HHR LS Swap Rat Rod
 

Hey hows it going. Brought home an '08 HHR Panel Yesterday. Blown engine. Ive been wanting a panel to do a v8 swap for quite a while. Finally have a place and the means to do it. Im thinking my idea is about as simple as it gets for a v8 swap into an HHR. I cut the whole front end off from the firewall up and left the frame rails for now.

Plan is to use the front subframe from a 70-81 Camaro. Will take care of brakes, steering, suspension, and an engine cradle. Motor mounts will be a simple swap. More than likely the front frame rails will be cut off, but Ill leave them until im sure. I'll connect the front end subframe and the rear with a steel tubing frame similar to what lasater did with his HHR V8 conversion. Im a welder by trade, and was a mechanic for a few years. I'm pretty comfortable with this project. I've got a little more research to do on wiring. Doesnt seem too difficult, just time consuming.

I'll try to use the factory mounts on the HHR for a 4 link. I'll build a frame for attachment points and strength. Ideally ill find a Ford 9" out of an econoline that will be wide enough to let me run some smoothies and tall tires outside the rear fenders. The biggest challenge will be attempting to remove the rear fender flares. I'll probably just end up cutting the flare off the rear door and welding the door shut. Patch with sheetmetal and let it go. Im not gonna make anything look perfect, as long as it functions properly ill be happy.

For an engine i'm looking for a 5.3 ls and 4l60e transmission. My quick measurements land the very front of the engine at the end of the frame rails, and the transmission tailshaft would be right where the exhaust hump starts. If I can run the front frame low enough for the driveshaft to clear by a few inches in the tunnel at ride height ill be happy. Full suspension compression to bumpstops im guessing i need about an inch of clearance? These are just my initial plans, I know how fast theyll change :roflol:

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/memb...cture-a-34206/

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/memb...removed-34207/

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/memb...trimmed-34208/

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/memb...cture-a-34209/

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/memb...cture-a-34210/

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/memb...cture-a-34211/

Hi Ratty, :welcomewagon: to the forums!!

Sounds very interesting! Don't forget the pics!!

Thanks!! I tried to upload a few but had no luck

Here we go

I wonder why I spent my time creating the tutorial.

Cause you’re you, a helping kinda guy! Thanks for that!

What am I missing?

Well, you got your pics uploaded to your gallery albums, that's good. :twothumbs:

Looks like you might have attached your pics to your post, directly from your device, not from your gallery albums. I'm not sure if one way is easier than the other. Still fine to do it either way. :thumb:

There may be a limit on how much data you can store in albums. There seems to also be a separate "limit" on attachments. There is some evidence that suggests that older attachments will disappear from posts when that unknown limit is exceeded. To my knowledge, no image has ever disappeared from a post, that was linked from a gallery album.

Awesome!! Thanks for the info. I'll have to check and see what I did wrong. Been posting pictures in forums for 15 years or more, but I reckon they're all different. I attempted to link them from the gallery. I reckon I'll look up this tutorial this evening and gain some knowledge. Thanks for the help.