1980 Eldorado Coupe 368-swap for a 500

[nitinnelapudi2]

So did you tell me you were using the stock thm325 tranny? everything seems to work fine? I guess I can stay away from dead stop burn outs, but do you think that the tranny can handle the pressure from a bb caddy 425 ci? I think the hp is rated around 180 stock but the torque is quite high....
Man I would love to see pics of your car...even a you tube movie...caddy's rule!!

[455Eldorado]

The "strongest" E-body car as far as I know using the TH325 was an early 80's
Buick Riviera rated at 185hp. That's stock from the factory. I've been using a stock 325 for 7 years now with an additional oil cooler and a shift kit. So far so good. I try to avoid burnouts and that's it...

[hotrodhenson]

My $.02...........I just swapped out a 1970-76 500CID for a 1980 368CID and the engines were identical. I did not have to modify anything. The width and deck height was practically the same. I shoe-horned it into my 1961 ford truck. The motor dropped right in the mounts.

[eldorondo]

Instead of changing your motor, why don't you stroke it ,back when i was in my twenty's i had my mechanic stroke my 350 into a 383 stroker which produced lots of power

[Jed95fwb]

If you're gonna go through with the engine swap, let me know because I would be willing to buy the FI system sensors and PCM from your 368. Whlie the 368 is a smooth, reliable and relatively powerful engine, I would love to see an 80 with the 500. I think the swap would depend on whether you could retrofit a THM-425 trans from an earlier Eldorado to handle the torque or rebuild the existing THM-325 with some kind of shift kit.

I drove an 80 California Eldorado with the Olds 350 and it was a rocket, no pun intended. It pulled like a freight train all the way. 80 used a rail-style fuel injection system. You could always look for a donor from CA.

[BRUCE ROE]

My advice is put an Olds 403 in the car. No weight problems, its a small block. You need a low restriction exhaust to get all the engines performance. The trans needs to be in good shape; a lot of these have a broken accumulator spring. The poor shifts are repaired with a mild shift kit that replaces the spring. Note that the THM325 trans needs a different flywheel, oil filter mount, pan, oil pump/pickup, exhaust man than other trannys, get them from an Olds powered 79-85 E car.

The big blocks will fit the THM325. I didn't trust it, and the THM325 differentials have a history of failures (I lost one every 100,000 miles). Also I wanted a switch pitch trans, so I put a 67 THM425 trans & differential in my 79 Eldo. This is a major project with all kinds of adapter brackets, half shaft adapter plates, & some body mods. The extra 100 lb was taken by the TOURING suspension torsion bars. But the 403 is probably lighter than a 368 BB. Some pictures of it are on my PHOTOBUCKET site, under user bcroe . I was also able to get ADDCO sway bars front & rear. Bruce Roe Cad-LaSalle Club Advisor #14630

[CadVetteStang]

I put a 500 in a 82 Eldorado, then had do a swap because that 500 was bad. I then put in a 472.












