a TON of questions

[Gutless]

i am posting all this on my friends behalf. He picked up an 87 cutlass supreme with a 307 for 1,100 bucks. He kept nagging me on the way there to give him a race on the way back. So on the way back i gave him a race on the highway and my little 4 cylinder 100 hp toyota kicked his *ss. The car has been nicknamed "Gutless".

anyway to the questions.

1. I read somewhere that the carb was like computer controlled or something, is this true?
2. the thing under the a/c compressor is an air pump? can this be taken out for any hp gains? emissions are not a problem here.
3. how do you guys run dual exhaust? The crossmember only has one notch in it. pictures of exhaust would be nice.
4.what rear ends are a direct swap into this car? mainly looking to get a better rear end ratio and a posi.
5. how hard is it to swap a small block in? Is it just a couple wires to hook up or is it more complicated? what about big blocks?
6. Is a turbo 350/400 the same size as the current transmission? would it bolt right in?
7. is there anyway to get better speakers in the rear besides these oddly shaped ones. my buddy has a pair of 6x9s laying around anyone figure out how to cram those in there? what about front speakers?

i think thats all the questions for now. thanks in advance everyone

 

[81Regal]

To answer in order
1. The carb would be computer controlled started in 81 except in Canada.
2. That is the AIR pump, you might pick up .5HP IMO not worth pulling off unless it is siezed up.
3. To run dual exhaust you will either have to notch and reenforce the crossmember or buy an aftermarket one.
4. There is really no "better" rear end, it all depends on what you are going to do with it. The stronger factory G body rear ends are the 8.5 out of a GN or Hurst Olds/442.
5. The 307 is already a small block but I am guessing you are talking about a SB chevy. To convert you will need and frame and engine mounts. After that it is mostly just running your fuel and wiring.
6. If you have the 3 speed TH200, the short tail TH350 is a direct bolt in, for the 4 speed TH200r4 you will need a different crossmember to put in a TH350. The TH400 will fit but will take a few more mods.
7. Crutchfield has the adapters to put in 6x9's the fronts you are pretty much stuck with 3.5" speakers.

 

[Chevyman85]

Assuming that the car is stock, or mostly stock:

1. Yes, the carb/car has limited computer controlled components.
2. Yes, that is an AIR pump, you can eliminate it, but you will not gain anything without removing all fo the emissions. Pulling that out will get you a Check Engine light and a headache.
3. To run dual exhaust you need to purchase a double hump crossmember, or have your notched out. I know there are several of these posted on the forum. I can send you some pictures of my setup if you cant find them.
4. The only rear that will direct swap into your Cutlass is an 8.5" out of a Grand National or 443 Olds. The GN's came with 3.42 gears, and the 442's came with 3.73's. These rearends are in high demand and fetch a good price almost anywhere.
5. You already have a small block, if your intrested in swaping it over to a BB, again look on the forum. There are tons of posts regarding the topic.
6. The current transmission is most likley a 200-4R 4 Speed Overdrive, or a TH-200/TH-200C 3 Speed Transmission. A TH-350 and TH-400 will bolt in if you get one with a Buick, Olds, Pontiac bolt-pattern. Some modifications need to me made to the driveline and cross member, again look on the forum.
7. As far as speakers... You can cram 3.5" ones up front. I got a set of Fosgate ones and crossed them over so they would recieve limited power. And you can cut to fit almost anything in the back. I have also seen some custom rear seat lids made fitting 8" subs and 6x9" speakers. I have 1 10" sub and 2 6x9"s running off one 1200 w 4 Channel amp. Sounds really good.

One question to you is how many miles are on it? GBodys for the most part stock are pretty tired. So take that into consideration.

 

[Gutless]

wow thanks for the fast reply. The car has pretty low mileage it was a granny car. The drivetrain is solid (for now). My friend really beats the hell out of his cars. I think he has been threw 8 cars in the past year and a half. His insurance thinks hes a dealer so he needed a car that would last. I talked him into this one since we are rather mechanicaly inclined and these old cars are simple to fix. We checked everything on the car. The frame is solid and the body is solid with minimal rust for an east coast car. overall its actualy not too bad of a car.

 

[dan2286]

A small block Olds would be a direct swap. Everything from the 307 will bolt on a small block olds. A big block Olds will pretty much also be bolt in, but may have hood clearance problems and headers are expensive.

Swapping in a Chevy engine will be harder if you want to do it right. You will need to get different accessory brackets, move battery to other side or extend the alt and starter wires, different fan shroud, re-route fuel line, sensor wires are in different locations so they will need to be dealt with. The best bet would be getting all needed parts from a Chevy powered G body including the engine wiring harness. This may or may not be an easy swap depending on if you happen to have everything needed. Or you could just do a hacked up engine swap with wires running all over and stuff busted up to make something fit, like a lot of people do and then they say it was easy.

 

[Chevyman85]

. I think he has been threw 8 cars in the past year and a half. His insurance thinks hes a dealer so he needed a car that would last.

How is this? Does he have a DL plate? Or what? I'm a little confused about how the two are related.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

The first thing to do would be better rear axle gears. The ones it has are useful only for running land speed trails on the salt flats and have no place on a car driven in the real world. The cheap solution is to use 3.23 gears off of a 3.8 V6 car that had that option. I believe it is GU4 on the SPID. Bonus points if the SPID also has G80, because that means posi. Is it a strong rear? No, but with an automatic and street tires it should take 350hp. I got mine for $50 at the local self serve yard out of a sexy 4 door V6 83 Regal. Don't bother swapping gears, just get a complete rear end with the gears you want and bolt it in. It is both easier and cheaper that way. For the engine, Just use a SBO 350 or 403. At the mild level it will be cheaper than a Chevy swap because you can retain all the accessories and brackets from the 307. For front speakers, there are solutions to put them in the doors-including a factory one. The factory one is from a Regal with the Concert Sound II system and it puts 5.25 in woofers in the doors and dome tweeters in the stock 3.5 positions in the dash. I run a modified set in my Cutlass fitted with aftermarket speakers and the results are well worth it. For exhaust, it all matters what you plan to do. You can run an eficient Y pipe into a large single cat and then Y it back out into duals with the stock crossmember, or even route duals under the stock crossmember if you want to go cheap. Aftermarket crossmembers are available to run normal duals, but expect to pay for them. As for the E4ME Quadrajet, it's not really an issue on a stock 307, but it can be modified to work, or you can replace it with a 76-80 non computer Buick, Olds or Pontiac Quadrajet so long as it came from an engine of similar size. Yes, technically and Quadrajet will fit, but keeping it close in size will mean that the idle feed restriction size is right for your engine as that is very hard to change otherwise.

 

[Gutless]

. I think he has been threw 8 cars in the past year and a half. His insurance thinks hes a dealer so he needed a car that would last.

How is this? Does he have a DL plate? Or what? I'm a little confused about how the two are related.

Well he has had 8 different cars registered within the past year or two. They are getting on his *ss about it because they think he is a dealer who is registering the cars so he can take people on test drives.

Man thanks for all the replies here. I dident even know there was a 4 door regal during the early 80s. So do all g body rears interchange?

Also has anyone ever made sidepipes for a g body? We might end up going that route.

 

[Chevyman85]

Yes, all GBody rears interchange. And you can run sidepipes, different states/cities have different regulations regarding sound decible and placement. For example, in WA state your exhaust has to be 6" behind the rear doors, just keep that in mind.