I've had my 68 on the road for about 3 months now, and I've come to the conclusion that I just can't afford to keep it there. Gas, the need for a new radiator and distributor, and the ever present high insurance has driven me to take it off the road. I'm going to be driving my brothers' 84 cavalier (I know I know, it's got a 5 speed at least) and was wondering if any of you guys now any easy HiPo parts swaps. Was there a "high output" engine that will fit in there? I'm looking to go to the pick and pull to find what I want, so I'm not planning on spending much, but if you guys know of any stock performance improvements I'd real appreciative. Thanks!

Malibu, drive a beater and insure the Chevelle under a classic policy for starters.

I know LI doesnt have the salt crap that we don on this end of the state, but nevertheless the damp cold will put the zap on 30 yr old sheet metal fast.

Performance upgrades? Pick and pull? What are you running now?

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Gene Chaas
Gold Member 62/ACES
67 SS 427 (http://www.chevelles.com/feature/october2000.html)

Gene, LI salts just in odd ways due to the wetlands... one whole heck of a lot me sand tho'.

The "big" stick for those cars is the Quad-4. Its a 4 overhead cam 4 cylinder that is real nasty in those littlwe cars. Mated to a stick it should be fun. Thats about it for what you might find in a junk yard.

Just remember all the little tricks of ghetto tuning your V8 in high school, clean up the air flow, run a one step cooler plug, bump the timing back. If you want to get real creative, lower your front tire preasure just a pinch to get more meat on the road for a decent launch.

Howevr if you really are serous about making the cavalier fast buy a turbocharger and step up the gearing, toss in some radical cams and away you go. No need to swap in a 350 or something silly like that.

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Francis Taracido Gold# 201
sniper0666@aol.com
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.
Oh No! You Know She's Got To Go!
Go Go Quadzilla! <oo=+=oo>
http://members.aol.com/sniper0666/page/intro.html

I'd love to just drive a beater and take out the velle on nice days and such, but I'm only 23 and I can't find a company to take me with a classic policy, and going under anyone's else's name is out of the question. We do get salt on LI, not as bad as you guys up there, but we get salted 3 or 4 times a year so I'd still like to avoid the winter weather till I can do some work on it.
As far as the Cavalier, I know they had the Z24 thing going by 86 and parts are dirt cheap, so I thought it would be fun to toy around with it a bit. I think it has a 2.0, but I haven't verified that. 4 door, 5 speed, probably the epitome of econo-box engineering, but it'll be fun to beat the crap out of it in the snow and still get 25-30 mpg! I wouldn't even really know where to start with a cavalier, I just thought someone might now of a quick swap with these things that'll give enough oomph so I can merge without revving it to 6 grand.

Do not, I repeat, do not be fooled by the Z badges. Anything cool from Chevy with a Z generly died in the late 1970's. Z11, Z16, ZL1, Z28. This is of course not to ay that the Z71 and later Z28's aren't perty cool but a Z24 Cavalier is crap. It was an appearence group not a power group. The engne to find is the Quad-4, slap a turbo on it and fly like an eagle!

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Francis Taracido Gold# 201
sniper0666@aol.com
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.
Oh No! You Know She's Got To Go!
Go Go Quadzilla! <oo=+=oo>
http://members.aol.com/sniper0666/page/intro.html

Where do i find one of these wonderful Quad-4's? I think i've heard of them, might have even changed the oil on a few but have no idea where to find one. Thanks for the tip on the Z-crap too. I gotta replace a few doors before i start yankin' the engine, but i'd like to make this my toy for the next year or so till i graduate and save up enough money to get something a little more responsible, like a corvette or something http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

Nice article in current Hot Rod on those Quad 4's.

I ended up finding a whole web page devoted to quad 4's, and I wrote to a company that makes performance parts for them and they replied with the following

"You would need a complete drivetrain- (transaxle too) from a Calais, Achieva
, GrandAm or GTZ. It would require the ecm, wiring, shifter and cables, and
the frt. lower cross member, all mounts and brackets, etc.- since it carries
an engine mount in the frt. too. It will be an extensive mod, and unless you
have a great amount of time and money it would be easier to buy a later
Calais, GTZ, etc. with the HO engine and just mod it some."

Just thought I'd pass it on for all you guys looking to throw a quad-4 in your winter beater cavalier.

i have an achieva parts car w/ a quad OHC 4cyl. it's the same as a quad 4 but single overhead cam. i don't know what you guys are thinking...quad 4s are junk. that's all there is to it. they're great for the first 75k but after that they're a nightmare w/ head/headgasket problems. no mechanics around here want to touch one because you need special expensive tools to fix the DOHC.

leave it the way it is, and spend your money on the chevelle.

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Derek Kiefer
ss_chevelle_69@hotmail.com
Derek69SS = AOL instant messenger

69 Chevelle SS 396/325hp 3spd man., 12-bolt 3.31 gears lemans blue, no engine
69 Chevelle Malibu 350/250hp, TH350, 10-bolt 2.56 gears, dark cloisonne met. (purplish blue)
23 Ford Model T runabout, stock 20hp 4cyl (i know it's a ford but it's still fun to drive...slowly)

"If it was really worth doing, i would have already done it"

I wouldn't bother with modifying the Cavalier. No matter what you do it won't be very fast, and you will only invite major headaches. Just drive it and save for a more performance minded economy car, or something you really like.

I am not trying to put your car down, but what will you accomplish. At best, you will turn a 17 second car into a high-15 or low-16 second car. Non of which will be a bolt in, you will need to change engine, trans, electronics, etc. Not to mention the hassle you will face in trying to get the car smogged.

Steve R.

I know what you guys are saying and i appreciate the point of view. I'm still kind of new at this and now that i built my engine and part of my tranny for the chevelle, i want to try to do as much as i can. The cavalier seemed like a nice car to get my feet wet with EFI and ECU's and all that fun stuff. I'm going to learn to do body work on the Cavalier so i don't mess up the chevelle. Lots of practicing on this one. I'll just hold off on the drivetrain swap till something a little more down to earth comes along. Thanks for everyone's advice, you guys saved me a couple of possible headaches.