HELP 1972 350 skylark ENG in to a 86 REGAL

Hello everyone I have a 1986 Buick Regal limited with 47.000 original miles on it with a 307 5.0l

engine that is shot but the block is still rebuildable. but i was thinking to use something with more

power. And i just got the 350 engine about a week ago from a 1972 buick skylark, the guy said the

engine ran like a champ so maybe i should not change nothing for now but just paint it and change

the seal's and gaskets. im still getting the 350 transmission from him but i need to rebuild it first

becouse he said its burned. right now i have a 401 trans thats in the car righnow! just wondering if

i should change the 401 trans for the 350 trans or just stay with the 401?? whats batter to

rebuild and place a shift kit in it?????. The rear differancial its original from the factory, i never

worked on differancial so im asking for help on how or what to do about the rear?. can I modify the

rear differancial OR DO I HAVE TO GET SOMETHING ELSE? and the one i have on the car will it work

fine????.
thank you

 

I'm no expert but what is a 401 transmission? Whatever it is, I like the turbo 350s. They're easy to rebuild too if you want to go down that road. Your rearend is probably a 2.41:1 or 2.56:1. I would at least swap it for a 3.08. I did mine myself with no problems. It really depends on what you want to do with the car.

You might want to post all of your questions in one area like the "v8 Buick powered Regals" area instead of asking the same questions in several different threads. That's just my opinion though.
MARK

 

rearend

Thanks for the help Shark, yeah im not sure if its 401 trans i have to go look? so you saying that you just replaced the rear diff without modifing it and what type of car can i get it from the 3.08? but someone told me that i should use 8.5 rear end?
----your rear diff should be an 8.5, and there are plenty of aftermarket parts for it. i suggest buying a posi unit for it, and gear it however you like. if your digging into it that deep, you'll want to replace the bearings as well.-----


oh yeah i want the car to have all the main stuff on it for now.
and then ill go from there.

 

An 8.5 would be better...depending on what you're doing. If you want to take it to the strip then sure, swap the whole rearend. That means you remove your entire rearend and put one in from a GN. Prices start in the $2000 range for a decent setup, roughly. Or, what I did, was find a wrecked Camaro, opened the rearend up, removed all the pieces and put them in my rearend (7.5") in the same order. Most purists will say that's a no-no but it worked for me on my budget. Total cost was about $80.

I would get your engine and tranny dropped in there first and worry about the rearend later.

 

okay cool

yeah i can do that get the parts from a camero or something else. what should i look for when i drop the rearend oil pan. or where can i find it for my 86 regal rearend parts. so do i just look far any rear end and find the right pices to convert that to a 8.5? that parts will fit my 2.41:1? :beer

 

how

Okay just wondering what i have to do is that both tires on each side should move the same direction for the 8.5 rearend. not like the new cars that one tire moves the opposite way as the other one. righ.

 

Let me try to clarify. When I say convert the rear end or swap to an 8.5 I mean you have to remove everything like this picture. I think the only easy swap is a rear end from a GN.

 

If you are just replacing the gears, races and bearings and stuff, then you keep your 7.5 rear and replace these guts. You can get these out of an s-10, monte, regal, etc. Both wheels will spin the same way if it's a posi.

 

thanks

Thank you shark that shows me a diffrent when i can have someone tell me where i can get gears from what car, whats a posi??lol

 

Shark what years they made the cameros that will fit the 7.5 rear? and what should i look for, damn i just need to look in too books how the rear works ou:

 

Wow

THAT 8.5 GN LOOKS GOOD CAN I BUY IT FROM YOU :error:

 

HA HA HA, I just found that picture on the internet somewhere. That rear won't actually fit your car. I think it's from a truck. I was just trying to show you an example of what needed to be "swapped".

I'm not sure of what years for the Camaro. What I did was call a junk yard and asked if they had a 7.5" rear for my Regal. They gave me a list of what was in the yard and I went to it. I'm really no pro at this stuff.

A posi in the easiest explanation is a device in the rear end that makes both wheels turn equally at the same time where an open rear makes the wheel that turns easiest spin. If you were doing a burnout with a posi, both wheels would be spinning and smoking. An open rear end would choose whichever wheel spins the easiest, usually your right side.

 

Here's my car when I was doing the guts swap. I pulled out the 2.41 and put in a 3.08 open not posi.

 

thank you

Thank you :TU: shark and thanks for helping me about this so which one is the posi, you said its not the posi gears on the floor on the picture?. so how do the posi gears look? :beer

 

Here's a posi carrier. See the "S" shaped spring. The ring and pinion gears look the same on posi/non posi.

 

the rebuild

some pictures of the broken down 307 olds and the new 350 buick eng to be rebuilded

 

Hey man go to this website. I found alot of useful help on rear ends and how to identify them if they are posi or not. http://www.buickperformance.com/page1.htm

 

Cool

Thank you Skylark very helpfull. i will be looking for the right diff..
:beer

 

Hey Sharkmonkey just asking 1 question how do you have the pictures on the thread like that?
thank you for your help with everything Skark... :beer

 

When you "post a reply" you can choose the attachment option. I save the pictures on my desktop then "attach" them when I reply. There are other ways to attach pictures as well but I can get in to that later.