G-body 442

So I was cruising around Craigslist when I came on this.

http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/cto/2156347701.html

Is $1300 cheap for one of these? Is it any good?

In reply to 93EXCivic:

Yes depending on condition mileage etc. If it's got the 8.5 rear instead of the 7.5 then just that would fetch 600-800.

Yeah the 8.5 rears are hard to find in G-bodies.

That 442 might even have sweet Lightning Rods... .

Is the Olds 307 any good?

If the body's clean, and you want a project, then snag that! That is a good deal. They come with an Olds 307, and it's a boat anchor. The good thing is that an Olds 330, 350, or 403 is dimensionally the same size and will drop right in. The 400, 425, and 455 Olds big blocks will also fit pretty easily and bolt up to that transmission.

Other than the lame engine, they are typical GM full frame cars. Chassis parts are cheap, but body parts are scarce. No, that one doesn't have Hurst Lightning Rods. Those were limited to the Hurst/Olds cars, which were available from 83-85. It should have the 8.5 10 bolt rear, full instrumentation, and buckets with a console and floor shifter. They are great cars to pick up cheap and swap a nicer motor into and build it like GM should have in the first place.

maybe i'm too skeptical, but that doesn't look like a 442 to me. it just looks like a nice Cutlass- which means craptastic 7.5 rear axle with something like 2.41 gears, cushy suspension, steering box with almost 4 turns lock to lock, and overly plush seats..

if you are looking to buy it, have the owner send you the VIN and a pic of the SPID label in the trunk that shows what options the car has. make sure the VIN on the label matches the VIN on the car- a trunk lid swap is easy to do.. a little google magic will tell you what codes to look for to verify that it's a real 442.

also get a pic of the rear end- people have been known to swap a 7.5 in place of an 8.5 when they sell one of those cars. so even if it is a 442, it might have all the good stuff removed..

Be very careful... that looks like the Rallye sport which has the "442 appearance package" The way you can spot the difference is the engine code is a Y instead of 9, and the wheels are 14" versions of the 442-looking wheels. The 442 also had gold accents on the wheels, not black. Looks almost like someone rattle-canned a two-tone paint job and put some S10 wheels on it.

Either way, $1300 is a screaming deal if its as clean as it looks. The 307 in the "Y" version was 140 hp, the 442's "N" 307 was 190 hp, so both are pathetically wimpy, but mine was able to squeeze 26 mpg on the highway. Most of them came with 200-4r trannys that are fair, but can be built to take a lot of abuse.

I personally LOVE G-bodies. I owned one of the previously mentioned 442-appearance cars. It was an 87 I bought it in 2000 that had 36k on it. It was a flawless time capsule. In stock form they are smaller versions of the 80's boats like the mushy caprice, but they are small, light, and easily swallow a V8 or turbo 6 from any GM across the board. Since the same frame was used for Regals, Montes, Cutlasses, Malibus, Grand Prix, they are all drilled for all possible GM engine and transmission combos. Want a buick 455 and a TH400? Bolt in buick mounts and slide the tranny crossmember forward to the right holes. Want a Pontiac 400 with a TH350? same deal.

Suspension and brake parts are remarkably swappable between G, A, F, B, D-bodies and S10s. GM brakes come in about 4 flavors, all of them on the same bearings. The common swap is B or F body spindles since they're taller and also came with optional 12" rotors. It corrects the terrible camber curve of the stock suspension.

Look for rust in front of where the lower rear axle trailing arms meet the frame.

93EXCivic wrote: Is the Olds 307 any good?

The 307 can be good, but its a small bore engine much like the chevy 305. Its great for a low RPM torquey engine in a smaller car, but not the greatest for performance builds. Its a great engine as far as reliability, but there were two heads used in the 80s - the 5A and the 7A. The 5A is fair, the 7A is pathetic. Its actually hard to fit your thumb in the intake ports they're so small.

Fortunately, everyone hates the 403 because of its windowed main webs so they are cheap. They think they're weak, but Mondello used to build 7000 rpm 403s with nothing more than billet main caps. 403s are a huge bore, short stroke. The trick thing to do there is drop in a forged crank from the earlier 430 and make big cubes.