ElwoodBlues

Alright. I have an idea for the ultimate sleeper car. Right now I have an 87 Cadillac Eldorado, its insanely inneficient, the 4.1L V8 gets 135HP. My idea happens to be a bit nuts, but I might try to pull it off once I get a new car.

What i want to do is basically gut the car. First pull out that poor excuse for a V8 and drop in like a 327 chevy V8. Change out the transmission, and replace the rear axle with something from an old Camaro or Vette. Basically convert it into a screaming rear drive sleeper.

Does anyone think this would be possible, or would I encounter a whole bunch of problems with converting to car to Rear wheel drive?

Moonduck

Weight issues - it's a pig of a car

Suspension issues - she's not designed to take serious torque back there. You'd likely have to re-do the rear suspension and fab mounts from the ground up, as well as strengthening the rear end seriously. Strengthening will only worsen the weight prob.

Engine mount issues, it's designed for, from what I recall, a tranverse mounted engine. This means that the engine cradle is designed for an entirely different axis of engine torque. This would like necessitate ditching the current cradle entirely, and that means, most likely, and entirely re-designed front suspension. The front inner structure would likely have to be gusseted to handle extra torque in the new axis as well. This adds to the weight problem.

If yo could do, it would certainly be a sleeper. NO ONE would ever believe that you put that much effort, design, and money into an 87 Eldo.

ElwoodBlues

hmm.....well......just an idea

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FastShark85

I always thought El Dorados looked like they should have more power. Giving one more would probably not make it a "sleeper" but rather make powered the way some people might expect it to be.

Just my $.02

3x0

imo too much cash needed to do this, however if you decide to try then big Good Luck :]

etla

Lots of problems as others have enumerated. But If you do it ya got to think bigger on the engine. Your base is pretty heavy so you probably should be thinking at least 300hp at the rea wheels if you want to have a chance of surprising anyone.

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tfin

Just rember almost anything is possible as long as you have a large stack of money to start throwing at it.

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FastShark85

I doubt 300hp would do it, given the weight of the car. It would probably still be slower than most stock V8 Mustangs, Camaros, etc.

BigTruck1956

ditch the 327 and get yourself a 502 bigblock. Now THAT would be a sleeper!

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Shpoop

hey if u get a new car and u just have that one left for shits and giggles, knock urself out man!

shakran

also remember that your car does not have a driveshaft tunnel, which means you either need to fabricate one (royal pain in the ass) or run the driveshaft underneath the chassis, which may or may not give you clearance issues.

That said, how much money do you have? A guy on another car forum that I respect loves to say "if you have enough money and brains, you can make ANYTHING fast." That's true - I know of a person who drives a Caravan that does the 1320 in 9 seconds. If you're willing to fork out the cash, you can make that a very fast car, but as others have mentioned you'll have major difficulties, not the least of which will be that once you get it to go fast in a straight line it will probably handle like a pig and be pretty useless for anything but drag racing.

MSD

If you do it, I'll race you once my mom completely kills the drivetrain on her '93 Town car and I put in a Cobra-Jet, etc.

Peryn

Personally, i dont think it would be a sleeper. More of an example of what Caddillac *SHOULD* have done with that car. It will take lots of money, but if ya got it, more power to ya.

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acpower

I would imagine the frame would weigh alot.. so that much power would just be good for nice burnouts haha

Scorps

Its front wheel drive right now???

I saw a guy make a cavalier a rear wheels drive car....it was sweet , but lots of cutting and reshaping.....

telekinetic2

My personal favorite sleeper is an 80's Cressida wagon with a MKIV Supra Engine with an enormous turbo pushing about 800 HP to the wheels....still looks stock except for the black-painted front-mount intercooler. And the much wider tires.

jimk

i have a fantasy of getting an old woody station wagon, filling the front quarters with concrete & driving aroung dispensing vigilante traffic justice to those who have it coming.

a different kind of sleeper, i guess.........

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FastShark85

You could always go the other way....i.e., "my car is fast and there's no hiding it."

Scorps

Ya right like thats yours.

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FastShark85

Nope.

Here's mine: