1966 Olds Delta 88

[drharv]

Hello all! I am planning a swap into this old girl and am about to start locating a donor vehicle. I am not too fussy if it is a 6.2 or a 6.5 but I sure would like it to be turbo charged. The car sits with a recent body restoration, awesome TH400, and a 425 big CRACKED big block. Obviously the big block would weigh about the same as a diesel, I would need a diesel torque converter (maybe fronm the donor), but do I need to change the gearing in the rear end? It currently runs highway gears (3.lowish or 2.highish), but will they suffice for decent highway speed with no O/D?

I currently have two wee diesels (Jeep CRD and VW Jetta) and since purchasing them will never have a gasser again.

I am educating myself on the dtails of the conversion but any info (or similar swaps) would be much appeciated.

Mike

[Craig M]

You will probably want a numically lower rear end. The gassers typically have a much larger rear ratio than the diesel vehicles. The rear end from an 80's Oldsmobile diesel should be easily got. Yes you will want a diesel torque converter. While turbos are nice, they make the install a bit more difficult. On trucks, the air conditionioning system usually have to be removed to get a turbo into the engine compartment. On a car these issues may be compounded. Saw a 6.5 installed in an early 80's Cadillac. It fit, but just barely, and I would have hatted to try and get a turbo into that engine compartment. He made a custom transmission crossover with his conversion, and had a US gear overdrive.

[convert2diesel]

Mike:

With a 400, and 235 tires (15 in rims) you will want no higher then 3 to 1. I use 2.93s to enable me to tow in third gear. On the highway at 70, the engine is spinning at about 2,400 rpms. Anything over that and the noise will drive you nuts. Seems the trucks isolate the noise better then our cars but alot of the noise is being generated by the intake. Perhaps a turbo will help some.

As far as installing a turbo, will be trying to shoehorn one into the Buick over the winter. Bought a new RV and will probably need the extra ponies. If you don't do any towing, the NA is more then sufficient for normal day to day. Currently mine pulls a 3,000 lb RV and has no problems. Occasionally I can suck the headlights out of the odd Hontoyissan. Performs about the same as a TBI 350 up to about 70 MPH at which point you will run out of RPM. You should be able to do the conversion but you will have to find a 400 that IS NOT the BOC bolt pattern. The 6.2/6.5 use the same bolt pattern as the small block chevy.

Good luck on your conversion

Bill