I took all sensors off of the stock 4100 engine and adapted them to the 72 model 472. I pulled the oil pan, brackets, pulleys and belts off of a 368. I modified the 472 intake to accept a map sensor. I used 500 Eldo exhaust manifolds. I had problems with the passenger side manifold contacting the A.C. box on the fire wall, so I had it re-clocked by a welding school so that the pipe mount bolts did not touch the box (I later found out that I may have been using a RWD manifold on that side because others who have done this swap have not had that clearance problem). Stay away from 425 manifolds if you can because they are more restrictive than the 500/472 manifolds. I had too close of a fit on the passenger’s side frame rail for my manifold, so I modified the frame with about 50 hits from a 4 lb. hammer. I had to make a bracket for the front of the engine to bolt to the front diff area of the TH325-4L overdrive tranny. I rigged a torque strap to the fraim rail with some steele cable to limit engine rock – giving it about 1” of play. At the time, I could not find a Chevy truck 670 CFM TBI, so I used a 500 CFM throttle body off of a Chevy 350 car. I used the idle control motor and throttle sensor from the stock 4100 TBI. I now have a Holly 670 TBI made for a car that will accept my idle control motor and will use it when I re-do the car. I mounted the TBI on a 4bbl to 2BBL carb adaptor that has a custom built plate on top (however 4bbl carb to 670 TBI adaptors are available. With a low rise breather on a small spacer, I could fit a 2.5” air filter, but can squeeze a 3” in when I get a flat top breather.
I don’t know if you plan to use TBI or a carb. My engine worked fine with the swap because 82 – 85 does NOT have a knock sensor, but I think 80 is one of the years that does. If it does have a knock sensor, then the computer might interpret the internal sounds of the 500 as detonation and may then retard the timing on it – defeating the upgrade. What was cool about the 82 up computer was that the 4100 is performance tuned from the factory. What is NOT cool about it, is that it wants to let the motor see high RPMs before shifting (however, that problem could have been because my TBI and injectors could not deliver enough punch to feed it what it wanted… I’ll know more after I get the car running again with the bigger TBI.
A friend of mine put a 76 model 500 with the Eldo’s TH425 into a 79 Toronado and used the factory carb. He had no manifold clearance problems. His only two challenges were the CV shaft adaptors and a custom rear trans mount. (he made drawings and measurements and had a machine shop build them.) The CV mounts on the TH 425 diff are larger than the 79 – 85 CVs and require a metal disc with two sets of bolt holes. Foe a rear trans mount, he used 2” square tubing that connected to the stock 79 Toro trans mount location with a flat plate, ran up the back side of the TH425 Trans and across the top-back area where the chain drive cover bolts on. The mount was attached by using 3 or 4 longer bolts into the chain drive cover. Then the mount rand down the other side and connected to the other stock 79 Toro mount on the frame. It looked ugly, but worked well and was very strong.
If I was going to drag race my car, that is the setup I would use. My application is a daily driver that sees 60 miles per day and will be used in autocross and rod runs. I will be looking for a high ratio front diff (which you already have on your 80 model TH325. It is a 2.19 ratio which is perfect for highway driving on 26.6” or 27.1” tires (you have a 27.1” stock tire size). It works out to be about the same as the taller tires on the old Eldos with 2.75 gears. That puts the torque where it is usable. Low gears are a waste and hurt performance on the 500. It will accelerate faster with 2.75 gears than it will with 4.11s. It makes its power right off idle until 3600 RPMs. However a small block like a 350 needs to get past 2500 RPM to begin building power. So don’t let a small block Chevy “expert” talk you out of highway gears when you will be using a 500. The Caddy that won the Real Street eliminators used 2.73 gears and ran an 11.8 sec quarter mile.

For more information about my car, here is a copy of the info from my album:
I bought the 82 Eldorado to fulfill the need for immediate transportation while the 72 Mustang was down. I got a good deal on it because it needed a front cap. My son and I did the repair and I sent it to get a cheap paint job.
It had a good 4100 engine with low miles. I drove it 52,000 miles that year getting just over 25 MPG as a traveling salesman. I have heard some reports of the 4100 powered Eldos getting 32 MPG, but I averaged 80 MPH on the interstate and Arkansas has a lot of hills in the rural areas.
With a 4 wheel independent suspension, this car already handled better than the 72 Mustang and with 4 wheel disc breaks it stopped quicker as well. When I upgraded to the thicker sway bars from an 85 Eldorado touring coupe, I was driving a car that handled better than a 1978 Z28 Camaro and almost as good as the 70 Elorado.
However, the 82’s springs were too soft in back, and the torsion bars were so weak in the front, it was more like flying a hover craft than driving a car; Despite the good handling, I knew there was room for improvement. I swapped the rear springs with some from a 70 Malibu Station wagon and that helped the car to start cornering flat like a late model Camaro.
I was still doing research for the front torsion bars hoping to find something stiffer than the 79-85 touring bars when trouble began to happen. At some point, the transmission quit shifting into fourth gear, but the engine was so quiet and the shifts so smooth, I did not notice anything but a dramatic drop in gas mileage. Not realizing I was buzzing the motor hundreds of miles a day with the 3.15 front gear ratio, the 4100 soon began to suffer from the upper end knock that they were known for. Since I had already discovered that with several more upgrades, this 3,680 lb. car had the potential to handle in a Corvette-like manor and was in the same weight class, I was already thinking about doing a big block Caddy swap.
Since the big block Caddy engine only weighs 35 lbs. heavier than the 350 Chevy, cranks out more power then the 454 Chevy, I had the potential of bettering the power to weight ratio of a C5 Corvette Z06. Not to mention that with fuel injection, those engines can be built to get gas mileage close to that of a GM 3800 V-6 of the mid- 90s, I could still drive hundreds of miles a day with no real drop in gas mileage. The 82 Eldorado used a TBI injection system like the one used in the Chevy 454 SS truck, so a throttle body and sensor swap would allow the use of the existing OBD 2 engine management system.
I upgraded the radiator to a Chevy truck 4 row, put in a salvage yard Caddy 500 and added an exhaust that consisted of dual 2.5” header pipes that joined into a single 4” pipe in the tunnel, then back into dual 2.5” pipes and turbo mufflers. The first salvage yard engine was bad, and then I pulled a 472 from a 1972 Lemo rated at 535 lbs. of toque @ 3200 RPMs after hearing that it had been rebuilt by the former owner. That engine had been painted in a way that suggested it had been taken apart.
I did the swap and began driving the car to see if I could get the transmission to start shifting into overdrive. I was also looking for a taller front diff to swap in. The engine began knocking 212 miles after I had installed it and the car was parked. Discouraged, I started driving a lil’ econo box wagon that gets 33 MPG. However, when doing some drive testing with “the Cadinator,” I found that even without 4th gear and with the 3.15 low diff, I was getting 20 MPG at 50 MPH. Better gears would have yielded the same MPG results at my 80 MPH normal driving average, and even better results at the 70 MPH speed. I am now doing a budget for the re-do of this car. It has been sitting in a field for the last five years and needs a lot of work.

