Our Community is 940,000 Strong. Join Us.


chevy 350 small block


jpunishment
01-10-2005, 11:27 PM
wondering if a chevy 350 small block could fit into my 91 cavalier rs

dcaegis
01-11-2005, 12:04 AM
damn, even if it could fit under the hood, it wouldnt be no bolt-on!
I assume you'd also be switching to rear wheel drive? If you were going to install it, you'd have to fabricate a new firewall anyway to clear a transmission for a RWD setup, so you could give yourself enough room to stick a smallblock in there and still get the radiator in front of it. warning: firewall setback may encroach into passenger area.

its a huge project no matter how you do it

godenm
01-11-2005, 10:58 AM
damn, even if it could fit under the hood, it wouldnt be no bolt-on!
I assume you'd also be switching to rear wheel drive? If you were going to install it, you'd have to fabricate a new firewall anyway to clear a transmission for a RWD setup, so you could give yourself enough room to stick a smallblock in there and still get the radiator in front of it. warning: firewall setback may encroach into passenger area.

its a huge project no matter how you do it
yeah,but tht would be one "bad ass"cavalier! i have heard that a company (not sure who) makes a rolling chassis for 2nd &3rd gen cavis that is setup for v8 rwd ,not sure of cost or availabilty but ill try and find out and let you know.

jayson716
01-11-2005, 12:35 PM
On the Jbody.org they have a V8 in the sencond gen and the 1st gen i think it will fit with alot of work and money. a V8 will fit in the bay of a 3rd gen with alot of money...

bigdaveangell
01-11-2005, 12:47 PM
anything is possible if you have the money. You would need the engine, tranny, driveshaft, rear end. There would be alot of custom work involved. It would be easier to do a northstar V8 instead of a 350

dcaegis
01-11-2005, 05:32 PM
hell yeah. I encourage you to try. check out my dad's mid-engine integra project:

http://www.team-integra.net/forum/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=15&TopicID=106670&ReturnPage=&;
PagePosition=0&ThreadPage=1

itsastocker
10-12-2005, 11:17 AM
I don't know how long it's been since anyone has looked at this page, but I can tell you that it wouldn't be all that hard to put a 350 in your pre-95 cavalier. Me and a friend were going to do the exact same thing for a shop class project gone wild, but decided not to because of time and money. What we did find out is that you don't have to make a new firewall. All you have to do is get rid of all your extras like your washer fluid fill tank and stuff like that. Instead of making a new firewall and moving it back, we were going to make new radiator support brackets and move the radiator forward. This means that you will have to probably put a cowl induction hood on it, but we were going to do that anyway. You use the stock suspension up front, or upgrade, and just pull out every single thing that you don't need. You would start by striping the interior of EVERYTHING. you will have to make a custom tranny hump, but you should be able to put the stock hump cover over it. I was going to go bare-bones on the interior and put in a cage and racing seats. The rear end will require beefing up, probably just bolting stiffener plates to the unibody rails from the middle of the car all the way back, no big deal really. Square steel tubing should do it if your only swapping in a small block with mild power. from there, you have to make solid mounting brackets that bolt onto the unibody rails for the spring hangers and the shackles. Just measure and line up the axle, make your angle adjustments, and you should be ready to head up front and do the same thing for your engine mounts. Put on a mild idle exaust, lowering springs up front, a stock Z24 body kit, and no one will know the difference from a wanna-be ricer. good luck to yall.

vamc
10-13-2005, 05:10 PM
I heard it can be done, but never seen one.

lilrogue78
10-15-2005, 02:22 AM
Hey ummm just a thought why dont you just take and strip every last damkn thng out of under the hood take off the wheels and every thing and put the body from the cavy on like a shortend S-10 frame just have to shorten it 13" (i measured it) bolt it all down hood up your breaks, clutch cable(for manual) gas pedal and gagues then Wala done you gotta bad ass beefed up cavalier that will out race any damned stock or modified cavy out there i dont care who u are if u gotta Old 350 with a beefy enough cam and shit you will kill yourself from whiplash But just to mention i wouodnt chose the 350 as my weapon of choice i would moslikely use a 302 Chevy stroker motor or a Hemi (using a dodge charger drivetrain) but i think the idea of the 302 stroker is better gets more R's

itsastocker
10-15-2005, 02:54 PM
Well, that would work if someone wanted a cavalier that was jacked up, but i think the whole idea was to make a sleeper at little cost. If I was choosing any motor I would prolly put in a 383 stroker. I had a 94 cavalier that I personally would not have labeled as a sleeper. But everybody I let drive it thought it was pretty awsome. Totally stock looking except for the cowl hood, but you pull up to a stop light and take off and it was anything but. hehe, rebuilding, chip reprograming, a venom chip, new exaust, cold air, stage 2 clutch plates, shaved and ported heads, it was quite the little sleeper. I got dynoed at 163hp.
But if you wanted to maybe make your cavalier stand out with a second frame, you could put mags in the back, drop the front to stock height, and it would work pretty good.

Tiburon99
10-17-2005, 08:42 PM
hell, i had that plan to to put in a 350 in my cavi. but when i found out how you would have to make it rwd, widen the frame just to fit the engine in, redo the whole trany and other shit over, it is not worth it.

itsastocker
10-18-2005, 04:16 PM
Hmmmm... not worth it.....I guess if you just wanted to drive something different or cool, there are other routes that you can go. Me personally, I like driving them , but I like working on them almost as much. For me, it would be mostly about the buildup and then having it around to remind me. My line of thinking was that if you put a larger style cowl hood on it, you would be able to get away with mounting it just over the frame, but that would have to be the one measurement I forgot to get. du-oh

Add your comment to this topic!