I have a 2000 Grand Am SE and i was wondering if there is anyway i could sink an LSx into it? I know there are some rwd coversion kits but i dunno how everything would work in a j-body. My 6th try at getting an f-body has fallen through so i think i'm gonna give up and look elsewhere. I guess the car is just not meant for me, but i know the engine is. Does this sound like a decent base? I love the car and would love to make it a hybrid. I'm not worried about price. Thanks for the future input and criticism is welcome! It might make me make sense of something horrible.

Martin

2000 Grand Am SE
1992 Eagle Talon AWD Turbo

 

if you cant afford an f-bod you cant afford the conversion

 

i cant get financing cuz i have no credit. Personally i'd rather finance a car than buy it outright cuz i want to build my credit, but im not too worried bout it anymore. I think i want to make something rare.

 

^^^^and ugly?

 

I used to run a Grand Am club years ago.

It absolutely, 100% will fit. I think it'd make for a pretty nice setup, though not any faster then a stock F-body (weight).

You would need a whole new front crossmember, new firewall, new center tunnel and new rear suspension and rear end. Possibly a fuel cell for the gas tank as well.

To do it right, if you could do it all yourself, expect 8-10K dollars. Taking it to a shop, expect at least twice that. I've got ~15K dollars in my RX7 swap, and it was RWD, and has off the shelf conversion kits for the LSx and I did all the work and fabrication myself. All of it.

Still wanna do it?

 

If you want to build Credit, get a credit card with a $500 limit and use that to buy things you do every day instead of your debit card or cash. Then repay it on time every time. Gauranteed way of building good credit safely.

 

I dont know what your price range is but there are plenty of LT1 cars both camaro and firebird that can be had much cheaper than fabricating something impractical at an exorbidant amount of money that will probably only have limited use and with a chasis that was never engineered for such.
Dude just build some credit and be patient there are plenty of good f bodies out there. Personally I would just pay for a car that does what I want it to do than re-engineer a car and hope I dont run out of money or loose interest in the project before its done.

 

Id like to see a rear drive ls1 cavalier

 

GM already produced the GTO.

 

just find a lac' or a new monte or grand prix wreck with the smaller V8 and go from there.

I would if I was you just build better credit with the small card and go from there.

 

i say go for it , being different isnt cheap but when its done its worth it,
also for your searching help a 2000 grand am is a "N" body not J- body. j-body is a sunfire/cavalier chassis

 

There's currently a guy on here installing a LS1 into a Beretta. So I don't see why it would not work. If you can afford to do it, I say go for it. And you can use a credit card (that you pay off every month) to build your credit as you build this up. You get your car and establish some credit. Good luck.

 

Thank you everyone for your posts! I'll have to think about my options. I still have my Talon and the grand am will probably hang around waiting for me to do something with it. Thank you for clarifying the "N" body for me, no wonder i couldn't find parts for it when i was searching j-body. The small credit card is a good idea but I have trouble getting good interest rates on it. I guess if i charge a lil bit then pay it off every month it would be fine cuz there would be no interest. I just remember watching the funny car grand ams and cavi's a few years back and i always wanted to do that with my car. Even if they restructure everything and build diff chassis n stuff. Thanks for the info and i'll start researching what i can do about the car.

P.S. the rear cavi GTO quote is hilarious

 

check this out. You would have to do something similar.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/665715/1

 

wow what a sleeper, thanks for the site man! you know whos car that is by any chance?

 

My brother has the same car man. Were just going to do a custom setup with a turbo on it! If you have the proper equipment and know how it will only cost 600 bucks or so. The import world prices have taken a drastic drop due to the fast and furious getting old now. If youd like to do that go to www.turbo-sunfire.com it will get ya started.

 

You are welcome. I do not know the guy personally. My daily driver is a Grand prix so I lurk in the GP forum once in a while.

I have always wished my GP was a RWD and had a manual trans.Tht guy is going to have a great car

 

does your brother have the 2.2l ecotec in his car? some of the 2000 Grand Ams came with the 5 speed ecotecs that the sunfire has. I actually had a choice between the manual sunfure and my grand am. i chose the grand am cuz it looked sweeter.

 

He has the 2.2 ecotec with an auto tranny. I wish it was 5 speed but unfortunately its not. But it will still be cool and something different. Plus it will be funny when he puts down mustang gts crying.

 

on www.gaownersclub.com they have a Sticky tab of how to convert the auto 2.2l to manual. If you might be interested that would be sweet. Maybe i should purchase the 2.2l ecotec and have it installed into my GA.