I'm swappin my 89 2.8 for an 85 2.8 pretty soon. As far as I've been able to read this will be an easy weekend project. Just unbolt a few lines, hoses, wires, and bolts, lift the engine out, and reverse the procedure. Is there anything I'm looking over that could be a major problem and take some extra time. The reason I'm doing this is that my current engine has some bad valves, and this other engine was rebuilt 30k ago plus I got it for real cheap.

Oh yeah, and since the engine is at 30k, is there anything that should need to be replaced BEFORE I drop it in?

 

Only thing I can think of off hand is you will need to use the 85's flywheel. The 89 2.8 was internally balanced where as the 85 will have counterweights on the flywheel.

 

The engine/trans bolts can be a pain-n-th-*** to get to. You can use one of those gear/wrenchs on th top bolts. You can just pull the engine and transmission together and seperate once you get it on the ground. You can pull the drive shaft & drop the rear of the transmission (on a jack) enough to reach up with a L-O-N-G extention to get the top bolts.

 

Are you or can you get the tranny also. If so and if it's better then yours, pull engine & tranny, that's what I did. You don't have to remove radiator or elec. fan. It just makes it out. Good Luck...

 

why are you swapping a 2.8 to another (not to mention, older) 2.8 when you could swap a bigger 3.1 or something... maybe even a v8 (gee what an idea!)?

 

I'm not going to a V8 because I don't want to deal with the added insurance and gas costs. As far as other engines go, this 2.8 presented itself for cheap so thats what I got, plus it only has approx 33k on it after a rebuild. I also didn't see what the point of waiting for a bigger engine was when I wouldn't be getting that much more power anyway. Pretty much since I will be going to college before too long, I wanted the most economical solution I could find. This 2.8 was the easiest and most economical choice for me.

mvftw, I didn't get the other tranny only since it had been sitting for a while and a few people advised against it. I found a guy that will rebuild mine for under 400 tho, so when the time comes that will be the course of action.

ghostrider, what do you mean by "gear/wrenchs"

I've heard that the exhaust manifolds are hard to get off, anybody know any tricks for that.

 

gallons & days of break free, breaker bar, and many, many prayers of the studs not breaking

 

That is why I haven't even attempted to remove them.

 

I helped a friend do this same kind of swap... he melted the 2.8 in his '89 Camaro, and got a '86 Camaro 2.8 for $100.

Of course much later, he told me and my other friend (both of us helped) that the '86 2.8 supposedly had a bad head gasket. No wonder that '86 motor died after we swapped it. Too bad he didn't tell us beforehand! The heads must've been warped...

Anyway- http://www.geocities.com/tomp_3rdgen is where the pics are at.

 

its really not that bad... just soak them with some penetrating oil for about 3 hours or more... if they still don't budge, try using a torch but BE CAREFUL!

 

Getting them to budge is no problem...I've never had an issue with that, only the occasional broken one. If the motor is coming out anyway, its no big deal...just drill/EZ out any broken studs on the new motor, and replace them with new ones. They're still available from GM.

On an engine still in the car, they can be drilled out with a 90 degree air drill.

 

Before you do anything - do a compession test and a leak down test if you can. That will tell you where you stand. If the bottom end is solid, then reuild the top end. It's ez when it's out. Don't put it in without replacing the head & intake gaskets.

 

I should replace the head and intake gaskets even though it was just rebuilt????
it has the sticker and paint with rebuild numbers on it.

As far as exhaust manifolds go...I have the ones for the other engine too, so should I just disconnect it at the exhaust pipe or should I still use my original ones