mind on the engine but after a little discussion with a few members here that's one of the easiest direct swaps I think. If you consider a swap easy, I don't, which is why it hasn't happened yet.

 

Engine swap write ups take a great deal of time which many people don't have anymore. I saw this thread a few days ago but didn't have the time to respond, I had a few saved pages for different W-body swaps on my old HDD I bet I can find again for reference.

And MilzyMotorsports.com have been awesome in answering questions as well.

[Imp558]

There actually was a thread started last year to document the l67 swap, I was supposed to add images but there aren't any on the forum that seemed right. If all goes well I'll be redoing the Regal this year and will take lots of pics to finish that thread properly

[GPX]

Now we're getting there. I certainly understand about time. And I understand that the forum isn't what it used to be and never can be, which is why it's worth putting together a sticky pulling all this info together. I'm not really looking for complete engine swap threads, but those would be great to link to. More a discussion among folks who've tackled some of these swaps, the costs and difficulties involved. The L67 is a great motor that puts out lots of usable power, but I hate the way they sound. (No offense L32/L67 owners, it's just a personal preferrence.) 😜 so I'd be hard pressed to put one in my car. But maybe that's the right choice.

 

I paid someone to put an LA1 in my '96 CS after the 3100 blew up. That seemed like a nice motor. The power increase was noticable but not dramatic. My mechanic didn't think the few hundred extra I paid was worth it. I had been swayed toward the LA1 because of the roller-rockers and the promise of more upgrade potential. I didn't get to any of the upgrades because the car went away too soon. The folks at WOT-tech suggest there's a lot of potential with these motors with cam/valvetrain/intake/turbo upgrades, but as far as I can tell, there's no manifold setup that I can buy off a shelf, so with all the internal upgrades and external custom pieces, not to mention tuning, this starts to be a very expensive proposition. And then there's the question of how much power can the trans handle reliably.

 

So many questions to be answered and compomises to be made!

 

BTW, I just created this GPX handle because my old 'redcar' profile didn't seem to make the transition to the new site.

[GPX]

I`m hoping to drop a 3400 into my Cutlass one day and will document the whole thing. I may change my mind on the engine but after a little discussion with a few members here that's one of the easiest direct swaps I think. If you consider a swap easy, I don't, which is why it hasn't happened.

We're in the same boat here. I'm a little closer to being ready to tackle a swap than I was a few years ago. If I do it, I want to be as well educated as possible.