my head gasket went out two weeks ago and after much thinking and head ache i have decided to swap teh engine, i wanted a low milage engine from a 98 or 99. this junk yard has one with less than 50,000 miles. hes charging me $700 for the engine and $300 to install it, $1,000 flat, no taxes. I decided to get it, i paid half and i sent my car off to get its heart transplant,
well there are certain things that i wanna know,
1) how do i get my gauge to show the milage of the engine and not the milage of that car? ( if possible lol)
2) I wanna get a gauge cluster from a 99, but its digital and my present one is analog, do they just interchange with no modifications?
3) when the swap is done what do i look for that will assure me that i had a good job done.

also i want any pointers and suggetions from anyone who has experience or knows anything about engine swap.

thanks in advance to my beloved org family

 

$300 to install is a cheap price. I think he's running a little game, I think the engine doesnt cost that much but he made the price higher in order to make the labor seem like dirt cheap.

When you get your car back it wont reflect the milage of the new motor, it will still show the old milage. You'll have to go to the dealer in order to get it properly adjusted.

THe digial guages will require some re-wiring, nothing too intense but it wont reflect the proper milage either. Once again you'd need to go to the dealer to get it properly set to the right milage.

When you drive the car, if it starts up fine, dives fine, doesnt overhead, etc you should be fine. You'll have to monitor the car for a couple of months to see. Check the oil regular to make sure its not burning any. Check coolant levels. A compression check would definately let you know the health of the new engine.

I think overall $1k for a motor installed is a decent price. but I know our engines even with low milage sell for around $300-$600.

 

just so you know, it's a federal offense to tamper with the odometer reading regardless of how many new engines you put in. the only way to do it legaly is to register your car as tmu..true mileage unknown. that would severly hurt the cars resale value. when you go to inspection and your car has less miles on it than the last time, they might screw you. if they dont record the mileage in your state and if it's never been recorded anywhere else, dealer. ins. co. etc, you might get away with it....good luck

 

its an offense if you try to tamper with it, but if you have a dealer do it, its leagl that way right? Cause they'll probably make a not on your vin number that the milage has been changed.

I'd say dont worry about adjusting the milage on the odo to the engine. As nice as it would be, you'd be forgetting about the milage on the car, on the body.

 

i think the only way the dealer will do it is if your odometer is broken, they will install a new one and set it to the mileage from the broken one, not any less. and it requires a certification and a sticker from the dmv that they usualy put in the driver side door jam.

it would be great to lower the mileage, especialy if you were rebuilding most of the car, but i realy dont think you can do it.

 

jus remember how much was on there when motor was put in and count from there. unless you are like me and hate the way big numbers look

 

dont tamper with the mileage is a criminal offense no matter who does it. Dealers are not allowed to change it, you arent allowed to change it and the government cant cant change it

 

well that clears it up.

 

You might want to hang on to the coils from your 96 if you're getting a 99 with the notorious bad coil packs.

Leave the odometer as is, the motor receipt should show the engine mileage, just write down your cars mileage on there for resale purposes. Good luck

 

i ended up getting a 96 engine with less than 50,000 miles istead of the 98/99.
thanks guys, i saw too many 'ILLIGAL', 'FEDERAL OFFENCE', 'CRIMINAL OFFENCE', i am sure to leave my odometer alone.
do you all have any other advice, or experience with engine swap?

 

SCREW YOU FBI I CHANGED MY ODO WHAT NOW BEOTCHES
whitegauges on a gle to HHAHAAHHAHAHAHAAH i bet I get life sentence for white face gauges
. .. ******* feds


it was broken what was i supposed to do?

 

lol

 

When i got my engine i paid 350 for it with 40k for a 96. I paid about 1200 total with install new belts, new tranny fluid, oil new coolant etc ....

 

Good for you how much did this one work out to? You should sell your old coils lot's of people looking for them especially 99'rs

 

so my coils are not likely to go out anytime soon, so i wont be needing them for back-up right?

 

umm . . . were refering to the milage on the odometer, not the actual guages.