i have a fourth gen 1981 monte carlo that i bought for eight hundred and am fixing up. the 305 is not running to good and not even worth rebuilding. i was planning on a 350 but i can get a 454 for cheap. i was wondering if i do this swap will i need different motor mounts? and will i need a stiffer suspenssion for the new weight?

thanks
Colin Dupuis

 

yessir. different motor mounts are required. as far as suspension all you need to do is put in stiffer springs. Since you have an '81 Monte, I'm guessing you have a 3 speed metric tranny and 10 bolt rear with 2.91 or so highway gears that will fail after time. the 200-4R trans and 10 bolt rears that came in 442's, Monte SS's, and Buick turbo cars will hold up just fine if you could find one of these to use as a parts car. you'll need the trans crossmember out of these cars also. there's a few other small things like getting a larger radiator, ect. but believe or not the swap is pretty straight forward. I had a friend put a 500cid Caddy engine into his 82 Monte a few years ago. he got it done in a week. good luck to you

 

i have a th350 in the monte right now and i hear thats a decent tranny, is that true? how much you think getting new motor mounts would be?

 

http://www.maliburacing.com/bbc_conversion.htm


here ya go homeboy. i was wrong about the motor mounts. the small block ones work just fine. about your trans: if it's the stock unit, then it is not a true TH350, its the TH350C, a metric unit that uses a lockup converter and won't hold all that power very good for very long. the link covers just about everything.

 

thanks alot but i have one little problem. the 1982-1988 are G-bodys and mine is a 1981 a-body. is there a big difference or do i have a fourth gen random? because that would suck nards.

thanks again

 

you got a G-body. 78-87 Montes, Grand Prix, Regals, and Cutlass are all G-body's. 78-87 Malibu's, El Camino's are the A-bodys. but a lot of those parts are interchangalbe.

 

sweet thanks alot, you ever do a engine swap?

 

I helped my buddy put a Caddy 500cid or whatever inch those motors are into his 82 Monte years ago. his started out as a 4.3 car so we had a lot more work to do, and the exterior dimensions of that Caddy motor are different than a 454 so it required parts that weren't easy to find at the time. luckily his dad worked at a machine shop and was able to make what we needed. your 454 swap should be so much easier.

 

i love the 454. good luck with it. could always put a blower on it