I have plans on swapping a 430 BBB into my family 85 Buick LeSabre 4 door. I was wondering if anyone here has swapped a big block into a Buick of that style, and if i will run into lots of clearance issues and retrofit things to work and fit properly. The stock 307 Olds is a turd and has a loud tick starting. Any input is appreciated.
You may have trouble with the engine mounts. I once tried to use the engine mounts from a 81 Buick Wagon into a 76 Century and it turned out the engine was designed to be off-set to the passenger side 1" compared to the older car... Normally people just use the engine mounts and frame pads from the same generation body and engine however for the 85 Le-Sabre there are no other vehicles with a factory BBB engine to steal the engine mounts and pads from. Your best bet would be to find some engine mounts and pads for the 430 from whatever car you can find and then bolt them together onto the engine and drop the engine in place for a trial fit and then when you know where the pads need to sit then mark the frame to show where the pads need to sit, remove the engine and drill holes to bolt the pads in place. Then you can drop the engine back in and move forward with the swap. You should have a 2004R trans in that car which is a good trans and it should hold up fine if you are not drag racing the car... I would leave the trans in place while you do the engine swap so that you can get the engine bolted to the bellhousing in order to setup where to put the frame pads on the frame. With the trans out you would have a real hassle trying to sort out where to locate the engine and then it would be almost impossible to end up with the trans fitting propperly. If you were planning to swap in a different trans at this time I would advise against it and just have the 2004R beefed up a bit and rebuilt because they are very good trans and you woudl not have to modify the driveshaft and a bunch of other things... YOu have enough work cut out for you as it is... Personally if it was my car I would find a running early 70s 455 Olds and bolt it in... I have a 88 Caddy that had a weak 307 and although I wanted to add a BUick engine it was way more trouble than it was worth so I just swapped in a 455 olds wich was a bolt in swap basically...
I appreciate the input :TU: I want to make it all Buick and already have a 430. I also have a spare 2004r that i'm building sometime soon to support the big block torque and shift harder, etc.
i had everything to do a buick 350 swap in the 83 i had but i sold the 83. you can use v6 mounts and a 350 is drop in. one thing i will add the rear in the 80-85 cars are 7.5 26 spline. posi for them is expensive and there not very strong at all. what i had planned to do is use a 88-96 car 8.5 and switch to the big lug brake rotors in the front. you can also use a 73-77 abody or the 77-79 b body rear there 8.5 28 spline. you would have to shorten the drive shaft an inch. do they make bbb motor mounts for regals that year im pretty sure they do? if so you can use them in the b body. its a bolt in if thats the case. only other thing i can think of you will have to extend a few wires to get to the opposite side starter or use a v6 harness and the crossmember will need need notched to do dual exhaust. not all lesabres had od btw mine had a th350c. i may get another lesbare later on and do the swap. you may have some clearance issues on the ac box too with a sbb i didnt.
I was wondering about the a/c box and rear end. I didnt even think about the wiring situation. I will be definitely going for an 8.5 diff.
The one from a 91 caprice be best. Wiring is pretty simple. Pull bulb from cel. Other than that just move around.
you may also need 80s v6 ac brackets...........the 73 350 bracket cleared but the 430 could be a bit higher. another thing i forgot is if you use a mech fuel pump there on the opposite side. electric cured all that. if i think of any hurdles ill post but like i said its not a hard swap.
