V6 to V6 swap in 1986 Firebird

[ndfirebird]

I have a 1986 firebird with the 2.8 in it. Currently, it has 165,xxx miles on it, and I want a *little* more power. I want to put a 3.1 from a 90s grand am (FWD) in it, but obviously the starter is on the wrong side of the engine for my tranny. Can I move the starter to the other side? What else should I take into consideration before I begin this swap?


Thanks,

ndfirebird

[patgizz]

take into consideration that it'll be a bitch and a half to modify the FWD motor, and find a RWD 3.4 from a 4th gen and use that?

[WhiteRaider]

You've got a couple of problems with the FWD engine. The plenum is facing the wrong direction. I've heard that it is symmetrical and can be rotated 180 degrees, but I haven't researched it much.

The main problem for you is going to be that the engine mounts are different. You're going to have to get a new set of mounts and weld them to the frame. The only place I've found that fabricates them is killerbv6.com .

The starter hole can be redrilled easily with a hand drill... very carefully. The Firebird/Camaro 3.4l swap is popular with the Isuzu guys who have the starter on the drivers side. They have to drill the block to accept the starter there since the RWD engines have the starter hole on the pass side. It's a problem, but not a huge one.

I'm sure there are a bunch of other things I'm missing. That site I mentioned, killerbv6, has the parts you would need, but I think you'd spend less $ and have a lot less work by going with a drop in 3.4l from a 93 - 95 Camaro.

It's not even close to a drop in swap if you want to use a fwd 3.1. It may be doable, but it seems like a lot of work for something like that. If you are going to go through all that work, it might make sense to buy a post2k 3x00 engine for some real power gains.

If you've got some duckets to throw around, I think you can get a brand new 3.4 crate engine for about $2k.