LUVTruck.com

I'm fixin' to start a swap on my 75 from a first gen 1.8L (pre 76) to a second gen 1.8L (post 76, 79 in this case.) The major challenge will be carefully cutting off my motor mounts and then adapting them to put the new 1.8 in. It will involve some cutting and welding. Why? Well, there aren't any performance parts, headers, manifolds, cams, for the first gens and they only bolt to a 4 speed. I'm looking for more HP and better mileage (5 speed Isuzu trans.) Also, I want to set it up so that I can drop a 2.3L or 2.6L in later, if and when parts for the 1.8's are impossible to find. They have the mounts like the second gens. Anyway, will be putting up pics and a blog of the effort on this posting for anyone who might be interested. If anyone has done this before and has any advice or pics I'd love to hear it. Most of the work will be done the last three weeks in May, I hope.

Khy in Austin

keep us posted on how this goes....

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Tact is for people not funny enough to be sarcastic.

I had help doing this to my 75 luv,
We didn't cut the mounts off frame, ww adapted motor mounts on engine
then after the mounts you will have to adapt the oil filter mount on engine as well,
we did that w/ an after market double oil filter which we cut in half and pluged it to use 1 side
I later had problems w/ heater bracket on the firewall. But
This year i found a 77 step and swapped the motor back much easier convertion

G'Luck

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Previously owned 2 Luvs) 75 & 77 Fleet-side
3rd 77 Step fixing up aka The Yellow Submarine to Luv Ms (Sun)Shine=)
98 GMC Gas Guzzler~>The reason 4 my ~>3rdLuvNext2a66MALIBU =)
66 Chevelle The Oldest of all the vehicles I owned

Hey, what's the status of your conversion?

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'75 body with '82 diesel running gear
My build thread.

Got the convertion finished about two weeks ago. The Weber had sat for a while and the truck ran terribly on the rebuilt motor because of it. I poured some injector/carb cleaner down the tank and in a day or so the carb mellowed out and now it runs fine. The only problem with the truck now is its habit of overheating at highways speeds. In town it runs fine at a normal temp. Once I get it to 70, though, it only takes about three miles and the temp guage starts to move up and then eventually it really moves up at water/coolant starts to boil out. I have a new thermostat and water pump in it so that's not the problem. The fan sits about half an inch lower on the radiator and I'm thinking that can't be enough to make a difference. I've flushed the systm as well. My next step is to have the radiator recored and I think I'll increase it to a three core while I'm at it. I live in Texas after all.

Where the heck are the hoses on this 79 motor to route to my heater. Theres's a hose on the front and the back, are those them? Can someone send me a pic of a 79ish motor showing how the hosoes hook to the heater bracket?