62 Pontiac Conversion PLEASE say YES

Well scored a neat lil car very solid at that. 4 cyl with trans axle. PLEASE tell me that a V8 and normal rear can go in this without changing the rotation of the Sun.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...70567&ih=001&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&viewitem=

 

63's came with a 326 v8, so you should be able to pirate some of that to convert this 62.
here are some pics of a 63 done in 63 with the big car rear.

 

Please put a Pontiac motor in it

 

389 if the Gods are kind

 

Neat little car. These cars were very compe***ive in A/FX with 421s back in the antediluvian period.

 

What's wrong with the slant-4?

They tested that rope-drive setup in full size V8 powered cars in 58-59, and the block is a V8 with one bank lopped off - any side mount block will bolt in up front. The problem with them is you may need a new trans tunnel for a conventional drive. The transaxle is Corvair based, it will take the torque from a V8 if you don't go too nuts with it.

Car in your pics is a '61, or has a '61 nose on it.

 

Just though would make a nice lil drag car Vin says 162P

 

Keep in mind that the wheel bolt pattern is small Ford, 5 on 4.5" weird for a GM. You may want to try and adapt some later model front **** brake spindles, the drums were small, and the parts are obsolete, even NAPA has to send your pads out to be resurfaced.

Ship that slant 4 down here, I'll take it.

 

Did that come from Gowanda, Ny ? There was one just like it for sale up there a couple years back, but I haven't been that way since.

 

Pennsylvania Last on the road in 85,,it still runs

 

Cool find. The 61-63 cars are unibody and more like a Corvair than you would think. On the PY forum folks seem to run beefy rearends, ladder bars, TH400's, and then a BB Pontiac. You have to cut up the trans tunnel for the transmission.

 

Yes

 

I had a 63 1/2 Tempest LeMans Convertable with the PG trans and 326V8 I beat the hell out of that car never an engine or trans problem but those thumb thick axles shafts would twist off at the splines in a heartbeat

 

There was also a racing program through Pontiac that focused on the slant 4. It's really only half of their regular engine. They also came with 4bbl carbs too. There is a local guy here that has one that supposedly has 370 dinoed HP from that slant 4.

 

Really !! Cool I have wheels for this woot woot

 

I agree with these guys. Milk the /4 for power before butchering the car for a V8.

It literally is a poncho V8 cut in 1/2... You can use a good V8 cam [ram air 4], a good V8 head, V8 pistons [4 of them], etc.

If it was mine, I'd find a hot air turbo/carb setup from a 70's/early 80's buick V6 and put on it.

It would not be too hard to build it up to give 4 cyl economy, and V8 performance.

 

A buddy of mine pulled it off once. he used the trans tunnel and such from a random late 70's "metric" car...it looked "right" when he was done with it. 455, 4 speed, and I think a bronco 9 inch! (pretty nappow track width as I recall)

This was the same guy that outran me once with a 4 door maverick with nofloors in it at all...just a 302, a 5 speed, and exactly enough tubing in the floors to have something to bolt it all to, and somewhere to sit. I will never claim he was the brightest bulb on the tree, but he had that tempest together in under 2 weeks.

 

Be different. Hot rod and run the 4 cyl. It will surprise you if you get it breathing right!

 

better check that bolt circle. the only time i have ever come across a "strange" bolt pattern is a full sized mid 70' mercury wagon, it had 5 on 5" bc. but thats not saying ....! this car shared lots of parts with early nova. the seats are the same.

 

How odd ball a motor is this four as far as parts?

Was really liking teh v8 shift on teh floor idea.. The tunnel I figure is teh easy part,,More curious as to getting a rear in. Hard to see on that race car where they actually bolted everything up

 

Another possible path...would not a V8 of the years before the bellhousing change bolt right in keeping the wierdo driveshaft and trans?? I think it would be interesting to do some...durability testing, shall we say...on the rope drive. Maybe it'll survive...and it has the advantage of putting one heavy lump at the rear of the car. Remember the roadrace/NASCAR Tempest shown looong ago in HRM?? Not exactly stock parts, of course, but they did keep the basic layout.

