Hello, Well i just finished putting my L03 back together, drove it for ohhhh 2 weeks and now its knocking... (sigh) Well looking through the paper today i called a guy who is selling a L98 out of a vette... Yummy... Anyways... he wants 1200 for engine, tranny, rad, drive shaft, and all the wires. all of it has about 60k miles on it... anyways.. he said the only thing im gonna need to do for the swap is run the fuel lines to other side of car, custom driveshaft made.. or switch the (??) from the vette tranny to mine... Im doing it in a firebird.... sooo im not sure if i can use the tranny from the vette... (help) here is what i need to know

1. What all do i need to do to make this work if i decide to buy it?
2. Whats the deal with the trannys?? what will/can work?
3. Where can i buy a painless wiring kit?? (dont want to kill myself)


And yes before i catch it from the first 20 responces.. ive tried a search, but.. nothing really told me what i needed.... Thanks for all the help

 

can't really help you with the first one one, but to use the 'vette tranny you need to swap the tail from the one in your bird onto it so you can bolt up the torque arm.

also, i don't think you can use the 'vette radiator, and im sure you can use the driveshaft.

 

thanks man.. anyone else???

after thinking about it... ill need a fuel pump... and a bunch of other crap.. this isnt my dream engine so im beginning to worry about this...

anyone... comments? sudjestions?

 

nevermind read your last post..........

 

There is a link in the technical articles on all the stuff you will need to complete the swap. Do you have another means of transportation while you do the swap. If not plan on getting one cause little things come up with this swap eventhough it is pretty straight forward. Good luck, I remember when I went from tbi to tpi.......

suggestions: Figure out how much money you want to spend on this project then once you have an idea multiply that number by 2 and be prepared to spend even more than that on misc crap that comes up during the swap.

Are you rebuilding the motor or just dropping it in?

 

to make life easier you'll need to get a complete engine harness out of a 90-92 f-body.everything should fall into place.you still have to do some rewiring of a couple things.Painless is very exspenive and from what i've heard Painless is everything but "Painless"
you wouldn't be able to use the accessory brackets from the Vette.you can reuse the brackets from you LO3.
you need to put in a different fuel pump.
your fuel lines running to the tank are big enough for the TPI.

i just went throught the same swap so fell free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

ok thanks... Well lets see.. a few other issues.

the fuel lines plug into the other side of the engine so can i just run somthing behind the engine to convert it to the other side? i cant do it up front... im not the safest driver, and head-oning something with fuel lines ran up front.. wont be fun.

Umm the painless kit is very expensive... but ive really done almost no wiring before.. im gonna have a few friends help and they might know.. but i still think the painless will be worth it. (info)???

should i use the vette tranny, or the one out of the bird. with all the digital crap in a vette i would think it has the electric speedo hook up like the bird... plus ive been told the gears are a little different.

also what hedders would you recomend for this car... im not gonna do any internal mods b/c i dont wanna tear this engine apart.

thanks again.

 

i wouldn't worry too much about the fuel lines being up front.the vette fuel rails come all most straight out from the fuel rails.you can get AN- fitting that will connect them to your hard line on the driver side

if you look hard enough you can hind a good complete wiring harness for a hell of alot less than what Painless is asking for one of theirs.are you ready to pay almost $500 for a wiring harness?

if there nothing wrong with the tranny that's in your bird now just use it.or rebuild the vette tranny and swap the tail shaft when you do the motor swap.

ANYTHING BUT DYNOMAX SHORTY HEADERS!!!!!!it used to take me 3 hours just to change the spark plugs and wires.