1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 V8 - Hats Off To The Driveway Mechanic

I've seen some very interesting (and expensive) swaps in my day like the Ford Taurus SHO V-6 in Jay Leno's Ford Festiva, this 427 cubic inch Chevette and even this Cadillac 500 V8 powered Fiero. Of all of them, this 1981 Chevrolet Citation X-11 powered by a Cadillac V8 might take the cake. Or at least the oil pan gasket. That's saying a lot; that Fiero is pretty freakin' awesome.

  

First, a warm round of applause to the builder of this car. He didn't just pick any car to swap a V8 into but one of GM's most vexed and despised automobiles. Furthermore, he did it all by himself and didn't have to physically modify the car (much) to get the engine to fit. That's someone who's not only a Chevrolet Citation fan, but someone who did their homework as not every V8 engine could fit in one of these.

The Chevrolet Citation debuted in 1979 as a 1980 model replacing the late, some would say great Chevrolet Nova. The Citation and similar cars sold by Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Buick were the latest in GM's massive downsizing program that began in 1977 and were, at least on paper, a major step forward in engineering being GM's first compact front wheel drive automobile. They sold very well too - at first. Timing being everything; the United States was going through a second energy crisis in less than a decade and the big on the inside, small on the outside, front wheel drive Citation seemed to be everything America needed at the time. All of these cars and particularly the Citations, which I always found to be absolutely hideous especially in slant back ala Buick Century and Olds Cutlass Salon of the same vintage, sold extremely well despite being horribly under engineered and built on the cheap. These cars quickly developed a very bad reputation and sales cratered.

The X-11 was a 1981 model year "upgrade" of the standard issue, "Iron Duke" powered two door Citation. Along with firmer struts, thicker sway bars, a quicker steering ratio and (somewhat) sporty interior was a two barrel carbureted, 2.8 liter V-6 making 135 horsepower. Compared to the 'Duke powered Citations, the 2500 pound, V-6 X-11 was a downright hoot. Ah, early '80's American cars. How they sucked.

Anyway, let's take a look at the actual Cadillac V8 that they stuffed in this car. Adorable, isn't it? That's not, of course, a massive 500 cubic inch Cadillac engine like the one in that Fiero but the "best" version of one of the worst gasoline V8 engines in GM's history. Damning by faint praise? No. Not exactly as this actually was a very good engine but what it stemmed from was a different story.

It's fitting that this reject of a car is fitted with a "survivor" of an engine. The 4.9 liter Cadillac V8 in this Citation X-11 was the last upgrade of the crap-tacular 4.1 liter Cadillac V8 that debuted in 1982 as part of the "HT4100 Power System". Various upgrades and engineering revisions to the engine through out the '80's resulted ultimately in a fine running, performing and reliable "little" engine. Amazing how General Motors saw to it to invest the time and resources into the engine to make it what it eventually became. Imagine what things would have been like for Cadillac in the '80's had they started with the 4.9 engine in the first place.

Engine swappers like these Cadillac engines because they're tiny compared to even the most popular of engine swap choices, the Chevrolet small block. The reason these engines are so small, in physical dimension - displacing 300 cubic inches they were anything but small, is because Cadillac designed the engines first and foremost to power the front wheel drive deVille that debuted in 1985. Those cars had engines mounted transversely so installation of it in any front wheel drive car with a modicum of a large engine bay is somewhat straight forward. Somewhat. I can only imagine what the poor guy who shoe horned this in there went through.

The owner of this car claims to have spent over $7,000 on parts to get the engine to fit not to mention hours upon hours getting the whole thing to work properly.  He's selling the contraption for a price reduced $2,000. That's a lot for an old Citation but a pittance of what he spent to make it. His loss, your gain! Those buckets are standard issue X-11, by the way. I know, you'd think they came out of Cadillac too.

I'm the last person to scoff at what someone else spends their free time on, I'm spending a Sunday morning blogging about this car for crying out loud, but with furrowed brow I have decided to help this person sell this thing. Priced more than right it will find a new home very quickly and no doubt to someone who has no idea what in hell they've just gotten their hands on.

Here's the listing with even more pictures and even a video showing off that the thing runs. And runs well. Keep in mind you're buying someone's project car. Find a mechanic who can work on almost anything if you can't work on cars yourself. Good luck.