[CadVetteStang]

I have a 472 in my 82 Eldorado and have had a 500 in it. I made a very long post that has pictures and gives details, but when I tried to post it this morning, I got a message saying it needed to be approved by a moderator. I’ll give it a day or two, then I’ll try to re-post it without the pictures. Until then, I have an album that shows the car after the swap. It can be done and you have some options about how you want to do it. Being an 80 model with a 368, you already have the perfect front diff gear ratio and a three speed without a lockup converter. Your swap would be easier than mine since I kept the use of my computer and fuel injection system (but with a bigger TBI)

[CadVetteStang]

It looks like the moderators are not going to approve my post, so I will re-post a more updated version of it without the pictures: Here goes:

I put a 500 in a 82 Eldorado, then had do a swap because that 500 was bad. I then put in a 472.

I used the TBI injection and wanted to keep the lockup feature on my 4 speed tranny so I took all sensors off of the stock 4100 engine and adapted them to the 72 model 472. I used all of the factory smog equipment. I pulled the oil pan, brackets, pulleys and belts off of a 368. (I used the air pump from the 368, and the 472 I was using was a smog motor- it all bolted up except that I had to modify the 472 intake to accept a map sensor.

I used 500 Eldo exhaust manifolds. I had problems with the passenger side manifold contacting the A.C. box on the fire wall, so I had it re-clocked by a welding school so that the pipe mount bolts did not touch the box (I later found out that I may have been using a RWD manifold on that side because others who have done this swap have not had that clearance problem). My manifold keeps breaking due to a flaw in the metal of the manifold in that area. I’ll fix it either by having a different manifold welded, by removing the AC box, or by using a different style manifold. One option is to use a RWD manifold from the driver’s side turned upside down on the passenger side (Fan boat builders do this all the time and it works okay).

My idea for headers is to use speed boat headers on the right side to clear the tranny and run the down pipe up over the fender well. I would then use a standard car tight fit header on the passenger side. Stay away from 425 manifolds if you can because they are more restrictive than the 500/472 manifolds. I had too close of a fit on the passenger’s side frame rail for my manifold, so I modified the frame with about 50 hits from a 4 lb. hammer.

I had to make a bracket for the front of the engine to bolt to the front diff area of the TH325-4L overdrive tranny. I rigged a torque strap to the fraim rail with some steele cable to limit engine rock – giving it about 1” of play. At the time, I could not find a Chevy truck 670 CFM TBI, so I used a 500 CFM throttle body off of a Chevy 350 car. I used the idle control motor and throttle sensor from the stock 4100 TBI. I now have a Holly 670 TBI made for a car that will accept my idle control motor and will use it when I re-do the car. I mounted the TBI on a 4bbl to 2BBL carb adaptor that has a custom built plate on top (however 4bbl carb to 670 TBI adaptors are available. With a low rise breather on a small spacer, I could fit a 2.5” air filter, but can squeeze a 3” in when I get a flat top breather.

