I have a 1990 RS 3.1L I have had the car for 2 years now. I recently fishtailed into a curb in bad rain. I damaged the engine crossmember, bent the lower control arm, and bent all the steering components. I didn't have the time to fix the damage and cleaned it up nice, and put it out for sale and bought a different car to drive for the time being. It is killing me see this thing sit there and nothing happen to it. I now have time to fix it, but am no longer interested in a V6. I'v decided to order all new steering and suspension components and tubular k-member from Spohn and build a 350 on the side, then drop it in. My question was is this a wise choice? The V6 runs strong, not a single thing wrong with it. Although I want a 350, it's going to kill me to rip apart a perfectly good engine. Also, I've been reading alot of the Derek and Kurt father and son project to get some help. It has been helpful. I've been a mechanic all my life, and I'll be 18 in less than a month. At the age of 7 I knew exactly how an engine worked. Anyway, the easy parts of the project are building the 350, and putting it in. The parts I am having concerns about is the electrical wires and whatnot that go along with the 350. Electrical is/has always been my weak spot. I am not sure if I need to change the wiring harness, or modify the one I have, or If I need one at all. I see that the a/c and whatnot are tied into the main harness. I want to keep my a/c and heater. I'm not sure if I need to change the ECM. Any help is apreciated!

 

Intuition tells me it would be much easier to get a donor harness from a V8 Third Gen than to modify the current one.

Modification or replacement is needed in a V6 to V8 swap. That's the general consensus I've heard.

You and I are somewhat in the same boat although I'm a few years older, this is my first real restification project. Years back I built up a motor but I didn't plan the project well and ended up selling the car.

BTW: Have you read the V6 to V8 sticky in this forum? If not, DO!
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...swap-read.html

Good luck!

 

Thank you, and yes, I have read that sticky before. I haven't gotten to the engine yet on the car. I just put the car up on stands today and sprayed some WD-40 on the steering components. I plan to remove them tomorrow. My plan is to fix the damage first, then move on to the engine. But, since this my first time doing a V6 to V8 swap, I am nervous. I've disassembled, reassembled, Installed, and removed engines before, but it was always the same engine, or the same size engine.

 

It's a learning experience (at least it was for me). But, follow the basics like taking pictures of everything before and during disassembly, and label everything as you take it apart, and it will go back together much easier.