Hey guys My 2000 camaro has a lot of motor noise coming from around the crankshaft i had it checked out and he said the motor is basically shot I have another 3800 motor i am gonna throw in it....is there anyway to change the motor without having to use a hoist? Because i have no access to one.. i also have no money so i cant go and pay for it to get done please help me out

 

I think you can come in from under the come if I'm not mistaken. I think Massey did a full writeup on his car when he swapped in a new 3.8L

 

You need to either pull the motor out the top or lift the car up high enough to pull the motor out from underneath the car. To pull the motor out of the top you need a engine hoist of some kind. The common way to lift the body is either a lift or an engine hoist. In theory you could use a jack to lift the front of the car but you would have to do it in stages because you are going to need to get the front of the car up 50”+. I am sure it can be done but if you screw up you could do a lot of damage. Even when you drop the motor from the bottom you will need to lift the engine out frame you dropped and install the new one. You could take the old motor apart and maybe get it manageable but the cost of tearing the replacement motor a part to get it install would be greater than the cost to rent a hoist. You can pick up a used Harbor Freight 1 ton hoist for less then a head gasket set would cost.

I understand being broke, maybe you could advertise a barter on craigs list. I help you, you help me kind of a thing. I am sure there are dozens of engines hoist around you not being used. The cheapest way out is to buy a used hoist and sell it 2 weeks later for what you paid for it.

 

Me and my cousin just put in a 3.8 with 25k miles on it out of a wrecked car. We have put in motors before but we have always had to take the top intake off to get it in. Having little success with gaskets and my past engine, i had a great idea to remove the motor mounts from the motor and bolt them back on once you get the motor lined up with the transmission. We used a Come Along Winch and a jack. A jack to hold the transmission and the Come Along Winch to pull the motor. Be sure not to let any wires get behind the motor. We had to splice a line and take a wire of the other car we bought.

 

I didnt really do a write up since I did my engine at the same time as Darling Reject was doing hers, and I didnt want to take anything away from her build. Click the linky in my sig and scroll down a little to see what I did get pics of during my swap. Sorry in advance for the crappy cell pics.

The best way I found to do this all is from the bottom. When I did mine I had the new engine almost fully assembled. I had the plugs wired up, the engine harness wired in, intake manifold was bolted on, the exhaust manifolds were as well. The only thing I didnt have hooked up was the A/C compressor since I left that attached to the system in the car. It was not hard to unhook and move out of the way.

I had the engine out in about 5 hours or so. The cherry picker was used to lift the car after we dropped the engine on the ground (with trans attached). I also had to use the hoist to lift the old engine off the K member and put the new engine on.

If you are using an engine that did not come out of an F body then follow my how to sticky on the 3800 engine swap to make sure you get all the right stuff from your old engine over to the new engine. Some stuff looks like it will work but it will not. Oil pickup comes to mind here.

Removal was about 5 hours (2 people)
Cleaning old parts and swapping parts from one engine to the other about 5 hours (one person)
Reinstalling engine into car 8 hours (2 people till the engine was bolted into the body 1 person after that)

I took about 3 long days to get everything done and the car fired up and ran great the first time.

Massey

 

thank you guys for your help ill definetly be having this up while im changing the motor we should be starting it sometime this week hopefully.........also the motor i got is from a 97 camaro all i need to change is the intake? mine is a 2000

 

Is the 97 out of a Camaro,Firebird? If so upper intake and exhaust manifold should be about it. DO the lower intake cause it is a common issue with these cars. Also if you have the funds you may want to do the head gaskets on the 97 motor. Another common issue. The two weak points of the 3800 are the factory intake gasket and head gasket. Once they are swapped these motor just keep going aslong oil/coolant is changed and you don't over rev it

If you are thinking about going out the bottom shoot me a PM with your email address. I can send you a step by step how too PDF. It is for a v8 and does not address lifting the car but it show just about every wire and bolt that needs done.

 

the 97 3800 is out of a camaro. I tore that motor down when i got it and replaced all of the gaskets.

 

The 97 3800 has the intake that curves doesnt it? The one i purchased did, And we had to switch out the intakes.

 

Yea the 95-98 intake angles down and the 99-02 is straight. There are a few last production 98s that have the TBW and the straight intakes as well but those are harder to find than a 95 with a 3.8L

Massey