i have a built 4.8 ready to drop in my 92' bird, the project is pending on a few things, (harness, motor mounts, exhaust) my first question is, how tight is the relationship between oil pan/k member? im not using a/c because i have t-tops and i dont have the money or ability to notch my k member. please point out any other common snags that you guys have run into in your swaps

 

Clearance is extremely tight, but it has been done without notching for the kmember. You need to use a 98-02 Fbody oil pan and pickup tube. If you decide not to notch for oil pan clearance, understand interference is possible, and that's a risk you will be taking. Don't count on motor and trans going in together through the top either. Motor can go in through the top, and then trans installed afterwards from bottom. Or of course, bolt motor and trans to Kmember and go in through the bottom, everything at once.

Read the swap stickies if you haven't already, and check out a few build threads. You will see different solutions to most of the common problems. With the aftermarket parts and info for coolant hoses and such, it is nearly a bolt in swap at this point, with exception of wiring. Wiring will most likely be the biggest time consuming portion of the project.

 

I did my motor with t56 bolted together from the top..wasnt as bad as ppl complain about if you have a engine leveler with the cherry picker . Pan clearance is tight..i had about and 8th of an inch but you can take a grinder to the weld on the k member and smooth it out and gain some more peace of mind

 

excellent, my next question is, my fuel injectors. i have a 1998 intake/ fuel rail. i also have the stock 4.8 injectors. they are too short to reach from rail to port, is there an adapter?

 

Not currently, but LS1 injectors are $40-60/set. Hard to beat that, you wont find a set of spacers for less than that and they flow more than truck injectors

This is how tight the oil pan is on a stock K-member without the notch. IMHO, the K-member was fine. The brake line bolted to it was not. I saw where it rubbed when the engine was removed later

 

I have a good set of ls1 injectors, used if interested. I would be happy to get 50 shipped

 

Holy cow! Where do you get them that cheap!? Ive seen 40 -50 dollars PER INJECTOR! Im very interested, but could a 4.8 run off of that much fuel? These injectors are designed for an engine many cubes bigger...

 

They are the smaller 26 pound ls1 injectors. I would assume that with a tune, they would work. I am sure they would dump a lot of fuel if you ran it with a stock 4.8 tune. I need bigger ones for my build.

 

Its all in the tune. You can put 60lb injectors on your 4.8 with the proper tune

 

well, the thing is, i live thirty some-odd miles away from the only place that tunes, not to mention im doing this swap on my only daily driver, so i can noly afford no car for about two weeks. ,secondly, im trying to find the stock pcm from a trans am, should i get the one from the truck? im not exactly sure what else to do now that ive got the engine and trans...

 

and i need a harness...(very hard to come by)... and an oil pan.. lol

 

Need a harness for the swap motor?

 

yea, and a computer

 

is there an "easy way out" for the harness? or do i have to spend $900 on a hawks harness.?

 

Get a used harness and graft it into your chassis harness.

 

The only way to do it in my opinion is install the motor and tranny together threw the top (i have done it this way a few times) . As you can see from pockets pics it is close but they clear. Just get the car high off of the ground and use an engine leveler on your cherry picker and it isnt bad at all.

 

If you aren't going to notch the K-member, then drop it, install the engine on it, then drop the car back over engine/trans/K-member. A load leveler isn't going to help if you try to drop the engine in from the top with zero clearance between the K-member and pan.

 

My LS1 went in with no problems from the top with a non-notched crossmember and T56 and exhaust manifolds attached. It was no more difficult than dropping in an SBC with a T5 attached. I used a load leveler.

 

30 some miles is nothing. My tune is on the opposite side of the state. Mail the PCM over for a rough tune, then bring the car over when its done to finish the job

If this is your only car, Id suggest against swapping it at all. If any number of issues come up, there goes your only mode of transportation. What if the engine is a dud?

There is a step by step tutorial in the swap sticky about building a harness. It is not an easy task, but not impossible either