my friend has a 3400 in her grand am its a auto.....can I swap it into my 2200 sfi 2001 cavy 5 speed?.....if so any idea how long it should take for a mechanic to do for me since my tools and knowledge are limited so I would need to get this done for me.....its either this or turbo my car .....does anybody know if a swap or turbo is more expensive with me having to get both done for me by a mechanic?
On the plus side for the swap. That motor will bolt up to the 5 speed from a ln2 car. You will have to do some research in the third gen section for wiring and what computers you need to use. However a complete turbokit would yield more gains and because you have an 00-02 ln2 car you can tune the factory ecu for boost using the ld9 blower reflash via HPTuners. Now finding a complete bolt in turbo kit will be hard. Hahn racecraft used to make one but I don't know ff they do any longer.
Also spend some time reading the faq's in the boost and tuning forums so you get a better idea of what your getting into. Right now in the photos n media section there are 2 turbo ln2 threads look for "tiny update" my build and. Threads started by Matt Linke.
What are your power goals and what is your budget? That is where I would start.
Lol Id rather own the 3400 N body.
"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire
Why did you make two posts? Fail.
nigel mcdougall wrote:my friend has a 3400 in her grand am its a auto.....can I swap it into my 2200 sfi 2001 cavy 5 speed?.....if so any idea how long it should take for a mechanic to do for me since my tools and knowledge are limited so I would need to get this done for me.....its either this or turbo my car .....does anybody know if a swap or turbo is more expensive with me having to get both done for me by a mechanic?
FYI, you've got the best engine/transmission/J-body year for this swap. Aside from the exhaust, you can get this to be a bolt-in, and then it's just a matter of wiring.
As for how long for a mechanic to do it? Hard to say for sure, but I'm betting on 20 hours if he's really good, possibly 25-30 if he's decent. This isn't a motor swap you're going to find many mechanics that have any idea on, so whoever does it is going to have to spend a little time figuring a few things out. With all of the information we have compiled in the threads in the 3rd gen forum about these swaps, none of us has made an exact diagram outlining the wiring, but the basic information is there.
The one thing that you'll need to do is to get a VIN number from an 02-04 Impala with a 3400 and get the ECM flashed by a dealer for that. You'll then have to disable the auto trans codes and anti-theft from it using HP Tuners, or having a tuning shop do it.
Overall, depending on your mehcanic, the swap should still be cheaper, but with both of your options, you're going to need to involve tuning (the 3400 will just require what I mentioned above, but if you're going to hook up to tuning software, you might as well tune the engine a little better anyway). Don't ignore this step, particularly with the turbo.
