My 80 Sinbird LS swap stuff (build thread)

[JohnX]

1980 Sunbird. I gutted the car, no AC, heater, sheetmetal dash, switched to manual brakes.

As for engine swap fitting....

I assembled engine and trans outside vehicle, slid them in together and bolted up the trans mount to the original crossmember using the rear set of holes. Then I made mounts using the factory engine mount holes. Power brake was in the way, ditched it for clearance (manualbrakes.com now has a setup for h-body using S10 master, i did all the mock up and photos for him). I made my own crossmember for between the lower control arm mounts, and mounted a mustang II rack and pinion on it. I am running the shallow holley muscle car oil pan and have plenty of clearance. The steering shaft was a major obstacle with headers in the way, I had to spend a small fortune for the V-dog 90degree steering coupler to make it work. Headers were cheap S10 LS swap shorty headers. I had to buy 2 sets, used left from one pair and right from a different pair. I cut off the flanges and extended them under the car to allow better access to outlet flanges, also swapped to v-bands.

ENGINE

Stock LQ4 (2002 6.0 denali) honed, rings, bearings...but not a "true" rebuild.
Rebuilt stock heads and milled a little. Compression is 10.17:1
Trick flow stage 4 track max cam.
Hydraulic Roller, 291/295, Lift .595/.595, Lobe Sep. 112
Holley single plane carb intake
Holley 800cfm double pumper
MSD box to run ignition
Made a bracket for top mount 35amp one wire alternator
Headers are "extended shortys" 1.75" tubes, 3" collectors.
Dual 3" pipes with small single chambers dump in front of back tires.
Pipes were flattened into ovals for ground clearance.

Carb/air cleaner had clearance issues, had to cut out hood and add a small scoop.


DRIVETRAIN
Stockish 200-4r, some minor upgrades inside.
3200 stall converter
Custom driveshaft, 1330 joints to reuse explorer flange (im cheap)
Explorer 8.8 rear end, narrowed a couple inches.
Alloy USA axke shafts
Stock 3.73 posi
Gutted parking brakes
Stock discs.
Custom torque arm 1.25" .120 wall (need to remake, bent on launch)
Aftermarket jeep grand cherokee rear upper controls arms used as lower control arms (strong, adjustable, $100)
Custom trackbar/panhard.
F-body 8.8 swap mounts for torque arm




Running 255/60r15 Mickey Thompson drag radials on 15x8 draglites.
Had to roll fenders a bit, but fit is excellent.



I'll see if I can figure out pics on here. Any questions, please feel free.

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[JohnX]

[RobR]

Nice work!

[gt350fme]

Well, love all the fab work, you dove right into it no fear, good job man! Nice car!

[JohnX]

Thanks guys, I've been building jeeps for years, but this is the first drag car I've ever done any type of fab work on. So far, so good. Still need to swap the front end over to s10 spindles and brakes, but I've been too busy driving it

[GermanMonza]

This is awesome, thanks for writing it up! Are the Grand Cherokee control arms a direct fit?

[JohnX]

Grand Cherokee (ZJ) rear upper control arms, or Wrangler (TJ) rear upper control arms....direct bolt in if you use adjustable arms, they are around $100 on ebay. You will have to shim the ends with washers as the bushings are narrower than the h-body by maybe ¼"??

It was a very cheap solution that allows me to center the tires in the wheel well and adjust thrust angle to zero.