F-Body into a '79 H-body

[chuckjr79]

Hi all, though I'd say hi and ask this. I have a '79 Sunbird that had the 151 Pontiac 4 in it. I put a 4.1 Buick V6 in but had in the back of my mind doing a fuel inj. swap. I had a '89 Ciera for 8 1/2 yrs and loved the motor (3.3 90deg). I want my 'Bird to be a nice driver and was wondering which F-body motor and trans would be good for a swap. The 200-4R is a good fit in the trans. tunnel but the 700R4 would require some big hammer mods. The 60deg motor would take less room than the 4.1. Should I consider the 60 Degree swap or go to a 90deg site and ask them about the FI swap? I'd have to save a while for the F-Body motor, trans., and wire harness but I already have the 4.1 in the car. Any good advice would be helpfull. Thanks in advance

[neo71665]

Well welcome to the site, I miss my old vega but that was back in my v8 days.

Everybody on here is gonna suggest a 60 degree. Personally for ease of swap starting out I'd suggest a 3.4 out of a 93-95 camaro all factory. It has almost the same HP as a 4.3. Later on you can look into the hybrid swaps (i know more than one is gonna suggest it) and make some real HP. All while getting better gas mileage than most any 90 degree unless you go plain wild with it.

[chuckjr79]

Yeah I figured the 60deg suggestions would be there. I want smooth starting and good gas mileage as I would like to take the car on trips and stuff. An 18 gallon fuel tank gets expensive after a while. I have a friend who says the same old lame "stick a V8 in it" junk. As you know with an H-Body eng. comp. there's not much room when you start stuffing big things in there so having more room for exhaust and all that would be a good thing. Do the 93-95 3.4's come with the
200-4R or it's newer version?

[bszopi]

93-95 F-bodies should come with either the 700R4 or 4L60E. I am leaning towards 4L60E, though.

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[neo71665]

I understand gas mileage, why when I went with a bigger more powerful engine I stepped up to a 3.4 in my blazer instead of a 350. Still aint enough for a 4x4 so I had to go get another truck to stuff this over built 3.4 in and now doing a 350 swap. When I done my first and only h-body swap I took the fenderwells out and besides being a big mistake for somebody living on country roads I had custom headers built. I really loved that car, miss it daily, and been looking for another one ever since I got rid of it.


93-95 f-bodies come with a 4l60e but its basically the same tranny as a 700r4 but has electronic shifter instead of the tv valve. both share the 60 degree bellhousing bolt pattern.

[chuckjr79]

So are there any that came with the 200-4R or is that just a 90deg. application?

[neo71665]

3.4 never came with a 200. Some of the very early s10s did but only the first and maybe 2nd years.

Question, why you hung up on the 2004r so bad? The 700r4 is a much better trans esp the way you seem to wanna keep the gas mileage.

[chuckjr79]

I'm stuck on the 200-4R because I have one sitting on the floor of my garage and I don't have to modify my transmission tunnel to get it to fit.With the 700R4 I have to beat on the tunnel to make it larger. I would rather not do that.

[neo71665]

understand i guess

[geoffinbc]

The 2004R is a great trans and people mostly like it because of its closer first and second gear spread that does not have a huge RPM drop like the 4L60. Only cars got the 2004R the S-10 came with the TH200C which was a 3 speed then got the 700R4 the third year of production. Plus its lighter, smaller and robs less power.