How the heck do they convert FWD to RWD

Well the subject explains my question. I keep seeing fwd cars converted to rwd and I was wondering how the heck it's done.

Thanks!

A guy that's at a bunch of cruises I go to took a late model oldsmobile, and stuffed a LS-1 into it with RWD. He bought the car, took the body off the frame, bought a chevy S-10 frame etc., hooked up the drivetrain to it, then dropped the body onto it. he mini tubbed the rear wheelwells, and stuffed some big meats under there without modifying the stock wheel opening on the body in any way. from 15 feet away, it looks completely stock except for a few louvers in the hood for cold air intake. it's a dark blue purple color, and is the definition of the word "sleeper"

Damn that sounds pretty badass. Could you use the stock engine though and just put in a new rear axle and driveshaft etc?

BTW, i believe the car was a 98-99 Alero

i don't think so, as FWD cars have their engines oriented sideways. you'd have to find a way to mount the engine and all the accessories from front to back. then you have to deal with the tranny, hose lengths, wire, and wiring harness lengths. not to mention the throttle linkage, transmission linkage, clutch linkage and setup..... there are probably a host of other problems that are specific from car to car as well. 99% of the time it is more cost effective and performance effective to simply get a frame and drivetrain set up for RWD, and then drop a body on it. i would much rather deal with the frame and fitting the body to it than hand fabricating all the parts to convert a car using it's existing parts.

Regardless, this modification is extremely labor intensive and should only be done if you have a lot of determination and experience with a wrench. If you are going to do this, i'd mod it to RWD with a NON-computer drivetrain to eliminate that hassle, and change the engine over from being electonically controlled to mechanically controlled unless you are confident enough in your computer skills to hack through the programs. modding it in this way is going to make it technically illegal wether it has a computer or not, and wether the emissions are better or worse than before, if it is done on a late model car.

I have seen a Honda CRX, it had the engine put in the rear and changed to RWD. It is pretty Awesome.

you have to put a new transmission take out the front wheel drive, put a new rear differential, new drive shaft have to adjust your gear box to the new transmission. In other words its way to much work for the satisfaction of rear wheel drive.

Its more trouble than its worth if you are trying to change a front drive chasis to rear drive. If you like the way a front drive car looks, but want rear drive, get a rear drive chasis that is close to the same dimensions and stick the body on top of the chasis. You will most likely need to make custom mounts to do it though.

had to be a 99' cuz aleros were not made in 98' ;)

It depends on teh car how it is done. A popular swap is putting all variations of the 4.6 Mustang motor into Focus's. There is no frame from anothe car used or anything like this for this conversion.

ya but i think ford sells the stuff to change a focus to rwd, that would be easier then normal.

ya but i think ford sells the stuff to change a focus to rwd, that would be easier then normal.

Yep, they do. One of the magazines (can't remember which one) did an article a couple of months ago on a stock Lamborghini Gallardo vs. a super hopped-up RWD Focus with a V8 engine.

that was from Motor Trend, and thats the coolest sleeper ive ever seen.

Hell yeah, I want that Focus so badly :(

Focus V8 VS BMW M5

Was featured on Speed Channel about a year ago...they didn't tell us who won, but they DID say the Bimmer couldn't shake the Focus.

Talk about ZX5.0 :naughty:

I've heard of Integra's either getting the drivetrain from either an s2k or Crv and being make rwd...I wish my car was Rwd :( . First and last fwd car i'll own.

does anybody have a link to that stock Lamborghini Gallardo vs. a super hopped-up RWD Focus with a V8 engine. I want to see that Focus.

wasnt there a JDM called the Intgra ZXi that was modified to rear wheel drive from the factory...or is that an urban legend?

me and my stepdad had plans drawn up to make his berreta gt a 4wd car with a little lift and bigger tires with a 350............but plans were shattered when i rolled it a 90 :eek7: