No0b, question about 4cyl to 5.0 swap

ben..

New Member
Jul 30, 2005
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There is a 90 4cly with a bad engine for sale for 250 bucks locally, and a 89 gt that the guy slid sideways into a pole on some ice for like 1500. The 4cyl is a AT. How hard would the 89 to 90's swap be? About how long would it take about? (I've got a fair bit of automotive knowledge, replaced a clutch on my impreza and stuff, got power tools) Could I just swap the wiring harness and plug everything in or what?

Would I have problems passing emmisions with a 89 engine in a 90's car?
 
dont know about the emissions but heres the real deal on swaps..

your going to have to replace every piece of wiring, even the dash, then replace the rear end, motor/trans, and the dash to.. if there both auto then your in luck.. if not then god help you.. your in trouble if you plain on puttin a 5spd in the 4 banger bein a auto.. make sure to tape all the plugs up with plastic bags and duck tape to keep moisture out.. if not then you have to test all the lil pins in side it.. your better off buyin both and fixing the gt's body.. if you have such automotive "SKILLZZ" then you should know how to fix the body damage.. unless its slap bent in a right angle lol just take the parts of the 4 banger and plow em on the GT to make a complete running and straight bodied car.. My 2 cents

PS- i wanted to do a swap.. trust me its not worth it.. unless your absolutely desperate and your impatient then do it... i look foward to seeing all the questions entitled "why wont this work" lol jk
 
Dont' just take one persons opinion as gospel. Alot of poeple have done it and it is a route worth considering if you have a complete 5.0 donor car. Yes there is alot to do, but if you have all the stock brackets from the donor car it mostly be bolt for bolt.

I don't get the comment on having to test each pin in every plug.
 
lol, mad skillza yo, you don't even know.

The wiring harness wouldn't just swap over?

There's a few cars locally that I like the looks of, a basically stock 90 5.0 lx and a pretty modded 87 coupe converted to MAF. Guess I should just look into those more.
 
Thenemesis said:
dont know about the emissions but heres the real deal on swaps..

your going to have to replace every piece of wiring, even the dash, then replace the rear end, motor/trans, and the dash to.. if there both auto then your in luck.. if not then god help you.. your in trouble if you plain on puttin a 5spd in the 4 banger bein a auto.. make sure to tape all the plugs up with plastic bags and duck tape to keep moisture out.. if not then you have to test all the lil pins in side it.. your better off buyin both and fixing the gt's body.. if you have such automotive "SKILLZZ" then you should know how to fix the body damage.. unless its slap bent in a right angle lol just take the parts of the 4 banger and plow em on the GT to make a complete running and straight bodied car.. My 2 cents

PS- i wanted to do a swap.. trust me its not worth it.. unless your absolutely desperate and your impatient then do it... i look foward to seeing all the questions entitled "why wont this work" lol jk
not as hard as your making it out to be................what does it matter about the trannys????a buddy of mine just did a turbo chicken swap into another 4-banger frame.rewired the ecu harness and swaped it onver to a T-5. his rear end talks a bunch of $hit when he gets on it.
 
the swap isnt that hard at all. The trannies can be a pain just because you need the pedals for a 5 spd. I dont think the underdash wiring needs to be touched unless you are swapping a 93 into an earlier version or vice versus. You do need to swap all the engine harness and computer. Check my sig. I have done it and I love my car. 250 for one 750 for the other....... $1000 for a 5.0 that pounds the ground it runs on. of course the extra bolt ons were extra$$. I say do it. It is a great experience. I would check around on the underdash wiring though.
 
tbadair said:
The trannies can be a pain just because you need the pedals for a 5 spd.

yep thats all im gettin at there.. sorry abotu the comment i didnt mean to make it sound.. rude or anything like that.. all im sayin is its alot of tedious work and if it doesnt come out right and it has to do with wiring then you have to go back over all of the wiring to check it out.. but bc the cars a 90 the 89 harnes will be different.. so in turn you must swap the dash harness to make it work out right.. 90-93 is different than 87-89.. i was gonna do a swap and found this out, so it kinda knocked me back a bit

If you want to learn the inside and outside of the car.. and know what you did here and there.. then thats your path so you can KNOW the car once your done. all im gettin at is its got alot to swap over.. basically everything off the other car except for some general pieces that are same years..

once again sorry about the comment, didnt mean to make it come off sounding rude, obviously you have alot of people sayin go for it.. to bad nobody said that to me lol i was told to just find a GT :shrug: o well good luck dude

PS- the pin testing is if moisture gets into them.. and if something is wrong and moisture got into the socket, then it causes the pins to go bad so you have to test each individual one to make sure it works.. what i've been told by so many others..