 

That is a neat little car-hope you have a blast with it.

 

I had a '62 mid-performance version 4 cyl. (4bbl. but not the SD version), it was fun as hell with the 4sp transaxle.

 

You need 1 Ram air IV head. and 1 Longbranch manifold. with those, and the correct 4 bbl carb and intake, You would be moving P.D.Q. before You knew what happened. seems like what You are looking for is a pncho guy that kicked the **** out of one side of a ram air car.

The little Duke has the potential to be a *****in motor.

GMPP used to have performance heads, manifolds, cams, I seem to recall an electronic distributor, just tons of options.

 

The V8 will bolt right in, I mentioned that before, probably has to be a 61-64 block to work with the rope drive. (want one?)

The 4 could be had with a 4bbl - it's just a 389 block with one bank lopped off, uses the same rods, pistons, and head. (the actual head casting # is different, two of them on a V8 gets you a little higher compression if I remember right). Cam, intake and crank are different, mostly because it's only half the V8.

 

I built a '62 (same car) several years ago. I used a Pontiac 455, turbo 400, and 9" Ford narrowed radically. It isn't easy. You have to build a ****** and driveshaft tunnel. This is an early unibody car, so in my case, it was "back-halved" using 2X3 tubing that supported the rear suspension (coil overs). The 2X3 rails were carried forward to the supports for the front cross member. The 4cyl cross member mounts the engine too low if you use the stock mounts. You can use a '63 front coss member as the engine mounts are on raised stands to mount the 326. In my case, I used the 4 cyl cross member and built approximately 4 inch risers for the motor mounts. I modified the Tempest lower A-arms to accept Dodge screw in ball joints and used Mustang II tubular upper arms shortened and set up once againd for the same Dodge ball joint. Mounted Mustang II spindles and 11"rotors from a Granada with caliper brackets to mount 2nd gen Camaro calipers. Added mounts for a mid 80's Mustang power sterring rack and there you go. Oh, almost forgot, I had to convert to coil overs in front as I could never get the ride height right by cutting coils. I just wasn't smart enough and I ran out of springs. Used a generic cross flow radiator, cut out the core support to provide a large enough hole, be careful here, don't cut away the wheel wells or certain parts of the core support as they are structural. When you build in the tunnel, the seats won't fit (mine was a LeMAns with buckets identical to my 64 GTO except for the upholstery pattern). You can modify the mounts to fit. I also cut out the firewall at the hole for the heater. Ditched the heater and build a sheet metal recess that allowed the engine to set back in the car. The rest of the firewall was smoothed off and a new master cylinder mount fabbed to mount a Corvette dual MC, non-power. There wasn't room for a booster on my car. I also modified the 9" to disc brakes and never had trouble with that set up. Running the exhaust is a *****. If I was to ever do it again, I'd consider "nesting" the floor boards. The car was pro-streeted with 15" wheel in the rear, wouldn't ever do that again either. There you have it. Oh another thing, use a 63 instrument cluster. It has 4 round holes just like a 64 GTO, but it will bolt right to your dash. That way you can use almost any set of round instruments. Goog luck.

Jim

 

One problem with a V8 is the crank needs to be machined to bolt up to the driveshaft in a Tempest. It can be done but it's some work. Also, the four cylinder drivetrain was lighter duty than the one used in V8 cars, so you'd likely have problems with it holding up. I'd either stick with the slant four, or go whole hog and replace the whole drivetrain. As mentioned above, there have been many discussions on the V8 conversion over on the Performance Years board, along with souping up the slant four. The Little Indians chapter of the Pontiac club has a lot of info on their website as well.

 

Looking at this seems a Vette rear might be the ticket

 

The phasing of the 4cyl won't allow a v-8 camshaft to work. Only if a v-8 crankshaft was installed and would need cut down rods as fillers for side clearance on the crank.

If you wanted to be traditional, I would find a 57 Pontiac rear and leafspring setup.