I don’t know if you plan to use TBI or a carb. My engine worked fine with the swap because 82 – 85 does NOT have a knock sensor, but I think 80 is one of the years that does. If it does have a knock sensor, then the computer might interpret the internal sounds of the 500 as detonation and may then retard the timing on it – defeating the upgrade. What was cool about the 82 up computer was that the 4100 is performance tuned from the factory, because it is a little motor tugging on a 3800 pound car. What is NOT cool about it, is that it wants to let the motor see high RPMs before shifting (however, that problem could have been because my TBI and injectors could not deliver enough punch to feed it what it wanted… I’ll know more after I get the car running again with the bigger TBI.

A friend of mine put a 76 model 500 with the Eldo’s TH425 into a 79 Toronado and used the factory carb. He had no manifold clearance problems. His only two challenges were the CV shaft adaptors and a custom rear trans mount. (he made drawings and measurements and had a machine shop build them.) The CV mounts on the TH 425 diff are larger than the 79 – 85 CVs and require a metal disc with two sets of bolt holes. Foe a rear trans mount, he used 2” square tubing that connected to the stock 79 Toro trans mount location with a flat plate, ran up the back side of the TH425 Trans and across the top-back area where the chain drive cover bolts on. The mount was attached by using 3 or 4 longer bolts into the chain drive cover. Then the mount rand down the other side and connected to the other stock 79 Toro mount on the frame. It looked ugly, but worked well and was very strong.
If I was going to drag race my car, that is the setup I would use. My application is a daily driver that sees 60 miles per day and will be used in autocross and rod runs. I will be looking for a high ratio front diff (which you already have on your 80 model TH325. It is a 2.19 ratio which is perfect for highway driving on 26.6” or 27.1” tires (you have a 27.1” stock tire size). It works out to be about the same as the taller tires on the old Eldos with 2.75 gears. That puts the torque where it is usable. Low gears are a waste and hurt performance on the 500. It will accelerate faster with 2.73 gears than it will with 4.11s. (IF we are talking about tires from 25” – 27” tall on a car of your weight class). It makes its power right off idle until 3600 RPMs. However a small block like a 350 needs to get past 2500 RPM to begin building power. So don’t let a small block Chevy “expert” talk you out of highway gears when you will be using a 500. Jeff Schwartz Caddy that won the Real Street Eliminators used 2.73 gears and ran an 11.8 sec quarter mile on 25.7” tall C4 Corvette sized tires.

One issue you will have in this swap is the shift linkage. I solved the problem by converting my tranny to cable shift using parts from an 80s Toronado. You could then use the Toronado column or modify the Eldo column to fit the cable. I skipped the collum and used a floor shifter and console out of a 90 Eldo when I put bucket seats in it. This gave me two problems: 1. the shifter action was reverse of the tranny. If I remember, I flipped the tranny linkage upside to solve that problem, but the cable wasn’t long enough. I mated the 90 Eldo and 80s Toro cable together and that never worked just right. The two shifters had different throw lengths. I plan to solve that by hooking the Toro cabe to the column and then running the 90 Eldo cable to the column as well. This will cause the floor shifter to move the detent indicator under the speedo and will return the operation of my neutral safety switch. I can mount the two cables in different locations on the column lever to “gear” the throw of the 90 Eldo shifter to the right length. (Sounds complicated without a picture to look at- but it is easier than it sounds.)
Your torsion bars are already stiff enough to handle the 500 because your engine weight won’t change much. Putting the big block iron Caddy in place of the aluminum 4100 lowered my car a lot- which was good except that it made my 4” exhaust hit the ground went I went over a dip in the road. I plan to use the torsion bars from a full size 5,000 lb. 77 or 78 Eldo (only 3/8” longer) to make up the difference and add level cornering. When this mod is done, the torsion keys have to be ground down, because the thicker bars raise the ride height of the car a few inches. Or I’ll adapt Chevy ¾ ton torsion bars into it and use a Ford torsion key to turn the ride height down instead of up. That should make it feel like an 84 Vette with the Z51 handling pkg. (My goal is to beat the Vettes in autocross – not feel like I am floating in a cloud when driving)

I also intend to use 12” C-4 Vette rear rotors on all four wheels to upgrade from the stock 10.5” rotors and adapt C-4 or C-5 Vette calipers onto custom brackets (when budget and time allow). I’ll also ditch the factory body bushings and put in solid aluminum ones (or use washers).

For more information about my car, here is a copy of the info from my album that I loaded yesterday:

I bought the 82 Eldorado to fulfill the need for immediate transportation while the 72 Mustang was down. I got a good deal on it because it needed a front cap. My son and I did the repair and I sent it to get a cheap paint job.

