1961 Skylark Engine Upgrade????

Considering putting a different engine and transmission in my 61 Skylark. Anyone done anything like this with their car? What fits, if anything without major mods? What would my options be? 327 Chevy, 350 Chevy? Just throwing ideas out there. Seems these 215 v8's are kinds of a paint o be building, plus I'd like more horsepower.

Curious what I could put in this nice little body with maybe 300 horse and a decent auto transmission. I'd like a  slight cam, and stock exhaust manifolds would be fine. This car has a nice lil body, but IDK if I wanna spend lots of money having this 215 rebuilt, honestly. I am not sure what these cars are worth, either. I do like them, either way.

Buick 350 engine, Buick 455 engine possible?

You might consider a Rover V8 from the 90s. They are the same basic Buick engine with a few decades of improvements in displacement and metallurgy. They accept Buick motor mounts and exhaust manifolds which makes their installation easy. D&D sells adapters to bolt these aluminum engines to Chevy V6 700r4 transmissions, which gives a nice upgrade from two speeds to four with an overdrive. There is a wide range of aftermarket goodies available for the Buick/Rover V8, including the Rover factory fuel injection. Keep in mind that these are unibody cars. There's no full frame to handle a high horsepower, high torque engine so I wouldn't go crazy in the horsepower department unless you intend to make some serious modifications to the underpinnings.

Please don’t, the aluminum engines were the best and most historic thing about these cars. However, the Skylark 2-speed transmissions are terrible—I had mine replaced with a rebuilt GM 4-speed automatic 700R-4 and suddenly the 225 could really push us along. I also have a bigger carb and performance exhaust, but that little 225 has plenty of power. Please don’t ruin a Skylark, you’ll be like the guy who stuck a 350 in his 1965 XKE.

Also the weight. A 3.5L is quite light in comparison to a 350. As the other posted mentioned, the big space challenge will be the exhaust manifolds.

How about a https://www.custombuiltmotors.com/index-2d.html. weight and hp should be in line with the rest of the unibody car.

Keith

Not sure if your tunnel is same as the Olds F85/cutlass but if so you’ll need to modify the tunnel, cut and expand, to fit a 4 speed 700 or a 2004r. The 3 speed Slim Jim in the Olds had no torque converter so very small tunnel.

Is it the same??

I put a 3 speed beefed 200c in mine with some push out of the tunnel. Its a very small trans compared to the 700 or the 2004r. No OD but works great. Beefed up the 200 is used in circle track and dragster class. Very light, uses very little horsepower.

I live on the coast and this is a coast road, mountain road car for me, not a highway cruiser so no OD is fine. Cruises nice at 65-70.

The adapter that D&D sells mates the aluminum V8 to a 60 degree V6 700r4, which has a smaller torque converter and therefore smaller bellhousing (with a different bolt pattern) than the 700r4s found behind the V8 or larger V6 Camaros and s10s. A new trans tunnel would still have to be fabricated, but it wouldn't be as large as if the V8 trans were used. A new tailshaft mount would also need to be fabricated, and the driveshaft shortened.

I did an engine swap but I didn't have a V8 in my car. Put a Buick 350 with turbo 350 behind it. Had to modify the tunnel, trans mount and a few other things. Have to run stock manifolds

64 300 with aluminum heads (getting harder to find especially decent heads) and bits would probably get it under 400# (aluminum rover 4.6 is 375# - extra webbing, bigger crank, +). Should be a drop-in with existing trans. Height clearance should be okay with stock aluminum intake - they don't make an aftermarket intake anyway. 350 mid-block (wider/higher) could have clearance issues (unless engine bay modified) - and certainly heavier by about 200-250# - lighter with expensive aluminum heads, etc from TA. That's a LOT of extra weight over the front end. My 62 convertible weighs 2960 without me and spare in it. After having an MGB with 3.9 rover v8 that weighed 2195 - I'm conscience of weight - along with the car's

LS3 in my 62. Fatman subframe. 9" Ford rear on original 4 bar with 2" dropped springs. Had to cut trans tunnel and driveshaft tunnel from front to back. Fuel tank and battery in the trunk along with fuse panel. Mufflers where gas tank used to be. Vintage air and LS computer under the dash. A lot of work and not completed yet, but should be a BLAST to drive. Can't wait. Bought about 13 years ago as a rust free original paint, original interior, 32000 mile car.

@richs37 Where did you get your ford 9" axle? What width did you get?

Keith

Bought narrowed housing, axles and brake kit from Quick Performance. Had a young guy that builds rock crawlers cut new brackets and weld them on the new housing. We moved the upper mounts to the top of the new housing and made adjustable bars. Stock lowers were boxed and fitted with new bushings. Should work fine.

Rich

Sorry Keith.. total width is 2" narrower than stock rear end.