LUVTruck.com

I was wondering if anyone has ever heard of or seen a Pontiac 400 and TH375 Trans in a LUV? I've got a guy willing to sell me the engine and trans as one out of his '78 Pontiac Trans-Am... unfortunatly the pontiac has already made a trip to the junkyard other wise my question would be... will a big block fit. Any way has anyone seen a 400 in a luv, and more importantly will standard pontiac exhaust headers fit? The truck was set up with a chevy 350 & 350 trans, but that was yanked out to go into my '84 camaro... so i've already got the v-8 mounts and braces... but what else will i need? does anyone think it'd be easier to just end the exhaust under the driver and passenger doors (emision laws aren't an issue)?

I pulled a 400 out of a 69 Fire Bird to put in my 79 T/A and that damn thing was the heaviest engine Ive ever delt with. Granted, Ive never moved a big block anything, but Ive moved plenty of small blocks. If you are racing it, thats alot of extra weight right where you dont want it and if youre street driving it, moving those extra cubic inches and pounds over a smaller engine will equal more gas money of course. Just my personal opinion.

yes a 400/375 combo is heavy! however it's also one of the few motors that reaches peak horsepower and torque at 3500 rpm... not to mention that on a dyno most 400's perform at least 2 times better than any other motor below 2500 rpm (normal driving rpm) the fact that its a heavy motor means nothing when you tune a suspension as well. the front end is already reinforced for a heavy motor, the rear has been slightly lowered and has a new set of traction bars to help the tires hook well. the tires are as wide as the truck can take with the stock bed as well.

so, to go back to the original topic... anyone ever seen it done?

I guess I'll be the first to say...No. Sorry.
It can be done though. If you want to do it, it's only time and money in the way!

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Resident lurker

I was gonna put the pntiac 400 with a 4 speed in my luv, but plans changed and I wasnt able to get the motor worked out.... I could have fit it in my LUV, but would have taken a lot of cutting and welding....... and like bighappy said, a buncha gas money.......

You know it's kind of funny that everybody complains about gas money...
i grew up in new jersey, paying 65 to 75 CENTS a gallon... and this was only about 7 years ago! now i live in washington state and pay $2 a gallon. you know a few decades ago there was some gas shortage thing that everybody complained about. way before my time really, but the people that were so worried got rid of thier big motored muscle cars... sold them for pennies on the dollar for what they bought them for... now thanks to people that only worry about gas prices instead of saying: "DAMN THIS CAR/TRUCK WOULD BE THE MOST FUN THING TO DRIVE ON THE ROAD", people like me have awesome cars that believe it or not are FUN TO DRIVE! don't get me wrong, i don't make $100K a year by any means... i bust my ass for every penny, but i enjoy it! putting a pontiac 400 in a tiny little truck like a LUV is a testament to a builders skill and desire, it shows that you have pride in what you do... i may only be 23 years old, but, hardwork and pride mean more to me than gas prices.
and just for the record if anyone wants to bitch about gas prices, you should drive my other truck for a month... it will shut you up! (the other truck is an '89 f-250 4x4, with a 460 big block, 3inch suspension lift, 3inch body lift, 36 inch interco super swamper tires, weighs just under 7000 lbs. and IT GETS 5 MILES TO A GALLON IF YOU GO EASY ON THE GO FAST PEDAL!!!) so for those of you who think pushing a little chevy LUV with a heavy motor will chew up "THAT MUCH GAS" think about this for a little while:

'89 F-250 ---> 7000 LBS., 460 CU INCHES---> 5MPG
'76 LUV------> 2700 LBS., 400 CU INCHES---> WAY MORE THAN 5MPG!!!

Im not telling you not to do it, just was my oppinion. Ive got a v8 Luv myself, am doing EVERYTHING myself, and it will be fun to drive. And trust me, I know about spending half a pay check on gas. But theyve got you by the balls. You cant drive without gas. Did you see the post by Jess that had a pic of a Luv w/400? Its a different idea. And if you could get it set back enough to still have a grille it would be sweet. I had a 79 T/A w/403 and transplanted a 400 after the 403 went south. Good torque monster. I had some stock late model Camaro wheels and tires on it and could never get the tires to stop spinin. Which was fine by me. I like breathin tire smoke. So get out the sawzall and torch and get er done!

As for feeding a hopped up vehicle, some folks may not reallize what their getting in to. I've made a number of post about the price of fuel. This was to get those who were getting in to the motor conversion game to think things thru a bit more. Not everyone is as serious as you are when it comes to building exactly what they would like. If you can disregard the cost of fuel to achieve the ride you desire then my hat's off to you. The flip side is that there's a lot of people that cannot bring themselves to overlook the cost of fuel to keep their vehicle on the road. I've been at both ends of the spectrum and there where times i had to walk to work because i paid my rent and the electric bill and there wasn't any money left to put gas in the truck. Luckily now i dont have to scrape out a living in a dead end job. I recently upgraded from a V-6 to a SB 400 V-8 and i knew there would be an even greater loss of gas mileage but with the cost of fuel jumping like it did, it was shocking to spend so much time and money at the gas pump. And i wasn't helping things by constantly romping on it just because i could. At this point in time i can indulge in stuff like this. Will the cost of fuel make me reinstall the V-6? No way!
Hell, i'd love to own a new Corvette but the cost of owning one would kill me.
It sounds like you're in a position to do whatever you want with the vehicles you have. You are fortunate. But if somebody builds something that they cant enjoy fully, thats a problem. This is why i posted the idea of feeding a bigger motor. It would be a shame to see someone go thru all of the effort of a conversion only to struggle to keep it on the road.