It had a good 4100 engine with low miles. I drove it 52,000 miles that year getting just over 25 MPG as a traveling salesman. I have heard some reports of the 4100 powered Eldos getting 32 MPG, but I averaged 80 MPH on the interstate and Arkansas has a lot of hills in the rural areas.

With a 4 wheel independent suspension, this car already handled better than the 72 Mustang and with 4 wheel disc breaks it stopped quicker as well. When I upgraded to the thicker sway bars from an 85 Eldorado touring coupe, I was driving a car that handled better than a 1978 Z28 Camaro and almost as good as the 70 Elorado.
However, the 82’s springs were too soft in back, and the torsion bars were so weak in the front, it was more like flying a hover craft than driving a car; Despite the good handling, I knew there was room for improvement. I swapped the rear springs with some from a 70 Malibu Station wagon and that helped the car to start cornering flat like a late model Camaro.

I was still doing research for the front torsion bars hoping to find something stiffer than the 79-85 touring bars when trouble began to happen. At some point, the transmission quit shifting into fourth gear, but the engine was so quiet and the shifts so smooth, I did not notice anything but a dramatic drop in gas mileage. Not realizing I was buzzing the motor hundreds of miles a day with the 3.15 front gear ratio, the 4100 soon began to suffer from the upper end knock that they were known for. Since I had already discovered that with several more upgrades, this 3,680 lb. car had the potential to handle in a Corvette-like manor and was in the same weight class, I was already thinking about doing a big block Caddy swap.

Since the big block Caddy engine only weighs 35 lbs. heavier than the 350 Chevy, cranks out more power then the 454 Chevy, I had the potential of bettering the power to weight ratio of a C5 Corvette Z06. Not to mention that with fuel injection, those engines can be built to get gas mileage close to that of a GM 3800 V-6 of the mid- 90s, I could still drive hundreds of miles a day with no real drop in gas mileage. The 82 Eldorado used a TBI injection system like the one used in the Chevy 454 SS truck, so a throttle body and sensor swap would allow the use of the existing OBD 2 engine management system.

I upgraded the radiator to a Chevy truck 4 row, put in a salvage yard Caddy 500 and added an exhaust that consisted of dual 2.5” header pipes that joined into a single 4” pipe in the tunnel, then back into dual 2.5” pipes and turbo mufflers. The first salvage yard engine was bad, and then I pulled a 472 from a 1972 Lemo rated at 535 lbs. of toque @ 3200 RPMs after hearing that it had been rebuilt by the former owner. That engine had been painted in a way that suggested it had been taken apart.

I did the swap and began driving the car to see if I could get the transmission to start shifting into overdrive. I was also looking for a taller front diff to swap in. The engine began knocking 212 miles after I had installed it and the car was parked. Discouraged, I started driving a lil’ econo box wagon that gets 33 MPG. However, when doing some drive testing with “the Cadinator,” I found that even without 4th gear and with the 3.15 low diff, I was getting 20 MPG at 50 MPH. Better gears would have yielded the same MPG results at my 80 MPH normal driving average, and even better results at the 70 MPH speed. I am now doing a budget for the re-do of this car. It has been sitting in a field for the last five years and needs a lot of work.

[BRUCE ROE]

An Olds 403 with carb has a lot more performance than a 368, many say more than a Cad 425. The 403 is a small block, solves weight problems, OTHERWISE get diesel or touring torsion/sway bars (I have some). Be sure to add a very low restriction exhaust. My 79 Eldo has 403 EFI, very snappy. But for the max a THM425 trans can be made to fit, huge project, see mine (switch pitch) at user bcroe on PHOTOBUCKET . Ask me about suspension mods. Bruce Roe CLC advisor # 14630

[BRUCE ROE]

CadVetteStang, That is the first time THM425 trans into a 77-85 E car I have heard of (except mine). I'd like to exchange pictures etc outside this restricted format, I'm at bcroe@juno.com Bruce Roe CLC advisor # 14630

[CadVetteStang]

I found the post and pictures from my friend who put a TH425 into a 79 Tornado. This was originally posted in another forum. I tried to link to it, but this site would not allow it.

