Well, I spent much of last winter and this spring doing the fabrication work on a buddies '65 Dodge Dart to squeeze in a 440 big block.  Now it's my turn.  I just bought a '96 Avenger and have pulled the motor.  What is going in?  Well, since I'm on a very tight budget I'm going with a small block Chevy 350.  The goal?  Keep the car as stock looking as possible.

So far I have pulled the motor and waiting the purchase of a sbc 350.  I have one lined up for this weekend and will begin the fit.  The car is being converted to rear wheel drive.  I came up with a slick way to get the transmission to fit past the cross member.  I've turned the cross member 180 degrees.  I swapped the upper control arms so they remain on the original sides to keep the angle of the struts correct.  I'll be welding the cross member in after I have the motor and can locate the best position.

Back ground on the car: I bought it for $650 with 232,000 miles and a locked motor.  The body is rust free with a few door dings and a cracked front bumper.  I am planning on a body kit down the road so I wasn't concerned about the front bumper.  It must have got cought on a curb (probably quite common as low as they are to the ground).

My budget is $2500 for the conversion (I said I was on a tight budget!).

Hope you guys don't beat me up for not sticking with the original motor and high perf parts.  I'm always trying to be different with everything I do.

nice to see someone finally doin the swap..

how do you mean you swapped the upper control arms?  Strut angle has very little bearing on the suspension.. but the rotational points of the suspension has a very large effect on handling.. fractions of an inch can ruin the handling completely.

you talking the member with the roll mount?

No hard feelings about not keeping the original SLOW motor.  I can't wait to see the updates, please post pictures often.

Good luck!

I spent the day cleaning and painting the Chevy V8 305 (seller thought it was a 350 but the block is stamped 5.0L) and began removing metal to get the motor to fit.  I have all the metal removed to position the motor where I need it, but I have a little more to go for the transmission and mounting the cross member to the frame.  Here are todays pictures:

That's going to be one badass Avenger!  Keep the pics coming

This is probably gonna be one of the cooler mods ive seen

I'm drooling at the very thought of this project pulling through..very inspiring! sounds like one of my future plans. I cant wait to see a video of this baby running!

word.