Project: Swapping 94 Gt drivetrain to 1999 V6 Vert chassis

Luckily the hardest part of the wiring mess is done. The body harness goes from the engine bay, down the length of the car and back to the trunk. But it's not really that bad, once you get into it you see it's all just plug and play.

Today was a productive day. I pulled the K member out of both cars. After I got the spindles loose from the A-arms I saw that the ball joints were completely wasted! So I spent like 2 hours going to get new ones and installing them.

The way this will work is I'll use the 99's brakes and A-arms. I'll bolt these A arms to the 94 GT K member. Reason being is the 99-04 A arms set the spindles out a little further for a wider track. Plus the bushings in the 99 arms are in much better shape.

Upon removing the 94 K member I soaked it down with greased lightning and pressure washed it. Then I let it dry, primed it and painted it white to match the car. Tomorrow I will hit it with a few coats of clear to make it easier to keep clean. Tomorrow the fuel lines and tank will be installed/swapped and the front suspension will be put back together. I'm hoping to have the car ready for the motor by the end of the day tomorrow.

There will be plenty of pics posted up tomorrow evening.

Well, the cheapest 99-04 GT I've seen was 3 grand and it had a lot of rust. Clean ones are still 5k and up. So I say since you own your 2002 already, this swap would be good for you.

I see wrecked 94/95 GTs go from 500-1500 bucks. Some scrap yards will actually bring a car to you for you to take out what you need and then come back to get the car. So there are definitely options.

Just consider that the PI motors in 99-04 GT's is much more powerful than a stock 5.0 will be. On the other hand, other than bolts ons, there's not many inexpensive mods you can do the mod motor to build a lot of power. Plus the 5.0 takes up less real estate and is easier / cheaper to work on. On top of that, the 5.0 just sounds so nice singing through a pair of flowmasters!

I'll help you any way I can if you decide to do the project. Mine will be completed within a couple days. My K member is back in and all the front suspension is back together, now I just have to install the 94 fuel system and drop the motor in. Hopefully by tomorrow evening the motor will be in it's new home.

Got lots done today. Got the entire fuel system swapped over to the vert ie: lines, tank, etc. Swapped over the entire cat-back without cutting anything. Boy was that a chore! Had to unbolt the upper control arms from the rear end and unbolt the shocks as well so the rear could drop down enough.

And if you look at the rear fascia of a new edge car and a 94-98 model, it'll look as though the 94-98's have a shorter bumper cover, but in fact they are exactly the same size (top to bottom). The tail pipes tuck under it just like they did in the 94 which is very nice since I'm not a fan of the New Edge GT cutouts.

I spent a few hours relooming the various engine harnesses and reinstalling them on the motor, along with all the accessories, brackets and headers. The car is now ready for the engine! We will drop it in tomorrow and if all goes well it will be running. Plenty of pics will be up as well.

SO CLOSE!!!

Finally, the engine is sitting in it's new home! Unless something holds me back, this car will run tomorrow.

Here's a shot of the K member after I pressure washed it and painted it white:



Here you can see the differences between the 2 fuel tanks. The one with all the crazy hoses all over the place is the 99. The 94/95 tanks are so much simpler.



K member, steering rack and sway bar reinstalled.



Here's a shot of the motor all put back together awaiting the transmission to be mated up:



Some shots of the installation in progress:







And here is the motor sitting in it's new home. It was getting hard to see, so we had to stop here.





Ran into a problem when I tried to install the overflow. The ABS pump on this car is oriented in a different position so it interfered with the overflow. I can use the V6 overflow but it will require me to relocate the CCRM. I'm going to try and mount it behind where the CAI goes, that is where the V6 CCRM was mounted.

I also broke the damn VSS on the tranny while installing the motor, so I'll have to pick up another one of those tomorrow.

Amazingly, the transmission crossmember went right in with no issue.

So tomorrow is do or die, I hope it all goes well. I will have more pics of the finished product as well as some vids.