I had just made a post about my 82 Eldorado and these were some of the replies:


REPLY from DARIUS:
Reminds me of my 1979 Olds Tornado that received a Caddy 500 mated to a 425 Turbo Hydra-Matic. That was my daily driver for several years and it was a sweet swap. Best mileage was 17 MPG with 2.73 gears and the vehicle was dead on reliable. However, it looked like hell. I bought the body, minus engine and transmission, from an impound lot. Paid $50 for the car. Those who saw it said I overpaid.
_______________

Not difficult putting the larger transaxle in. Just used two left side halfshafts (eliminating the flex joint that was standard on the passenger side shaft). Had to "clearance" the tunnel area with a BFH but there was no cutting or welding required.



_______________

Reply from 73Eldovert: 2 left side shafts? From the 325? So the new shafts (vs. old) were the same as far as splines, flanges, and length? I thought there were more differences between the shafts and that was one of the pita's of the swap.
_____________________________

REPLY from DARIUS:
My bad. Not halfshafts but outer CV joint housings. Those housings were from the stock E-bodies and adapters were machined to mate those smaller halfshafts to the larger 425 transaxle.

So, to be clear:

425 trans was used

Stock '79 E-body halfshafts - with the right side CV housing replaced with one from another car's left side (these are the housings that the "tulips" of the CV joint fit into)

Custom adapters to mate the halfshafts to the flanges of the TH425

Custom rear mount from bell housing to frame mounts (see picture)

Use of stock Eldo front center mount to crossmember

Caddy 500 engine

Radiator from 75-76 Caddy


Sorry for the confusion.
________________________________________

Reply from CadVetteStang:
Which passenger side exhaust manifold did you use?
____________________________

REPLY from Darius:
Stock Eldorado passenger side manifold. There were no problems. Things were a bit tight at the rear, making spark plug access a slow process, but all in all, no problems. It "may" have required a bit of shaving of one of the "ears" where the bolts go through, but I can't remember for sure. Been too long ago.
_______________________________

NOTE from CadVetteStang: I’m thinking about building another 79-85 Eldo as more of a rough duty hotrod than the mild daily driver “Cadinator” pictured above. If I do, it will have a TH425 mounted like Darius’ and it will be carbureted and cammed for dragstrip use. Sfter doing some research on those cars, the only “core” body I would want, would be the Touring Coupe because it has a lot of the performance suspension upgrades already installed.

Later,
Cody

[BRUCE ROE]

Thanks for the THM425 into 79 E body pictures. My 79 Eldo/403 EFI/THM425 are at
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l71/bcroe/

(that is a lower case "L"71, not an upper case "i"71)
click on an Album at left Bruce Roe

[BRUCE ROE]

I found that generally any Olds 305/350/403/455 or
Cad 368/425/472/500 engine would swap into any
66-78 TH425 E car, or 79-85 TH325 E car. The
parts (oil pan, etc) were available from stock engines
of the same line.

The 79/81 TH325 is a decent trans, once a mild shift
kit repairs the (always) broken accumulator spring. But
I fear its pretty marginal with big block torque. The 82/85
TH325L4 is more marginal. And the mating differentials
have a way of breaking off pinion teeth without warning. I
also prefer a Switch Pitch trans with electronic control.

The solution to all is a TH425 trans. With a CASPRO reversed
POWER DRIVE chain, the overall final ratio is 2.40:1. I kept
the 79 port injection, recalibrated the ECU for the 403. This
EFI was also available for a 500.

The TH425 drive plates are 1" closer together than TH325.
This left room on each side for a 1/2" thick adapter plate.
I kept left & right shafts using different plates. HOWEVER,
the engine needed to move 1 1/8" left to keep them centered.
Things were vary close on both sides, I trimmed some metal
to keep a differential mount bolt clear of the frame. Standard
front engine mount was used on redrilled mount holes. Rear
mounts were fabricated to fit available bolts.

The differential wanted to hit the steering link. I made a very
skinny cover and pushed the engine back 1/2", to get less
than 1/2" clearance. The chain cover was into the floor,
which I modified about an inch. Not noticable with carpet
in place.

I used a cable shifter on my 79 Eldo/THM425. It was
easy to weld a new arm onto the shifter shaft, with the
required angle & "throw" for a perfect match. I did change
the steering column from the Cad pushrod to a Riv cable.

This car had huge handling problems, this before the
conversion. I had to replace all the rubber bushings,
put in major braces above & below the engine, put in
heavier torsion bars & sway bars with poly bushings &
end links. Finally a set of gas shocks solved the
problem. This setup handled the extra 100 lb of the
conversion no problem. Bruce Roe CLC #14630
Pictures on PHOTOBUCKET user bcroe