Hello all

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Arok

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 3, 2006
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Gainesville, Florida
I just bought an 83 cutlass 3.8L and went looking for some online info about G-bodies. My plan is to find a smallblock and a 700R4 for it. Mostly I am looking for info on what suspension or brake mods I should look into. I want a street performer, I may take it to the track a few times but I'm not going to gear it for the strip. Any advice on the swap would be greatly appreciated.

My only experience to forums is one with absolutely no rules whatsoever, so if I step out of line here it's purely ignorance and I'll try not to.
 

gbody5

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 2, 2006
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Stuck in the 80's
Depending on how much you want to spend, there are many options. You can replace the front upper control arms to tubular and go with 12 in brake upgrades. For a start and less money just do the springs and shocks. MOOG 5660 front and CC627 rear springs are ~$55 a pair from Summit and Bilstein shocks are ~$60 a piece from Autozone. This alone will give you a nice firm ride and reduce body roll.

I would go with a TH2004R instead of a TH700R4, the gears are closer in ratio and has a higher OD gear, they can be built up to handle your V8 and fit your G-body without replacing driveshaft.
 

Arok

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 3, 2006
48
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0
Gainesville, Florida
Thanks alot

I was going through the forum and saw some recomendations for that 2004R. I just got the car and haven't done much research on it. Most people I spoke to told me 700R4 but if the GN had a 2004R then I imagine that is the more capable of the 2.
 

gbody5

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 2, 2006
10
0
1
Stuck in the 80's
The 700R4 came in the F-body and Corvette, both are good OD transmissions, both can (and need to) be built up to handle more HP than stock engines.

If your car has overdrive you may already have a 2004R, I'm not sure on V-6's but I know the V-8 Cutlass, Monte Carlo, GN, etc. with OD came with 2004R's, at least in the mid to late 80's.

You will also want to get lower rear end gears, 3.42 or 3.73.
 

Gbodyolds

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 2, 2006
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Arok said:
I just bought an 83 cutlass 3.8L and went looking for some online info about G-bodies. My plan is to find a smallblock and a 700R4 for it. Mostly I am looking for info on what suspension or brake mods I should look into. I want a street performer, I may take it to the track a few times but I'm not going to gear it for the strip. Any advice on the swap would be greatly appreciated.
quote]

Small block chevy or olds ?

I would use the 200-4r both are good transmission's but it seems the 700r4 gets hyped up a lot. you would need a custom driveshaft for the 700r4 and im not sure about the crossmember. with the 200-4r you could use the crossmember and drive shaft out of any G-body with overdrive (except 442, H/O and Turbo regal).

for suspension like gbody 5 said Moog 5660 front and CC627 rear (if you got the extra $ the Eibach pro spring kit is nice) and definately the Bilstein's front and rear (got mine from summit 57.70 each) get all the Chassis stiffening braces THEY WORK!. You can get a front sway bar out of a third gen camaro its a direct bolt in and if you look there are plenty of camaros out there that have the hollow 36mm swaybar in them. Depending on your funds you should check out the SCandC stage 2 suspension Marcus is a great guy and sells very nice stuff, the stage 2 setup corrects a lot of the incorrect suspension geometry found in stock G-body suspensions.
in the rear suspension I use hotchkis lowers edelbrock uppers and the ATR swaybar there may be something better for the rear but i like what i have.

for wheels I would definately go 16" or bigger Im currently using 245/50/16's on all 4 but thinking about going to 17" Torg-Thrust 2's

for brakes there are a lot of options these days.
theres the B-body swap which I dont know much about other than it requireing aftermarket upper arms and bigger than stock wheels.

theres the 99 and up 2wd blazer swap that is pretty much a direct bolt on (entire spindel) and has a sealed wheel bearing and dual piston caliper. i think stock wheels can be used with it

theres a set up for using C-5 brakes on modified G-body spindels

theres the G-5 kit (SCandC.com) that gives you a aftermarket front suspension with C5 corvette brakes
 

Arok

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 3, 2006
48
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0
Gainesville, Florida
I don't really know the difference between the SB chevy & olds, I figure it will be easier to find a chevy and parts for it.

I've been drooling over the SC&C site for a while now. G-5 would be nice, but I don't have that kind of money. They do have plenty of good affordable upgrades though. I may opt for the street comp stage 2 setup with the recomended springs.


My gear display looks like this: P R N D 2 1

If it had OD it would indicate that right? Any other way I could tell exactly what transmission I've got?. I assumed a transmission that bolts up to a 3.8/231 would not bolt up to a 350. It seems that I'm mistaken, which is convenient.

I want to find a transmission ASAP because I'm about to do the automatic transmission class and I could rebuild it there.


BTW, I've only driven the car once. That was the ride from the purchass point to my house. I had to put new plugs and wires in to do that, also had to replace 5 wheel studs becasue someone drove about 100yards with no lugnuts. $200 for the car $10 for the studs and $50 for 4 8x15 chrome rims with 2 tires(245/50r15). I think they are 8x15, if not then 10x15. On the way home with it I was impressed, it had more play in the wheel than anythign else I've ever driven. I think I could turn the wheel almost 90 degrees without affecting the vehicles direction.

I bought it to fix up, my daily driver is a 97 toyota tacoma reg cab 5spd 2wd all factory except eibach springs in the front and 2'' blocks in the back. This is my first GM and my first attempt at an engine swap.

previous cars:

86 nissan pulsar, now in a junk yard
71 plymouth duster w/198 slant 6, now in a junk yard
73 dodge dart 4door w/225.......i hope the poor lady i sold it to junked it

payed less than $500 for each of them and drove them all for over a year before they were totally ruined. Then i got sick of cheap cars that I had to work on regularly and took a loan out for the tacoma, now I miss working on old cars. The toyota has been great, except I was pulling in to work(at the local toyota dealership) and my left wheel fell off. It was still attached at the upper ball joint but the lower one had come right out of its socket.
 

Gbodyolds

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 2, 2006
27
0
0
you dont have overdrive and you have a v6 I would bet you have a TH200 metric transmission, my first cutlass (an 87) had that transmission it only had 25k orig miles on it when i bought it and about 50 or 60 when i sold it, I changed it 4 times every time with a rebuilt unit and every time it lost reverse they are garbage. In the end I found a TH350 with a BOP bolt pattern it was a direct bolt in other than a different kickdown cable and mount. if the transmission has a chevy bolt pattern in it then it will bolt to a chevy motor.

SBO -vs- SBC are two totally different beast's either will fit and either can make power, the Olds guys will give you some flack for putting a Chevy motor in your Oldsmobile but hey its your car do what you like. when I have the $ im putting an Olds 350 in mine.
The chevy motors are easier to find and theres more available for them if you go with the chevy motor the easiest way to go is find a smashed Camaro and just take it all out and put it all in if your good with wiring you can find a TPI Camaro and use it all. if I were doing a chevy motor I would find a smashed TPI 5spd car and convert to TPI and the 5spd.
 

Gbodyolds

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Jan 2, 2006
27
0
0
Arok said:
On the way home with it I was impressed, it had more play in the wheel than anythign else I've ever driven. I think I could turn the wheel almost 90 degrees without affecting the vehicles direction.

check the front end, tierods, idler arm, center link if all or good you will probably just need to adjust your steering box its pretty easy go here for instructions

http://www.monte-list.nu/tech/boxmesh.shtml
 
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