3.2l Swap Log

[vortex2450]

Good luck making it to the TSHOC meet.

Haha, your right, I've come to the realization that there is no way I can finish this in one day and be ready for the meet with has got me kind of bummed :| There is simply too much too do, too many hours of work for one person....


on That note I've also concluded that going out the top is a complete waste of time and energy without a load leveler... But I managed

Progress....


After a hard push the 3.0l and trans is in my garage and ready for a breakdown.




Here's the engine bay., I managed to keep the compressor connected after all...




I am bummed that I won't make the next Local SHO meet but I'm pumped to have this swap going/ I'm going to eat and recoup and tear the 3.0l down tonight. I am also going to drop the sub-frame and when I put the engine in I'm going to do it from the bottom.. This will make it easier for me to-replace the sway bar/ steering rack as well..

-Josh

 

[kevinspann]

You don't need a SHO to come....you should come out.

 

[SHOspazz92]

What Kevin said.

-Sam

 

[rubydist]

you can get the alternator off with all the a/c stuff connected - I've done that more times than I care to remember..... then you can remove the a/c compressor and tie it up to the radiator support and keep all the a/c lines connected and charged.

 

[vortex2450]

Hey, so I was caught up with a couple things this weekend but I'm back on top of my project.

Things have been slow going mostly due to unforeseen issues. Things like rusted, stripped, cross threaded bolts. Suspension pieces that didn't want to move for me, people moving my stuff around while I'm away... I can't catch a break.. BUT I've made considerable progress....

After a bunch of pushing and loud cussing me and a friend finally got the engine into the garage...

That night I swapped over the backing plate, timing covers, mounts, PS pump/bracket, silver 3.0l valve covers, and a couple other tid bits from the 3.2l that were in better shape...

Got the 3.0l wiring harness situated and did the the timing... took me about an hour of hit and miss but I got it to what I believe is perfect...







This is all lined up with the 3.0l marks, I didn't use the 3.2/3.0 marks on the belt, I made sure that both cams were lined up with the backing plate and then went through a process of trial and error until the crank pulley lined up the the "0" mark on the outside of the 3.0l housing and double checked to make sure cyl #1 was @ TDC.

Everything look/sound right? Just gotta ask before I put the engine in and turns out it's not, that'd be a bummer.

Onwards, after a lot of fuss, a couple bent sawz-all blades, and an angle grinder I got the 3.2 head modified to fit the 3.0 alt, I was way too tired but didn't want to go to bed until I was done... here's the result of frustration and lack of sleep...




I cleaned up the garage and went to drop the sub frame from the car when the front pass side bolt just started pinning which led me to bring out the sawz all for the 3rd time this swap .... Only problem is not the bolt is stuck in the bushing..


The SHO never gaves me a clean or easy break... I doubt I would maintain my sanity without the most important tool of alll.....



:angelnot:

Then the plastic fender shroud put up a fight coming out but I eventaully won...



And then the steering rack u-joint did not want to budge despite having removed the pinch bolt...



Solved that one with a sledge hammer. got the sub frame out and realized what a pain the A/C system is going to be when I put the engine back in from under....

It just hangs there.

I still have to deal with getting the subframe bushing free of the cut/rusted bolt but I have to push on..


The 3.2l and MTX tranny are bolted up and ready to go.. My next step is to put the new sway-bar and steering rack on the sub-frame then bolt the motor mounts to the brackets. Then put the engine/tranny on the sub frame.

-Josh

 

[lowc]

as far as the belt marks i think you will be ok but imo i think you should have used the marks. just for peace of mind.

and its coming along nicely great job

 

[vortex2450]

as far as the belt marks i think you will be ok but imo i think you should have used the marks. just for peace of mind.

and its coming along nicely great job

Well the thing is not matter how I placed the belt I could not get all three marks to line up, it was either the two camshaft pulley marks and the two 3.0 vs 3.2 marks were off or put it on the 3.0 mark and the camshaft marks were 8 teeth off. honestly a belt is just that, a belt. It has 36 teeth (180 degress /5), as long as tooth for tooth the crankshaft is at "0" when both camshafts are at "0" and cyl #1 is TDC then it could have a mark for every tooth but that doesn't change anything.. Just the way I see it though.

Anyways, My night is over and my goals are met..

I can't up load pictures right now b/c photobucket is under "maintenance; I post them when I can..

The new steering rack,sway bar, along with tie rods/ end links are on. Got the engine and tranny on and bolted up. Bolted up the PS pump and tensioner pulley then went ahead and attached and tightened up the belt. Starter is bolted up and wired.










At this point i really wish I had what I needed to delete the A/C system because I never use A/C and it'll be the hardest obstacle towards getting clearance for the engine.


Tomorrow I have to get the sub-frame on the dolly, pic up crown nuts and cotter pins for the tie rods; remove the old rusted bolt from the sub-frame bushing, buy two new bolts to replace the rusted sub frame bolts up front along with a new nut for the sub frame "nut" that rusted out and spins, install the new pass side LCA after i wrestle the old one off, attach the coil pack bracket and coil pack.

Depending on when I wake up and how much time that all takes I hopefully will be able to get a friend over to help me push the sub frame assembly out side and under the car.

Then it's a down hill slide.

