I am a mechanic by no means, so I guess I'm looking for advice from some experienced people on what my best options are for my price range. I have $10,000 CAN ($8,938.71 USD) to sink into my car. My car is an auto '85 TA all stock, still in good running order, but I'm looking for some more power. I was wondering what would be my best options for everything necessary to upgrade to an LS1 in the way of the rear end and transmission to eventually handle twin turbos that would have the best performance/durability within my price range.

 

i think you'd spend around 7-8k on just the LS1 swap alone. then you want to twin turbo it as well? Don't see that as being in the budget. You'd need a 9" rear end, new driveshaft, different trans, etc etc. Definately not a beginners swap at all. I could see a standard SBC swap done easily for that price and be rather durable and make 425-450 hp rather easily within that budget, including the rear end, beefed up trans, etc