this may sound like a ridiculous question but, i have a few AWD vehicles in my hand, and i was curious to know if its posssible to transfer the AWD in the 96' astro AWD, 98'forester AWD and a 91' eclipse AWD, please dont flame me for my dumb question, im just curious if its possible. If it is, how hard will the conversion be, is it worth it, i can live without doing burnots. Anyone know if anyone has done this to their third gen.

 

Anything is possible if you have enough initiative to do it.

You won't be able to just swap the driveline. You'll have to pull the body off the donor vehicle, then addapt the f-body body onto the new frame. Since an f-body is a unibody there will have to be a lot of planning to get it to work.

What's the wheel base of one of the donor vehicles? A third-gen is 101". It would have to be very close or you'll have to modify the body length to get the wheels to fit properly in the wheel wells.

I've heard people talking about using the AWD astro to try to make a Cyclone or Typhone out of an S-10. There's no reason why it can't be done.

A finished f-body project would be good for car shows and magazine articles if done properly.

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87 IROC-Z SuperPro ET Bracket Race Car
461 naturally aspirated Big Block

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thank u stephan, i didnt realize about the base size, very well put, i wonder if anyone in this board has ever tempted to do it.

 

The third gen is about the worst choice for an all-wheel-drive swap. It is possible as about anything is. It would be a tremendous amount of work and cost a fortune even though you have donor vehicles. There's not enough room under our cars for an X-pipe let alone a transfer case.

 

a good donor I would imagine would be a GMC cyclone or typhoon. dont remember exactly what year they were made, but both were built off the s-body truck/suv platform and came with turbocharged v6's and AWD. that would definately be a timeconsuming mod!!

A side note, I read an article on a 1008 hp twinturbo skyline awd and every 2 passes down the truck they would have to completely rebuild both the engine and the drivetrain! lol! but it was running 8's.

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--- Current Daily Driver ---
Maroon 1989 Camaro RS - Crappy 305 TBI / Auto
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--- Next Project ---
1992 Camaro z28 - 5.7ltr / Auto
6 speed swap, engine internals, turbocharge, SCCA!!!!

 

hmmm i guess the AWD conversion is out of the question for me

 

I really doubt that there is room for a Tcase. It would be almost impossible to do a truck style AWD(with transfer case) without doing MAJOR work. I think you could do FWD style AWD such as a 3000GT or Eclipe without as much trouble. The Skyline has its drivetrain is skewed to one side giving the passanger less room than the driver. That's why there are no right hand drive conversions for them. Do some research on how s-10s can be so compact and have all that stuff. you could splice a s-10 chasis with the f-body's unibody. There might not be any room for the passanger if you stick a T case in there and driveshaft and exaust. I'm just throwing it on the wall and seeing what sticks

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-Tas
'89 Formula WS-6

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I think you mean they all are right hand drive cars.
There is a left hand drive conversion of Skyline here in Finland. This guy has done it ->

http://www.helan.to/henri/gtr/index.html

-Make-


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1984 Z-28, TH700R4,
no mods

 

I've seen an AWD Firebird once, in a little town called St Charles, Michigan.

However, it was bolted to a truck chassis and sported 33-inch tall tires.

If you want to do an AWD out of a F-body and make it look nice, I think you'll have to remove the floorboards, and custom fabricate a tube front end (complete with custom suspension), a new fire wall, and new floor boards. You'd probably need custom axles as well. Boy o boy, if you pulled it off successfully, you would definitely make it into the car magazines! Especially if you integrate IRS into the rear. (You'd have the TIG welder warmed up anyway so why not??)


[This message has been edited by ws6transam (edited July 30, 2001).]

 

What is a Skyline? Who makes it and what are its specs?

 

A Skyline is Nissan's supercar. All-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, twin turbo inline 6. Not available in the US except from a special importing company called Moto-Rex or something like that.

 

Of course we use "can't" all too often. This guys conversion is a one off with a profession racecar driver helping him. Who also said "never again" about the swap. There are no companies that do the swap that I have seen. If there were, we'd have more skylines here. All the ones here are right hand drive but are now legal due to an importing company spending the money for crash testing of them. check it out at: http://www.skylinegtr.com

 

Sorry for the indistinct choice of words. The skyline I was referring to is indeed one off, the left hand drive conversion are rare, but can be done.

But to return to the topic, just like Stephen87IROC said Anything is possible if you have enough initiative to do it.

You must ask yourself how badly do you want it, how much time and money are you willing to put into it.


maybe we´ll see AWD f-body in some magazine someday...


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1984 Z-28, TH700R4,
no mods

 

I seen a thirdgen mudder. Damn it had a good body too. Find a body that is shot or near it. Especially if your just playing around in the mud.

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1992 Camaro Z-28 5.7L auto t-tops arctic white

1967 Pontiac Catalina 2 door fastback 400 v-8 auto cameo white dark red interior