Well, somewhat sad news. I did call around and found a local yard with a bunch of 3.8s to choose from. Most would be about $350-400. Since we don’t know the longevity of the trans, my daughter decided to give up and sell it. We’ll clearly state the engine knock and our experience with the trans working well, but with problems in the past. Her hope is to get what we have into it plus a few hundred for the work cleaning it up.

It’s possible she’ll change her mind while she’s washing it, and we don’t have need to dump it for a loss. If it doesn’t sell we’ll store it for the winter and start it now-and-then and possibly pick up a motor in the winter.

For now, though, sounds like we’re done.

Thanks foe all the help and advice.

 

GM used to pride itself on the fact that all their motors are swap able. That ended with the 4th gen Camaro. To do a swap you pretty much need a donor car that came with the engine and trans you wanted to swap in. The Kmember (front frame) will be needed along with all the brackets and wiring from the V8. Even with all the parts you still will need to get the PCM reprogrammed to work with your Vin. The PCM that runs the engine also talks to the BCM and the ABS system through serial cable, at that point wiring get complicated. Even the trans is somewhat Camaro only but there are several work arounds for that. I believe all manual trans need to be from a Camaro. The trans sits at a 15 deg angle.

Your best bet would be to replace the V6 with a V6, sell that car and buy a Z28 with a blown motor, then go find a early 5.3 for $500 swap it in, the the PCM reprogrammed and down the road you go. A t-56 will add $1000 to $1500 to the project.

https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...p-78734/page4/

 

We've had a sign in it for a bit now and listed online. We'll see what happens. I was able to fire it up again and move it into the driveway now that snow is falling and we can't park where we were. I think I'll post it here for parts and, if it doesn't sell, we'll part it out. The hood needs paint, but is overall pretty good, doors are very good, T-Tops, rear hatch, etc.

Maybe next summer we'll find something to start again. Now that winter is on us, the kids are more interested in woodworking, so we'll flip hobbies. Thank you all for your advice. Too bad this one couldn't work out. Oh well, we'll find another.

On a fun note, she's been thinking about what kind of cars she really wants. We were talking about the cars I always wanted and I told her I always wanted an 80s Cutlass. (I had an '81 Delta 88 Royale Brougham coupe with a 307 and loved it). I showed her the Cutlass and she loved it. We'll see.