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Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

This just reminds me of a GM performance ad in a magazine that got me so much that I actualy cut it out and framed it. It had a pic of a 55 chevy and it read" Rent is past due, cables turned off, etc....Just got my new 502 big block" That was years ago and I still have it.

TOTAL COSTS:

TRUCK: $800
MOTOR & TRANNY: $300
------------------------------------
TOTAL $1100


GET OVER THE GAS MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A PONTIAC 400 WILL NOT USE AS MUCH GAS AS MY FORD 460 BIG BLOCK OFF-ROAD DAILY DRIVER!!!!!

NOW IF ANYBODY WOULD READ THE ORIGINAL POST AND REPLY TO IT THAT WOULD BE NICE AND GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!

whoa.

anyways, yeah I saw one in a luv just last weekend at a car show! I didn't really ask about it, but it didn't fit very well. he had the grille and two headlights cut out just to squeeze it in there, and even then it was a miracle it fit! sorry don't know much else about it. I posted a pic in a post a few days ago under General, I dunno if the photos will help you at all.

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I got my LUV!!!!!!!

Like the other guys said, not tellin ya not to build it... I got my 350 luv, yeah it eats gas, but I drive it every day am I am damn glad to do it... I gotta chevy sprint that runs just fine sittin in my back yard. That lil thing get 48mpg, and it hasnt been drivin in weeks..... I dont have a problem with payin the gas prices because I love driving my truck..... I know a guy that build a 350 luv and sold it 2 weeks after he got it legal, because he didnt realize that payin 2.20 a gallon to feed a mini truck was gonna break him. What I did, was stop eatin out and it saved me enough money to drive my truck whenever I wanted, and I can even afford to buy some steaks every now and again and thats on minimum wage....

for those of you that didn't see the pics that JessMN posted....

go take a look at them... it may be a pink motor, but damned if it don't look good!!!

oh yeah.... wicked-- quit your bitchin' about gas money... we got the point gas isn't free! if you've got cars that get more than 30 mpg then drive em... don't get me wrong its great that you drive your luv with bad gas mileage, but i'll drive what i want to drive and that will be that...

so if you didn't get what i said last time read the first post and comment on it ........

NOT THE PRICE OF GAS!!!! PLEASE!!!!

Hey man, if you're gonna come in here w/ that whiney, bitchy attitude, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

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'46 Studebaker truck "project"
'90 Trooper 4X4, 2.6L 5 spd

ummm yeah I'm not one to butt into arguments, but I think you misunderstood wicked's comment, grraystorm. He's saying that he doesn't care about gas prices and that he loves to drive his truck regardless. sooooo.....yeah

so no more arguing and let's all be friends

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I got my LUV!!!!!!!

Listen here you piece of .... Drop your bad a$$ attitude and dont ever tell me to shut the hell up..... All I was sayin was if thats what you want to do I give you credit.... And if you read it, you would understand that I was sayin the same damned thing.... I do have a car that gets great gas mileage, but I dont drive it because I love to drive my pickup that gets shitty mileage, but I dont care about the prices.

Exactly. This is a community- we all ask questions when we got 'em & answer them when we can. Telling other members to "shut the Hell up" is a crappy attitude we don't need around here. You've go about a dozen posts & have been here for all of a month, g-storm. Wicked has been here a little longer than that, if you'll notice. Newbee's don't need to come in here bustin' balls, boy. Calm down or go away.

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'46 Studebaker truck "project"
'90 Trooper 4X4, 2.6L 5 spd

Normally I wouldn't poke my nose into something like this but...
46 is right. You were out of line. You got your question answered so leave it alone. Topics sometimes take a different path than maybe you were expecting. Deal with it, ask again if you didn't get an answer. But do not "come in here bustin' balls, boy." This is the best enthusiast site I have found and I along with everyone else who has been here awhile, want to keep it that way. So if you want to hang out, get some help, help out someone else...welcome to the site. If you want to be an ass, go be one somewhere else.

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Resident lurker

the only thing i was saying was shut up about the gas... not shut the hell up in general... i understood that he would rather drive a truck with bad gas mileage vice the one with good gas mileage... the fact is my question had nothing to do with gas mileage at all... like wicked i would rather drive a truck that i loved to drive over a truck with 50 mpg, however that had nothing to do with my question! i wasn't "busting his balls" and this is by no means an appology, i had already asked everyone to stay on the topic and he just couldn't... and the funny thing is, if you take his gas price comments out he was one of the few people that actually read the original post and had something usefull to contribute!