96 GT swap 03 PI Motor

Labora said:

My friends 1996 GT Vert has sprung a leak from the intake. He has acquired a 03 GT motor with 40k~ miles on it and we plan to swap it out completely. Crate motor comes with complete engine harness (no computer harness) and still has the coil on plug. No front end brackets and still has the intake to exhaust manifolds.

What is needed to get this running as quickly as possible?

What is involved/changed with switching from coil on plug to the mounted coils like the 96 uses? I assume this is something that will require more work then it is worth.

Is there any difference in the crank trigger (or whatever the motor uses for timing) due to the coil on plug?

Would it be faster to use the harnesses off of the 96 motor? If so what will this leave to be dealt with that the 96 does/doesn’t have?

Thanks for any help!

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I recently installed a 2001 engine into my 96 GT. Here are the changes that I made;I used the 96 engine harness which reuses the 96 coil & plug wire set up. The oil pressure sending unit below the oil filter will need to be used from the 96 engine. The 96 oil pan has a plug for the low oil light which the 01 doesn't. I used the 01 oil pan & tied the plug off to the side. The timing chain covers are different but the power steering pump & A/C compressor mount in the same location. I used the one from the 01 engine. You will need to use a belt for the 03 model. I had the upgraded crossover on my 96 intake that I swapped over to my new one. If you are using the 03 intake, you will need to drill & tap one hole for one of the temp sensors in the crossover. You will also need to change the heater core hose that connects to the piping under the intake to the heater core itself. Just one, the other is the same. These are very minor changes to do to make this install work. I used the 96 exhaust manifolds because I didn't have the ones from the 01.

use a 9/16 drill bit and 3/8NPT tap for the sensor as well , I have seen some applications that the cam sensor had to be swapped over too , not a big deal though ......the 96 tune will need to be changed , mainly the timing tables are way different between the 2 cars, along with some other things like manifold volume , etc ........

I just tuned a guys 98 that swapped in a 04GT motor and the difference was great with just the engine swap , but the tuning made a huge difference as well ...