Seriously Considering this

i have a 2001 cavalier that ive been working on for the last year...ive invested about 10 grand in wheels , paint , stereo , interior , and some minor
performance parts like a full race exhuast. The only thing i have left to do is the motor and transmission since both of them are pretty much on the way out cuz this winter i drove the poor car in -50 degree weather, i have been thinking about it and seriously considering doing some major cuztomization. I want to put an all wheel drive setup in the car. i know its do-able but all im wondering is what would be the best match for the cavalier, mitsubishi/nissan/toyota ?

please let me know.

way too much time, work, and money to accomplish that. but if you have all 3, and A LOT of it, then i say go for it if you want it bad enough.

No matter what you choose, nothing is going to be direct bolt up at all. your going to have to do some heavy measuring, fabricating custom made drive shafts to your vehicles length, there is no GM drive train thats going to fit into your car thats AWD to make this economical. I don't think you have any idea how much work is going to be involved with something like this.

If your going to swap in something from say a Mitsu eclipse GSX ( its probably already beat to shit from some punk ass kid whose a FnF wannabe) You'd be better of building a tube chasis and slapping the J-body frame over that.

If you want something Rwd. Thats a little more obtainable than AWD. You could use a 240sx, 180sx, rear end and then its a matter of finding a tranny that would bolt up to your 2.2L or 2.4L ( not many options) You could use the tranny from an s-10 as it would bolt up to the 2.2L

i just think don't think you know what your in for.

I'm not trying to rain down on your glory because if you can pull it off some way, shape, form you'd be the first to do AWD. RWD has been done. Only reason i am saying all this is because we're RWD a 96 Grand PRIX GT with a Nissan 300Zx TT rear, turning the 3400 90*, mated it to a 700R auto trans, custom built tunnel, suspension, and lemme tell you. Its no walk in the park.

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/motor2.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/motor.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/car12-26-05__4_.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/car1-12-06__1_.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/car1-12-06__6_.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/000_0905.jpg

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/rearend__1_.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/rearend__12_.JPG

http://www.rdfabs.com/galleries/images/project_vehicles/1996_grand_prix/rearwheel08-04-06.jpg

I don't have any more up to date pics, but the 300Zx rear needed to be shrunk 1" each side to fit a grand prix. But we've been workin on this for pushing 2 years now. Rear end is in, suspension in the rear is in, tunnel is built, front subframe is modded for new motor mounts, the motor is fully built to handle a 2 staged 200hp shot of nitrous, and put 489hp/ 473tq to the ground on 150hp shot.

If you'd like to converse more about this or ideas for your own conversion i welcome it and hope to possible steer you in a good direction. :)