LUVTruck.com

My husband and I are putting a 350 (bored 30 over with a 292 cam) into a 1980 Chevy Luv (Mickado, series 10). We are amateurs but have found a fascination with this little truck. It seems as though everybody has an opinion on what we need to do, but we would like to hear from those of you who have been there and done that. We visit this site a lot and I printed off the articles on the V8 conversions. Right now we have the engine on order so we are going to focus on putting in the new rear-end and finding a transmission. We are looking for a 350 trans., but are unsure on what rear-end to use and what gear ratio we need. The truck will be used for everday driving, highway and in town, but we would like to show it off as well if ya know what I mean Keep in mind that we are amateurs and need it to be as simple as possible. We made a flatbed for the truck and the bed itself is heavy enough to need 3-4 men to remove it or put it on, we think this may help with the weight distribution after the new engine in put in. If anyone has any suggestions about the gear ratio and what type of rear-end we need, please reply. Ideally it would be great to find a rear-end that would bolt right up. I read that the s-10's will, but will they be strong enough to last? Ok, enough questions for now. I am going to take some pics of the truck and put them on the projects page of this site, I have a feeling we will be coming here a lot for the next few months . Thanks a lot!

If you're not going to build a fire-breathing monster, an s10 rear should hold up just fine. I've heard a couple of people who have mild small block chevys in their S10's with the stock rear. Anything over about 300 horsepower, and I would go with a Ford 9 inch. Bear in mind that 300 horsepower really is plenty for daily driving and stomping Mustangs and Neon Hondas.


Good luck. Send pictures of the project.

man thats what u call the perfect wife umm i hope my future wife is like that!!! yeah send some pics in

i used a 8" ford rear out of a maverick in my truck.it`s a little wider than a luv rear so you have to run rims with extra back spacing to compensate. it`s not a direct bolt in but it`s not very difficult either.you just have to change the spring pad locations on the rear end.i have run an 11.60 et with that set up so it is plenty stong.it`s safer than the s-10 axle because it doesn`t have c-clips retaining the axle.if you break an s-10 axle it most likely will come out of the housing. as far as gears 3.55 to 3.73 i think are nice street gears unless you plan on alot of freeway driving you might want to go a little taller ratio. but that`s just my 2 cents worth good luck.

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don`t have the luv no more but I still like em.72 el camino,
00 & 06 silverado one 4x4, turboed vw sandrail,99 banshee, 06 raptor 700, 02 polaris trailblazer.

I would look long and hard at the ford pinto 8" its a near bolt in and is stronger than an s-10. There found under the v-6 pintos and come with 3:55 gears

I would look long and hard at the ford pinto 8" its a near bolt in and is stronger than an s-10. There found under the v-6 pintos and come with 3:55 gears

I had a LUV with a 600hp smallblock and ran an 8" rear. It held up fine. It was pretty narrow. Somebody told me it came out of an early Cougar (67-68) but i dont know for sure. some of the parts on that rear are compatible with a small bearing 9" too so when i went to the 9" i was able to swap brakes etc. over.

Well I just did some mesuring and the chevy monza 10 bolt under my luv is 49 "backing plate mount to backing plate mount and an 8" out of a v-6 pinto is 53" but if you use two left side axeles and have the right side of the housing narrowed to the same length as the left side it will be dang close to a perfict fit and very strong. I am still looking into using the front spindels and disk brakes off the old pinto race car so stay posted...... and thats my $0.02....

when i tried to put a sixty-eight enclosed by a parenthesis, it put an emoticon there. I found a glitch!