-Josh

 

[kevinspann]

How did you have the belt facing? The lettering on the belt is usually "upside down" when it's on and you are looking at it from the passenger side of the car.

 

[vortex2450]

How did you have the belt facing? The lettering on the belt is usually "upside down" when it's on and you are looking at it from the passenger side of the car.

When facing the engine from the "right" (acc) side the lettering was upside down. I did it how I saw in the SHOtimes article except for the 3.0 vs 3.2 marks. I dion't see why it would matter, I just liked having the white camshaft marks on the belt in the right tooth because it made the job easier. ei

 

[lowc]

When facing the engine from the "right" (acc) side the lettering was upside down. I did it how I saw in the SHOtimes article except for the 3.0 vs 3.2 marks. I dion't see why it would matter, I just liked having the white camshaft marks on the belt in the right tooth because it made the job easier. ei

yea you have it on the right way. im surprised that it gave you such a hard time getting tthe marks in the correct spots

 

[Bob Gervais]

The lines on the belt need to be on the correct marks with the cam and crank gears.

 

[vortex2450]

The lines on the belt need to be on the correct marks with the cam and crank gears.

On the crankshaft, the 3.0l line is on the right tooth if I turn the shaft so that the belt is touching the gear. Is that what you mean?

 

[rubydist]

that would be correct.

 

[Bob Gervais]

On the crankshaft, the 3.0l line is on the right tooth if I turn the shaft so that the belt is touching the gear. Is that what you mean?

Yessir!

 

[vortex2450]

Making headway, I am having a battle with a rusted sub frame bolt but I'll figure something out... Will have some cool pictures up soon.

-Josh

 

[vortex2450]

Today was a big step towards completion.

Decided to tackle the project and pushed the sub frame assembly fully loaded across my makeshift plywood path and got it under the car...





Put about 300lbs worth of weights in the trunk for counter leverage and jacked the car up 33 inches in the air to make clearance.


had to push the assembly around a little to get it square but I made a clean install once I started lowering the car.





Turns out getting the sub frame mounts to line up with the holes wasn't a big deal but I had to replace 2 nuts, 1 bolt, and stole the best looking sub frame bushing from the parts car to make everything work out..





Here's the bushing from the front pass corner, the bolt was corroded in and refused to budge. After i cut it out with the sawz -all I soaked it wd 40 , beat on the end of the bolt, with an 8lb sledge, ground the bolt's shoulder off, nothing worked... haha


here's where I finished for the day. The car looks more like a SHO now that's it's back at a working level and is sporting a fresh engine




I went ahead and got the A/C comp on so I could get the done and out of the way...



photobucket is obviously not up right now but I will put up the pics as soon as they are.

tomorrow I am finishing this swap. The only battle I have left is pulling the old pass LCA off and putting the new one on. From there it's just a matter of routing/mounting/connecting/ and wiring everything back together.


Hopefully I'll be posting a start up video in the next 24 hours

-Josh

 

[vortex2450]

still wrenching away, I have some issues/questions..

With the battery cable connections, the positive shares the terminal on the starter with the positive that runs to the power distribution box correct? And the ground goes on the transmission bolts with the second 15mm nut?


When reconnecting the steering rack to the steering column, is there a magic technique or just grease the **** out of it and use what force I can while upside down under the dash? lol

Lastly but not least, I CAN NOT get the LCA off of the long bar protruding from the sub frame, I've wailed on it with the 8lb sledge, yanked, pulled, even tied a ratchet strap to it but I just doesn't budge.

EDIT: got the LCA thanks to some advice from mr. zachwright, still looking for adivce on the steering column u-joint


-Josh

 

[vortex2450]

I am so close to completion I cant' contain myself...

Went hard today and completely buttoned up everything in the engine bay.

Started with attaching everything to the driver side knuckle. Axle, tie rods, end links, etc, etc. Only thing left is too get the ball joint back in, it's a two man job as far as I can tell.



got the alternator on and ready, had to back track when I discovered two loose bolts on the bracket. :frantic:



Made my way around to the pass side, put the axle back in, got the shroud back in place , and put the strut/knuckle assembly back in (not pictured)



That black socket set is the best investment I ever owned..

Worked my way up, go the shifter assembly back in, extended the oil sensor wire, attached the plumbing for the oil pressure gauge made sure all the sub frame/motor mount bolts were solid. allot of other stuff.

I also saved myself some time, I had stripped the 02 sensor bung on the y-pipe but thankfully there was still 3-4 thread in the back so I ground the bad threads away...



And good as new, I felt really proud that I managed to save the bung



And here's the bottom all buttoned up, y-pipe installed with new o2 sensors.



And about 5 hours later the engine bay is complete!!



Unfortunately I have a bad battery connection and the radio barely managed to stay on but I was way too tired to tackle it so I'll hit it fresh in the morning..

This is really exciting, I can't believe I made it through, it's a rewarding experience going from a $hit ton of scattered parts to a complete machine...

My on hope is that someone will search and find this thread and it will give some insight into the swap. It was a ton of work for me, but I hit a lot of issues and also had to strip down the 3.2l from everything...

Anyways, no start up vid yet, but it's coming real soon.

-Josh

 

[zach44102]

man we are neck and neck.

 

[vortex2450]

man we are neck and neck.