To Rebuild or Swap
Just purchased a '67 Pontiac Le Mans with a 326 motor and a 2 speed auto that appears to be original. I plan to go through the car front to back, but am in a quandry on what to with the motor and transmission. I'd really like to pull both and install something with today's technology...say a 6.0 EFI motor and trans out of a chevy truck...that will provide some "long-range" cruising and dependability (My Chev currently has 247,000 and has never seen more than an oil change every 3000). The other option is to stay true to the car and keep all original and just do a good quality rebuild on both. If it was a GTO I'd do the latter without question, but since it's a run-of-the-mill Lemans...? Suggestions on either would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
to do a swap on todays vehicles you would need a computer,ecm complete wireing harness,cat converters all smog and emmisions system,put a good 350 with a turbo tranny in it.
Thanks...that's been a thought as well. If I went that route, do you have any suggestions on an after market EFI system that would be compatable?
Put in a Pontiac 400 engine and Th 350 That will do it. Nice to drive and nice to look at.
depends on how much money you want to spend. if you want to go with truck motor , you'll probally have to rebuild it , you'd be better off buying a fuel injected create engine from summitracing.com. they come complete with computer. or you can always clone it with a nice 400ci & 400 tranny. or switch over to a 4 speed. . what do you want to do with the car ,thats the main thing.if you're just gonna cruise around leave it stock.
If you want to keep it close to original, stay with a Pontiac engine - 400 cid or bigger.. perferrable one from the era of the vehicle itself - not a smog engine - (1971 or above..) Properly built and tuned - the performance is awsome...
These cars will never bring top dollar in the collector market so replace the original 326-2 spd auto with a period engine like a 389/400 and a similarly period trans - auto or manual - whichever makes it fun to drive for you. Keeping the driveline in 1967 parts will bring as much down the road as restoring the old block and tranny.
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