ok in the next month or so i am going to be starting the rebuild of my engine. ive been doin a lotta research and am still debating on all what to do while im at it. for starters id like to know how hard its gonna be to do a rebuild without pulling my engine. i know itll be tight wrkn in there but other than that can i do it? also i have read about swapping in heads from the pontiac gtps and that they should be a straight swap and fix alot of problems with this engine is this the best route or are there better heads i should look into? ive also read bout doin a fwd top end swap...would this be the better route or what? just trying to get opinions and start making a shopping list. please treat me like a noob when it comes to explanations and what all i should rebuild here, as i have experience with engines but this will be my first teardown and rebuild.

 

You can get the oil pan off if the remove the motor mounts bolts and jack up the motor but there is no way your going to get the pistons out. You will have to pull the tranny to get to the rear main seal. I mean pulling the motor on these is tuff but by the time you pull the heads and oil pan change out the front and rear main seals you will have taken everything off, the motor will just be floating. Infact if you pull the Cam out you will have to remove more stuff then you would if you pulled the motor. I'll bet its 5 times the work. Checking you bearing clearance with plastic gage will be near impossible with the K member in the way. In car rebuilds is a FWD/Overhead cam thing as long as you do not need main bearings its a easy weekend project.

I am not a big 3.4 guy yet but I think 1999 FWD heads are a nice upgrade and should be cheap.

 

stickers..stickers to the point that you almost cant see the original car..that should give you a gain of somewhere around 9000 horsepower..only thing i can think of is that you might check the motor mounts while its all out..just to keep that from bein a problem down the road..

 

9000 gain... man thats some good math you got there. can you tell me how to do that...

i have also read about the fwd swap most all bolt on.. i think there is a post on it some where . i read it on another forum. man make sure you have the resources to do this right other wise you well not see the gains you want. PULL the engine there is not alot of room the firewall gets in the way alot easier to pull it. only take a day less if your good. but dont wast your time if your not going to do it right. just did a engine swap and am curntly rebuilding the one i pulled.. look on craigslist i got a great deal on stand and a cherry picker ... good luck hope i helped

 

k thnx a ton guys for all the help so far...im definitely looking into gettin a used engine, rebuilding and then swapping now so at least i have my starting point...i might have some questions for ya gorn considering i will prolly being doing this without a lift and in a garage so i could benefit from your experience most likely...