I miss my '81 dearly but I don't miss the gutless 12A and the pile of crap carb that came on it. I can easily pick up a FB for really cheap and I love the way they look. So I have a 2nd gen N/A motor with transmission and wiring harness. I know how to bolt the motor in I'm curious as to how much of a pain it will be to drop this drivetrain in and is the car going to haul ***? I mean my stock '81 ran high 15's with a 12A motor with no mods and my '89 GXL is half a second slower (granted the car was running like *** because of a vacuum leak.) So who's done the swap and what am I looking at geting into. I don't want any search lectures I prefer conversation.

 

Why not just buy a GSL-SE?

 

Too heavy. And too pricy.

 

Dropping it in will be easy as long as you get the right parts. Bolts right in. You'll want to make use of your 2nd gen oil cooler. Wiring it won't be easy, and you will have to use the electric omp (not easy) or at least keep it somewhere. Performance will be good (160 hp stock, a bit more with an exhaust) but nothing like a turboII swap. This is the swap I'd like to do someday.

 

Well I could take care of the oil by pre mixing. Also could I run a stock FD (cat back) exhaust and custom build a straight pipe to fill the gap? And could I use a SAFC to bypass most of the wiring? I want it to be as simple as possible.

 

If you're gonna do a swap throw a S4 Turbo II engine in there. For this you will have all the same issues as a NA swap (except intercooling) and you will get over 200 hp. It's freakin awesome what that much power can do in a FB. Now that you can buy a prefabed hood with a TII scoop in it, intercooling isn't that big a deal to install.

Cheapest way to do it is use the stock ECU and components like I did. I have all the wiring diagrams posted so that part should be no problem. Stay away from S5 wiring if you can or go with the electronic OMP--with an S4 you can go straight premix. You will have to add some EGI power wiring cause the 12a car didn't have it while a GSL-SE did.

Good luck with the project,

Scott

 

I'd love to drop a TII motor but see I don't have one at the moment. But I do have a S4 N/A motor and trans that runs. I can pick up a car for $200 and drop it in. THen do all the body work myself and only be into the whole project a few hundred bucks. I wan tto do the swap with parts I already have.