replacing 3.8 engine, need help

[Red ruM UnLTD]

basically, i picked up an entire wrecked camaro for really cheap, i cracked the block on my stock engine at 80,000 miles, so i'm swapping the engine/tranny (if the tranny is an m5). here are a few questions, and before you tell me to research it myself, i've already done numerous searches already on the message boards:

when pulling the engine, is it easier to take it from the top or bottom?

which pcm do i use? the old one, or the one from the new engine?

do i need to replace anything?

any experience you have would be appreciated. thanks,

Alan Crawford

[Wicked 3800 V6]

Bottom is easier if you have something to lift the car -- forklift, real lift, etc. Top is easier if you have a cherry picker, but you'll probably need to remove the hood, intake manifolds, radiator, etc.

You'll have to match the PCM to the car to the electronics. As in, keep track of sensors, TB's, BCM's, PCM's, etc so that everything works together. The longblock minus the intakes and electronics will be the same, so you could swap your I and E onto the new engine and use your old PCM. Or you could use all the new stuff, and the new PCM, but if it's a different year than your current car you could have issues.

[Red ruM UnLTD]

thanks for the info... here's the deal:

i don't have a lift, in fact, i'm doing all of this in a gravel driveway (i know, it sucks)... i'll have the cars parked next to each other, and hopefully, i'll get the cherry picker to roll on the gravel.

now, being that it's the same year car, couldn't i just use the pcm that's already in the car? it wouldn't be hard to switch it all out once the engine is out. but, i don't want to have to take apart the newer engine AT ALL. i will have to use the stock exhaust from the newer engine because i sold the headers with my turbo kit off of my blown engine. can i drop the newer engine in without haveing to unbolt the headers?

i don't want to take the time to switch over all of the sensors either, unless you think it's necessary. like i said, it's the same year car, 1998. pretty much the only sensors that will be newer will be the O2 sensors.

i don't even have the other car/engine yet, so today i started getting the blown engine ready to come out. i pulled the radiator, alternator, headers, and upper intake, just to make it easier to come out from up top. tomorrow, i'll jack up the car and unbolt the tranny and motor mounts and hopefully sometime tomorrow have the other car delivered and start on it.

so far, so good, i have pictures if anyone can help me out with hosting them, so that next time someone tries this, they can just search for this topic.

thanks again

[Coriya71]

Pulling out the top is fairly simple. Unbolt and drop the K-member just enougth to have room for the engine to get out of the engine bay (support k with a jack). If you just lower the k you don't have to disconnect the brakes or your ac lines. If your new engine is the same year as your old, then just swap the engine, leave the PCM the same.