I was looking thru one of my Motor Trend back issues and came across this brief but interesting article from the October 1997 issue. A lot of us know that back then, people in the car media were saying that it'd be cool if the front-drive Monte Carlo would get a V8, and it looks like GM/Chevy was doing a little experimentation to see if/how it could work. Maybe this Cadillac swap job even formed the basis for finally getting the much better 5.3L LS4 V8 ready for the SS in 2006.

This 4.9L OHV V8 was the engine that was used in Cadillacs in the early '90s, right before the more famous Northstar DOHC V8 was introduced. What's interesting about the 4.9 is that it had an aluminum block and iron heads, which is the opposite of the more common iron block and aluminum heads. I wonder if that would've made it weigh about the same as the 3.4L DOHC V6 or the Series-II 3800? The 200-hp level isn't anything special, but the torque output going all the way up to 275 would've been fun. It would've had a lot of "pull".

Anyway, it's one of those interesting looks behind the scenes at car companies, which I often enjoy; different ideas and "roads not taken" stories like that.

 

I have that article saved on an old computer. Back in the day I use to dream about doing an LS1 swap. Good memories. It would be cool to see someone do this swap and see how fast it would be at the dragstrip.

 

There was an engineer at a job I used to work at and he put a 1990 beretta on a full tube chassis, made it RWD, tubbed it, and dropped in a 396. talk about a sleeper.

 

It would be neat to see someone attempt a 5th gen swap like this on the forum. I know one guy is making a 7th gen rwd. He is the one who did the 900hp front wheel drive 7th gen monte.