This car was originally an auto grand coupe car. The previous owner switched it over to a 440-6 car. I got the car about a year ago and haven't had time to get around to it. This is how it came to me:
So things got a bit out of hand.....
Motor gone
This should fit, a 5.7 FI hemi
We're making room for an A500 out of a dakota 318 pickup truck. You have to fix the cross member to get it to fit. A lot of people say you have to cut the floor, which is not the case. Took 3" wide 3/16 flat metal and shaped it to where it is flat against floor. Cut out center of cross member that goes up into the hump. Took 1/2" wide 1/8th thick metal and tack welded to the side of the 3" piece. We took a torch and heated up the 1/2" wide piece and shaped it. Until it was shaped all the way around. Did it on both sides, front and back. Heliarced inside and outside. Welded that back into the floor, it clears the transmission now without cutting the floorpan.
We tied the frame together to give more support. If you don't want to tie it together, at least go in front of cross member and put a piece of 2x3 tubing at a 45 degree angle to the frame for extra support for the cross member. We choose to tie the frame together properly. On an ebody car it is a tremendous help. These cars are so short and so wide, they tend to twist/flex.
An A500 is basically a 904 with a 2.74 low gear and an OD unit. We'll operate the OD unit with two switches. A 94 and earlier tranny, has a 3 prong plug. The two grounds operate the OD unit and lockup converter. When driving in town, you won't use them. On interstate you'll lock up the converter and the OD. You could run a 3.55 in town and on interstate it will act like a 2.50. When you get off the interstate you have to unlock them both via the switches. This is meant for a TOURING car, not a race car or car that will see track time. If you want to do that, use a 518
Use an A518 if trying to beat on the car. It's basically a 727. The problem with the 518 is that it doesn't have the 2.74 low gear, it has a 2.45. Driving around in town might be a bit of a dog. The 518 is going to have around 20lbs more weight spinning around in it as well.
Overall, we're hoping this will give us an additional 4-5mpg on the interstate. Can't wait to test it out and see.
Take the grill and everything else out as well:
Who needs an interior? We've decided to rewire the entire car by hand at this point. No need in not doing it at this point.
New dash:
A few nifty power options being added:
A few other things, but we plan on driving in January. Good thing we did all of this. When ripping the car apart, we found mud literally behind the door panels. This car was under water at some point is my guess. Dash was out of a different car as it was tagged in the back from the yard. So we took everything down and redoing it. Will be a GREAT cruiser when done.
