I'm trying to a plan together for an engine swap in my stock 39 Olds. The car has the stock running gear now but plans include a 371 Olds rocket, prolly a manual trans and the question has to do with the rear. I don't want to assume, but will it have to be completely swapped out or can it be built/modified to handle the engine swap? I have a street/strip car for racing so this will be for cruzin. Thanks.
I'm bumping this up because I am looking for a few more thoughts than zero. If you're not familiar, this has the long arms with coils. Thanx for any suggestions, ideas or feedback.
I had a 40 Olds coupe with a Nova subframe and I hung the Nova rear in the back. Made my own perches/brackets and added a panhard bar to keep it centered.
I think thast is the same rear as the '49 to '54 or so Olds and Pontiac. They were used in all the Hot cars in the old days. I would think you could run it just fine. Different gears all interchanged in my '49 Rocket
If it's open drive...not torque tube, I'd leave it stock. An overdrive transmission might be worth considering though.
Should be strong enough for a cruzer, probably has a steep gear in it though, so do as John said and plan for an overdrive.
S10, early '80's GM G body, Camaro, Nova, Chevelle, 9", 8.8" Any of these would work, You will need to get the tape measure out and see how wide the stock rear is. Do you know what wheels size you want, that will have a lot to do with it as well.
I'm assuming the stock wheel pattern is 6 bolt ??? Most Japanese 4WD (and some 2WD) rearends use the same 6 bolt wheel pattern and they are not as wide as the GM fullsize pickup rearends. Might be an option.
Thanx rodders. Like I said before this will be a cruizer but the gears are steep so an overdrive would be the best if I were to keep it which is what I prefer. I plan to keep the 16 by skinny stocker wheels on it too.
I think you can use the center section from a 49 to 56 olds or pontiac,the only difference is the size of the studs in the housing to mount the center section.
What series of Oldsmobile is it? 60, 70, 80? And what are you doing with the stock drivetrain? or any other parts/trim/accessories you may be getting rid of?
Itsa 60 series 2dr sedan. My plan is to keep as much of the original chassis and suspension as possible. There is not alot there to begin with so I'm looking for parts rather than selling off at this point. It has the flat head six and manual trans right now. I'll see about looking into that center section swap.
That's great man, they're such a smooth running car. My father has a 60 series 4dr sedan. He rebuilt the whole suspension using NOS parts in the mid 80's... that thing just rolls over the bumps in the road, definately a smooth driver, and I'd imagine, a good chasis for a sweet custom.
The radius arms are just U bolted to the rear so a change to open drive will require welding the inner sleeve to the new axle, and even then the rubber pad between the inner and outer sleeve may allow too much rotation so a 3 link may be needed.
I want to revisit this post but now I am looking for IDEAS TO LOWER it. I noticed there are drop spindles available for the front. Like I said earlier in the post I want to keep the suspension as stock as possible but I could go for that. Are there any other ideas or tricks you might know of?? I would also like to drop the rear as well. This car has coils in the rear that are tapered at both ends. Am I lookin at custom springs???? I'm not sure my uncle's old school way of heating the springs til the car rests on paint cans is going to work here (I'm thinking coil bind). Any help or ideas would be appreciated while not entertaining modern subframes or major surgery.
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