The 3.5L Shortstar in my flattie makes 260hp and 260 lb-ft. That's good, but more is better. Maybe it's time to redo the drivetrain?

I bet few readers remember the lineage of my little orange flattie. I bought it as a 2WD with a Chevy 305 V-8 already swapped in it. Not wanting to be like everybody else, I pulled the 305 and literally abandoned it on our then-Editorial Director, Cole Quinnell's front doorstep. He came home and caught me right in the middle of the abandonment. It was funny.

Then I got Cole's '70 Eldorado Caddy 500 that made 400hp/550lb-ft stock. I turned it up a bit with an Edelbrock Performer manifold, MTS headers, and a DUI distributor with a hotter spark curve. I guesstimate that 10:1 engine was putting out 425-440hp and an easy 580lb-ft in that configuration. Believe it or not, the Caddy was actually a decent fit inside the flattie. I would've had to move the master cylinder on the firewall (which I wound up doing anyway), but it was certainly easier than the Shortstar I ultimately wound up with.

When I decided against the Caddy 500 (I still can't remember why) I went with a 4.6L Northstar Caddy engine. If you've ever messed with one, they're way not user friendly to adapt to a rear drive configuration. The waterpump is mounted externally on the back of the cylinder head, the throttle body is in the back, the oil pan is a log style like a Marine pan, etc. It was gonna be so involved to put that 330hp engine in the chassis that I called up Colby Enger at Turn Key Engine Supply to see what he had to swap.

At the time, Colby was pumping out a lot of Northstars to sand rail guys and they were in high demand. He was running dry, so he offered me my choice of a 3.5L Shortstar or a 5.7L LS1. I took the hard route (as usual) and nabbed the 3.5L. Now, with all the dune driving I've been doing I'm sort of wishing I had grabbed that LS1. An easy 350hp would be nice. And having a rear sump oil pan with more front axle clearance than I have with the 3.5L would be really cool. So, I get to daydreaming about yanking the 3.5L and throwing in a junkyard LS1 with a cam swap, high flow cylinder heads, and some other goodies for an easy, streetable 450hp.

But that'll never happen. I'd have to completely rebuild the radiator mount, cooling system, steering linkage, wiring, and tranny crossmember. Way too much work for a vehicle that gives me zero problems and goes pretty much anywhere I point it.