engine swap
 

I tried doing a search on this but wasn't able to find anything, Would it be possible to put a 1995ssei engine/drive train into a 1988le? There is a wrecking yard in town here with a wrecked 95ssei and they want $900 for the engine. Would the engine swap over, or would I have to put the tranny/drivetrain in too? I guess the biggest ? is, would it be worth the trouble or should I just buy parts for the 88 engine?

eh... there would likely be some very custom work involved. you wouldn't be able to use your stock pcm or fuel pump. don't know if the 95 pcm would plug into the 88 or not... don't have one to look at! maybe jr will pitch in soon letting you know...

personally though, I don't think it would be worth it. you can pick up an 88 for 500 bucks used, and not in all that bad of shape. 900 for a series 1 l67 with (how many miles?) is more than what I would pay as well.
but i'm picky...

900 does seem like a rip off, especially if its only the engine and nothing else. It would be a decent price for a series 2 maybe. Check ebay, u can usually find wrecked or 3800 engines on that for cheaper, unless the shipping kills you

Since you can't really do much with the 88 engine to begin with, it's probably worth putting in a much more powerfull 95ssei engine. The engine would probably fry any 88 tranny that came stock, so you should put in the 4t60-hd that the ssei comes with. Take a look at all of your mounts and all of the transplant engine tranny's mounts, take measurements and see if it will bolt up, then measure to see if your stock axles will work. Make sure get a 95 harness and pcm too. You can probably get all of that to work with the addition of a fuel pump, then it's just a matter of getting the gauges to work which might be a mess.
It's a ton of work, and requires a ton of knowlegde.
Check out www.l67swap.com i know they also talk about swapping series 1 L67's.

900 is way too much, but the idea has merit. You need the whole drivetrain (engine and trans) as well as the PCM and entire engine wiring harness.

It won't be plug and play, that's for sure. You will want to be an electrical engineer to get it all to work.. so be prepared for an electrical nightmare.

95Nasta: There is plenty for our cars. The SI parts that Doc has setup will work [some with a little modification] in our cars.. so there are some things. Maybe not as large a market as the SII, but it's there. Just a matter of how much you want to pay.


-justin

Not true.

You don't have to be an EE, but you will have an electrical nightmare. I have one of those.. and I have all the factory electronics.


-justin

the main question would be getting the new pcm in place of the old one. since they're both obd1, it's not going to be impossible to do. it might be tricky, but it really all depends.

gotta love those ambiguous statements...

anyhew, depending on how the connectors in the 88 are set up, it may be matter of near plug and play compatibility.

or, it could be a nightmare. really only one way to find out, I suppose...

not really if you have the entire harness, and the PCM they there is just the gagues to deal with