New member with a poor running '89 camaro 2.8L

[sharkey]

a tpi 350 with a cam and a slight bit of porting will easily get you that. hook it to a 700r4 and itll be a nice combo. just make sure the motor/wiring/ecm comes from something with a 5 speed or a 700r4, and not an electronic controlled 4l60e, or else you will need the 4l60e tranny to keep the ecm out of limp mode.

[DazzlinDave]

Decided to go with a 3.4L from a 95 'bird

I got the engine,wiring harness and ecu from a wrecker.Main reason for this was time...not enough of it to please the smog police.

Any ways, just a couple of questions for everyone
1) will my vats still work with the newer ecu, or will I need to change the key.If I need a new key, how do I get the resistance for it? The wrecker doesnt have it.

2) The plenium on the 3.4 is diffrent than the 2.8 mpfi. Do I reuse the 2.8 intake system or is there away of using the 3.4 intake? Looks to me like the throtttle cable system is totally diffrent.

3) How can I tell before changing the ecu if I need it? The shop doing the transplant figures I can reuse my original.

Many thanks !!

[geoffinbc]

So you got a 3.4L did you? Well it should be quite an easy sway. The way to make it most direct would be to use the 2.8L accessories and swap it all over to the 3.4L. But for some added performance keep the 3.4L intake, DIS ignition and SFI. You will need to swap in the 3.4L ECM for this.

[DazzlinDave]

Still waiting on the damn shop to finish the transplant.

Dropped the car off last Monday.Friggin engine didnt show up till late Tuesday afternoon...grrr.
Checked in today, and they were just dropping the mill in ! Asked why the holdup....they tell me they got busy on other peoples cars.WTF, I say..cant you get busy on my car? Its only been here for 7 days. Guess I pay you at least 7 days after I take the car home... That got 2 people working on it right away
ETA is Monday afternoon or so they say....ya right

[DazzlinDave]

update

Well, got the car back about a week ago..been to busy to post an update.

Not very happy with the shop. What they did was reuse the lower manifold and plenum off the 2.8, as well as the injectors.Damn car runs just as crappy as before, except there is no blow by. They tell me it has a slight miss in it...I re-explain what I wanted them to do was install the computer,wiring harness, and the complete 3.4.....that way I have a nice running engine,etc. Now I have old injectors, the f%%king distributor, and a mess on my hands again. At this point, I am spitting fire, so I pay them for what they did, and ask for the left over parts. Not to my surprise, the coil packs "disappeared or were'nt shipped ( bullshit ) ", and the lower 3.4 manifold has disappeared...........pfffft

Anyways, can anyone tell me if the plenum from the 3.4 will work on the 2.8 lower? If so, what injectors will I need. Looking at ' Better than You's ' site, he talks about injectors from a 4.3 (? ). If thats still correct, will any year do ?
Or, would I be better off changing the puter/harness,egr,etc and finding another set of coil packs? This much I should be able to get away with.I live in an apartment complex, and the rent bitch freaks even if I pop the hood to check the oil. I can sneak some minor work past her though .
Thanks for listning everyone

[sharkey]

as far as i know, the entire intake from the 3.4l must be used as one peice.

anyways, if you do the wiring harness and computer swap, you will need to get the 3.4l injectors and coilpacks. you should be able to use the 3.4l injectors in the 2.8l fuel rail, so in all reality, you could keep the 2.8l plenum and use the 3.4l coils and injectors with no problems, and it should run just fine.

btw, was the 3.4l originaly hooked to an auto??? if so, you may have some problems with the 3.4l ecm. it is designed to run the electronicly controlled 4l60e trans, and if its not hooked to that trans, it will send the ecm into limp mode.

[DazzlinDave]

Yes, the 3.4 trans was an auto. Its from a 95 'bird, but not sure what style it was.I can keeep the old puter..doesnt matter at this point.Just need to have it running good for now. Guess I'll try and figure out what injectors to use then with the old intake system.Should be able to wire up coil packs into the original '89 harness somehow, but not cruical at the moment either ( I hope).
Thanks for your time

[sharkey]

to run the coilpacks, you will need the 95 ecm and wiring.

in order to run the 95 ecm, you will either have to get a 4l60e trans or else find a manual ecm and wiring. the problem with the auto ecm is if it does not see the 4l60e, it will go into limp mode and run horribly. the 4l60e is all electronicly controlled by the pcm.

if you use the 89 harness, you will need to stick with the distributor. being your having the same problems with the new motor, it has to be something in the ignition/fuel system. id say start off with some new injectors. the 2.8l injectors are good for about 15lb/hr but not good enough to run the 3.4l, so you could be running lean and causing problems. i would try the 3.4l injectors and see if they make a difference.