UPDATE: 3800 sunfire swap

[Christ]

From what I hear, the gearing is /longer/ in OD for the T5 2.2 version. The bell for the 2.2 also bolts to the 3.1/60* family [again, what I hear] and if not, I can pull the motor with a bell as well to fix that issue. [T5 is a 3 piece trans].

If it turns out that I can't make it work like that, then I move into diesel territory with either a 4BT or a Merc 300TD and just do it up right.

[IsaacCarlson]

Sorry. I thought we were talking about a different 2.2.
If that is the same one they used in the cavalier then yes, the 3800 will bolt right up to it. You will need to get a flywheel. I think you can use a camaro flywheel and get it turned so it will work with the clutch.

A lot of things will need to be swapped around/modded because of the orientation of the motor. It should be a lot of fun.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by IsaacCarlson

Sorry. I thought we were talking about a different 2.2.
If that is the same one they used in the cavalier then yes, the 3800 will bolt right up to it. You will need to get a flywheel. I think you can use a camaro flywheel and get it turned so it will work with the clutch.

A lot of things will need to be swapped around/modded because of the orientation of the motor. It should be a lot of fun.

I don't want to muck up your thread with a bunch of unrelated data, so I"ll keep it concise in this post...

What I've gathered is that the T5's in S10s only had two gear sets, no matter what motor they were behind. Pre 92 with a short first, and post 92 with a long first. I have the latter, obviously.

This particular transmission is the stepchild design. Borg Warner didn't produce the GM-patterned gearbox mated to the forward shifter design tail housing for some reason, so GM adapted the Small Corp bellhousing to the Ford gearbox pattern. The benefit of this is that I can later swap to a T56 Ford gearbox or a Tremec T-0660 and only have to change the clutch [possibly] to get a better suited 6 speed and have 2 OD gears.

The bellhousing for the 2.2 [for some reason] has the passenger side starter position on it... they more or less used a FWD motor in this truck. What I basically need is a left-side starter [FWD] 3800SC and Camaro engine mounts [which are magically able to bolt to the 3.4/3.1/2.8 as well, apparently] and I should be golden.

Wiring is another issue. If I do an MPFI upgrade to the wiring and run a '89 GTP chip in the PCM [3.4 Turbo], I should be good to go. The other options are basically MS2 or full custom EEPROM which would require extensive wiring changes OR upgrading to the wiring and PCM from the GTP from which the engine is pulled.

It seems to be as close to a straight forward HIPO swap as you can get, in all honesty. It's a fairly hefty motor, I'll need to move some weight around to compensate, but I can handle all that.

[IsaacCarlson]

I would just move all the wiring over and get rid of anything you don't need. On my sunfire swap, the window, lock, and remote entry wires all get taken out along with a few others. The electric seat wires can go too. That will take a lot of wires out of the harness and will get rid of a few module boxes.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by IsaacCarlson

I would just move all the wiring over and get rid of anything you don't need. On my sunfire swap, the window, lock, and remote entry wires all get taken out along with a few others. The electric seat wires can go too. That will take a lot of wires out of the harness and will get rid of a few module boxes.

This one, thankfully, is a base model... no extraneous crap, so I should just be able to either use the stock harness and add a few wires here and here, or remove whatever is unnecessary from the GTP harness and run that. Either way, most of the wiring and the PCM will likely end up under the hood under a false inner fender, since I'm [eventually] slamming the truck on air and doing some other work on it.

[IsaacCarlson]

Sorry Christ, been busy. We started raising pastured pigs. I have messed with the sunfire a little, but not like I want to. I still don't have the motor in it. I have been refining my plan and trying to figure out what to do. I was sorely tempted to make it a mid engine, but I would have lost the back seat. Having a family makes the back seat sort of important. It would have been awesome as a mid engine.

I have been working with the geometry on the sub frame and will most likely be splicing the 2 together so I have the trans mount pocket, steering rack, and front member from the olds. The rest will be from the sunfire. This will allow a bolt in fit while giving full support to the front end. Yeah, it'll be a bit of work, but it will make everything easier later. The steering on the olds has a better ratio for manual steering.

I have 2 brand new axles from a grand am or something, I just know they fit. They were cheaper than the rebuilt ones. I sold the seats from the olds, so now I have a ton of room to work on wires. The radio dropped right into the sunfire, so I will have some good quality audio. I drilled a hole for the peg and viola.

I will be putting the olds fuel pump in the sunfire tank or possibly making a new tank and getting a universal pump. I would have to cut/solder the tubes on the olds pump to make it fit, but that is small beans.

The heater lines have to go in the a/c line spot, or the exhaust will hit/melt them. I don't need a/c in it. The truck does not have a/c and the sunfire has a sunroof, so the air movement is generous.

I might upgrade the brakes if I can find something that will bolt in. Either way, they need to get replaced. I will be installing some sort of sway control for sure.

Sorry for the delays.

[backpacker3]

Cool build. Hope you get to finish it soon I have a feeling you will probably be getting 40 mpg as a baseline from what I'm reading.

[IsaacCarlson]

That "should" be my baseline.

I was able to hit 46 mpg in the olds with all the aeromods and eco-driving, so 50 mpg might not be outside the realm of possibilities with the proper applications of ecomodding knowledge.