Okay, here is the situation. I've been without a car for months now due to swapping transmissions, and then the used one I swapped in had several leak problems that i've spent forever trying to fix. Every time I think it's fixed, it leaks more. Needless to say, i'm done wasting money on it. Since I haven't been able to work, the last bit of all of my money i've had to save has gone into this.

I took it to a guy last week and have some broken off bolts repaired, and the source of the major leaks fixed. Now it's got a slight pan leak, And I have to take it back to him soon to fix it. While he has worked on it, he told me he found that the engine is knocking extremely bad, and there is no way it will last much longer. He hooked me up with a guy he knows that has 3 different complete 3.4's in his shop that he said will sell to us for $200 a piece, and we can hand pick them for the lowest mileage.

I Got an estimated after labor price of around $600+Fluids+any needed seals, plugs, etc. I'm done putting all of my money into this and getting no where, as I need a good reliable car for school and college. Does this sound like a good deal, and would it be worth it? I looked yesterday in town at some new Impala's and others I liked, I would just have to build some credit to purchase a newer car.

What do you guys think? Pay around $700 for a 3.4 swap and the transmission completely fixed, or wait for a bigger project, (V8) and get something newer, dependable, and would allow me to have have time to work on the firebird?

 

It's all about your financial situation, and what the car is worth to you, and whether it needs other crap or not.
If it just needs the engine and should otherwise be relatively reliable, I would fix it, if something breaks everytime you go near it, its probably time to invest in a separate DD while you sort things out on the camaro.

 

He said there is also a large performance gain. Is that true? I'll admit that I like to rough it around a lot, so that would also be a plus.

 

2.8=135 hp (101 kW) and 165 lb·ft (224 N·m
3.4=160 hp (119 kW) at 4,600 rpm and 200 lb·ft
25 hp, and 35 tq, I wouldn't call it large per say, but its moderate, but then I am just going off the #s, I've never driven a stock 2.8 thirdgen, or a stock 3.4 for that matter.

 

I did the swap for my son from 3.1 to 3.4.He liked it alot better even with the 3.1 injectors. I gave 300 for my 3.4 and I got lucky as to how clean the inside was.Working on it after work and having never done a motor change let alone a 3.4 swap,took me 4 days and cost very little. Gasket set and sealant,fresh oil is no biggy cause ya do oil changes.figure it as ur first oil change.used the best plugs and old wires and dizzy cap.Oh yes I did the whole thing buy myself but for the second motor mount bolt.couldnt pry and push the bolt hard enuff.I got an extra v6 tranny sitting in the carport.out of an 86 bird.i'm half an hour from ky/tn border.if ya dont have money to fix what u got than u cant aford another one.I might brake down

 

I just didn't know of the performance increase. Which it may be a lot better, because on top of the bad knocking, the fuel pressure is now only at a constant 20 (Between 0 and 40), no matter at what speeds, and the check engine light is now staying on. My friends 95 1.3L Geo prism has more get up and go than this thing at WOT. So I'm sure I may see decent increase in performance? The tranny shouldn't be bad. It is leaking from the pan now and probably just needs torqued, or it may be over full, as we did over fill it a little on accident. We had to fix two broken off pan bolts, missing kick down cable seal, and dip stick tube seal before. So the tranny should be good. If it is that easy for us to do a 3.4 swap, I may just end up doing that then. I love the car, it just needs a little bit of work, and the interior is mint. He told me all together that to do it I will probably be paying $550-$600, and he will take a loss for me to make sure it's not any higher. The 3.4 we may be getting is out of a low mileage '93-'95? Camaro. I'll keep it posted on my plans. If I go with the 3.4, I'll have to post some pics. Thanks for the help and the offers.

 

Make sure to note all the conections if you do it.put the bolts in ziplock bagies with tags in them and where they go.Dose 550 include the 3.4 engine?If you got an automatic tranny try to get an 3.4 that was mated with a automatic.I think I read that there are some setup differences.Also my swap went with a 3.1 system.Look close and your 2.8 setup before you start.Pics will help.Don't just leave it all up to your friend.Just in case he has trouble you have a backup plan.also I read somwhere that some engines are internaly balanced and some externaly.I'm not real sure on that.

 

2.8s are external, 3.4s are internal. So say he has a 2.8 auto, and gets a 3.4 manual, he can't use his 2.8 flex, and would have to find one for a 3.4

 

600 for them to put the engine in for you? is that wat you are saying? plust the tranny repairs etc? I think thats a good deal . where i live it costs $ 800 just for a tranny swap (trans plus labor) so for them to supply the engine, labor , and all the other repairs, i would pay that if i needed the car as soon as posible; its a fair price. if i didnt need the work done and had something elso to drive i would do a v8 swap, just cause thats what i would want, so it all comes down to what you want. its a good deal if you get what your promised, a running functional car

 

Yeah, $600 for an engine swap, with labor and engine included would be a good deal, around here labor alone would be at least $600 if not $1k. But I do almost everything myself, which is where you really save some cash, lol.

 

The complete motor is $200. And most of the fees are from pulling it and towing it, along with new seals and fluids, etc. And then the rest is labor, which I'm going to help put it in. The 3.4 is in a 90 something white Camaro I think he said, with low miles. And there is also 2 more he has sitting in his shop.

So when I get the money, we are going to have a look at them and see which one we want. We can have any one of them for $200, and I just have to pay him the gas money to pick it up. He told me basically we would just pull my engine + tranny out at the same time swap over the intake if we can and do a tune up on it, bolt up the tranny and then put it in. Then it's just deciding if I want to keep the a/c, which I hope I can, it get's very hot down here. And we would remove all of the smog crap. And like I said, he gave me a price of $550-$600 for all of this, and all I have to do is help him out with it.

It sounds like a good deal to me. I would love something with a little bit more power to it. And is worth putting a nice exhaust on. This 2.8 just knocks bad, and is all rev, and no go. Lol. I drove it a few days ago for somernights cruise here in Somerset, and no matter what, I never saw the oil pressure even come close to reaching the 40 mark it was that low.