A friend of mine was just given a 1987 Buick Regal. The motor is bad but, the body is in great shape and the interior is perfect. He is wanting to swap in a LT-1/A4. Has anyone done this? How hard would this be. Will he be able to keep the Air Conditoning? Any help would be great.

 

You can use the motor mounts from a Monte Carlo, and either the factory ecm, or ACCELL or similar. There isn't enough room for the stock f-body AC bracket without some frame surgery, but you can use the Corvette accesories bracket if you can find one. You'll need a different radiator.. and an electric pump for the fuel, with a return line. That should already be in place if it was FI before.
It can be done, but will take a little work.

 

easy as pie

If its still a carb engine then get a fuel tank from a 4.3 monte carlo,use the efi feed on the carbs feed and the caniter purge line as your return..Depending on the year the lines may be at eithe side of the frame rails on the regal..From what i remember the 3.8v6 are feed on the pessenger as well as the canister line..If you must keep the F body cansiter mount it out back between the bumper and the tank will have a line for it..Just extend the wires for the soliniod..You will have to pull the bumper and hammer some clearance to get it to fit..

The ac wont fit without cutting the frame rail and crossmemeber area but if you hav eto have ac and dont want to spend big bucks on brackets then thats the way to go..You will have to mount the motor mounts farther back and box in the hole as well..The ac unit just needs a pocket cut for it, thats all.

The 4th gen rad will fit but you will have to make a custom fabbed rad support to get it to hold..There isnt one from any GM car that ive seen work like factory in over my 5 year search..The fans from the 4th gen will work as well..The dual cat exhaust will fit really good but the pipe that passes between the oil pan and crossmember may hit the x member a little but a hammer will fix that..When i built my malibu i ran the factory dual cat setup all the way back untill the 2 5/8 pipe that runs parralel to the driveshaft..

Id find a whole car to use as a donor and just buy an aftermarket harness from street abnd performance..If you have any other questions i can ansewer them but im in the process of relocating to georgia from pa so it may take a while..More info can be found at www.maliburacing.com (careful becuase mostly big block drag racing hicks hang there) or www.montecarloss.com ..i had a netscape site but they pulled it..