so im swapping the 2.8 from my 89 firebird parts car into my 86 firebird and im wondering of there is any difference i have noticed that the 89 has a single belt where the 86 has 3. the 89 is an automatic and the 86 is standard so the 89 doesnt have a smog pump.. will this be a problem? also i was planning to put my 86 intake on it to avoid any plugin issues if there are any .... so is there any thing to keep in mind while doing this.. i have never heard the 89 run (vats) so im thinking of using my 86 fuel rail and injectors .. im changing the easy stuff (valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, possibly timing chain ) id go more in depth with the rebuild but i dont have the time is there anything that i should do i really need to get this car running by Tuesday and im on a pretty tight budget... so let me know if there is anything to look out for and how to get around the smog pump issue. its coming out tm

 

Not sure if all that swapping is necessary. I am the original owner of an 86 Firebird 2.8L multiport and replaced a bad motor at 60K miles with a 20K mile motor from either an 87 or 88. Aside from the serpentine belt system on the newer motor, everything else was the same. A tight budget made me swap over my original brackets from the v-belt 86 motor so I could reuse the original power steering pump etc. Every harness plugged in - no problems to this day. It currently has 88K on it.
Sorry, I'm not sure about the smog pump.

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1986 Firebird 2.8L T-Tops
Black, Lt Saddle interior

 

just drop in the 89 long block, switching out the flywheel & flex plate. When I did the 3.4 swap, the 2.8 (A4) had no smog pump, and neither did the 3.4.

Not sure if the 86s had a cold start valve, just look at the fuel block for the metal line.

this is just mho, and I might've forgotten some things, just trying to keep it simpler than what you plan.

 

Take pictures of both engines and try to label things before you begin so you have something to refer back to.

 

There are a couple of ways you can do this.

Since your 86 has the V-belt system, you can get rid of that and swap over your brackets from the 89 and use the serpentine belt. However, to do this, you need to get a water pump for the 89, as the 86 turns in reverse with the v-belts. You'll want to get a water pump anyways as you don't know how long that pump has set dry.

You will need to get an intake gasket set and swap over your entire intake. Unless, of course, you want to swap over the PROM from your 89 to the 86' ECM to delete the CSI stuff. If not, then you will probably want to swap over the intake since knocking that plug out of the back of the manifold is a pain on a good day, and if you lose the large o-ring on the end of the CSI tube, you need to either buy 2 larger ones and 2 smaller ones or spend about $10 for a gasket set just so you can get the 1 o-ring.

Swap over your flywheel, unless, of course, you have an internally balanced engine in the 89 (not sure of the switchover year). Then, you will need to try to find one from an 89-95 car (2.8, 3.1, 3.4).

Also, I don't know what the emissions laws are in CT, but here in NY, I would be REQUIRED to swap over the AIR pump to pass visual emissions.

 

ok so just a couple things ive noticed is that the alternators are completly different ... so i was planning on swapping the 89 alt. pulley onto the 86 but that may spin it backwards (thank you maverick i would have never noticed that) ill have to look in the morn.... about the balancing issue i cant get a straight answer about weather the 89 is or not ... when i look it up at the auto parts store it comes up as the same part #... but they have been wrong b4. so by CSI im assuming you mean cold start injector and the plug would be behind the manifold around the distributor area? if so the86 and 89 do have it but im looking at pulling that intake anyway just because i dont like how the what appears to be form-a-gasket looks around it the only thing im afraid of is the distributor ive never had to deal with one with a computer can i just pull the cap mark where the rotor is and make sure not to move it ?my dad and i are both decent mechanics but we normally stick to prefuelinjected engines so were a little hesitant to just pull stuff... well thank you guys for helping out i was starting to think i was going in alone on this project

 

ok so the 89 has a lot of differences and weve decided to just swap the heads onto the 86 block but i have one question ... what push rods do i use the 86 to match the cam or the 89 to match the rockers?

 

same rods on both