best engine-tranny-pcm-misc. combo to swap in

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Old 10-15-2018, 04:04 AM
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Default best engine-tranny-pcm-misc. combo to swap in

I may; down the line, try to swap my 3800 series 2 for something a little more powerful by means of buying a doner vehicle and doing the usual. Some good and bad news about that where i live.

Good news -

* pretty much no restrictions about what i can change out where i live. If i can squeeze a big rig engine in the car it would be legal. That or no one would ever care. No smog laws and now we can buy purmenant car registration (so you never have to register again.

Bad news -
* Not allot of options around here and almost all the vehicles that come up for sale with powerful engines are either trucks or SUVs.

* Maximum speed limit in my state is 55mph

So basically; while i am free to put any engine in my car that i can get my hands on, without some serious creativity and luck, the variety of engines i can get my hands on for less than prohibitively high prices are very limited and i can only ever benefit from fuel efficiency and acceleration as going above 60 is not only dangerous but a good way to provoke a road side visit from Alaska's deadliest troopers. So i am basically interested in knowing what good options are out there in that range and what it would take to squeeze them into the car. Thanks in advance.
 
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Old 10-15-2018, 04:39 PM
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What year do you have? if you are looking for bolt in option there are more for the 98 up car. Without parts from a Z28 I would guess there is going to be a lot of fabrication work going on. These front ends are not very tall and the fact the engine goes under the windshield makes it very limiting. The 98 up Z28 is a LS design motor meaning just about any under one ton truck or SUV is a direct bolt in. 6.0 are desirable and are common in the 2500 pickups and SUVs.
 
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Old 10-15-2018, 08:15 PM
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It's a 2001 3.8

I am not afraid to do some fabrication under the hood but prefer to avoid that stuff as much as possible.
 
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Old 10-16-2018, 07:40 PM
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below thread give details on the part needed for the swap. The K-member and oil pan are going to be a problem as the V6 and V8 is different and the oil pan on any truck will be insanely different. without custom tunes the internal computers will not like each other.

https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...p-78734/page2/

Honestly without a wreck V8 camaro sitting in your yard I find it hard to believe its worth it. You can look in the project sections there are a couple guys that put old school V8 in 4th gens but you end up rewiring the whole car and making anew dash on your 2001 cause everything is running of computers. Is it that hard to Road kill your way to the lower states and drag a blown LS car home?
 
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Old 10-16-2018, 08:16 PM
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Originally Posted by gorn
is it that hard to road kill your way to the lower states and drag a blown ls car home?
yes! Lol Just the Canadian portion of the drive to Alaska 1 way is like going from California to new york. And costs about $500 - $700 1 way if you are traveling light. The only way importing vehicles is economical is if it's your means of making the move or if you are having a whole bunch of cars shipped in for resale. I am also planning to begin scratch building a couple super cars in a few years, so there's also a motivational element to adding power to the car. I am using my camaro as a layout testing prototype for one of them but engine wise there's a point when i am better off just putting the time and resources in to one of the scratch builds.
 

Last edited by Gewehr; 10-17-2018 at 04:22 AM.
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