Can I use a 96' as a donor for my 93'? The 96' has a 3.8l, 5spd all working and I want to know if everything is bolt swappable?

 

if you are going that far just buy a v8 donor car and do the same thing. Its the same process but more gains in the end.

 

I understand but for $550 I can afford it and will be happy with minor mods on this motor. I was just making sure it will work!

 

What does it mean if a gear grinds? Can my 3.4l auto trans bolt up to the 3.8l motor?

 

Converting the 93 to the 96 system will be a huge project. Your 93 has a pre OBD1 computer system the 96 has a OBD2 system. You will need just about everything electrical form the 96 and I do not just mean the engine stuff I mean everything. You are going to be using your shell and just about every wire in the car will need to be swapped. I think some of the lights are good be we are talk the entire dash.

Check out Socoms V8 conversion thread it will be the same amount of work. $550 is a good price but I would be a little worried about the motors condition for that cheap. $550 is cheap but it is nothing compared to the 80-100 hours of labor our going to have in the project. In the end you will wish you found the extra $400-500 and got a V8.

Grinding can be caused by a bad clutch or fail syncs in the transmission. You will have issues using any automatic with the 96 computer. Your 93's computer only controlled the lock up converter but the 96 manual computer will not do that. Plus your 93 has a detent cable that will need a mount made. That assumes you can find a torque converter that will work with a 3800 and a 93 trans.

 

Ouch well I had no idea that was so involved, I think i'll have to stick with finding a 3.4l motor. Thank you Gorn for the info....

 

3.4 liter should be easy to find