FAQ: Series I to Series II / Series III Engine Swap

dont do it. a few extra horses with a tuning capability??I dont know? Sinister.com can reprogram your eprom chip and give you a few extra ponies to f..k around with too! and alot cheaper with beaucoup less hasslez

I'm not shyin away from this....best of the 3.8 in a very cool car. Makin it happen, thats what its about aint it..lol

I like my 95 jus the way it is. a few hundred bucks swapping out 95 bits and pieces from the series 2,about a grand or so for coilovers...im good.
I thought about it..a tight handling 95 will waste a 97 in the corners any day.just sayin...

Your ride sounds bad Robo.. I want one just like it except with a 2007 GTP motor in it

wow

Seriously..surely someones done this ..trouble uploading pictures from my phone, ill show some of the progess[b

outside of the search bar,you wont get many responses here. the idea is kicked around ad nauseam.
newbies and first time Riv buyers hop all over the internet ,tracking down the swap info,wind up here and get this---- ---- all day long. nothing personal i think, just a general " well, get to it " kinda attitude.
I wish ya luck and we all look forward to a full pictorial.

there's a lotta good information on here but most the knowledge come$ from getting some hands on it..

I know there has been a lot of talk about this, and ive read through a lot of things on here about the swap, but i still have a few questions... First off, my situation is this: I have the opportunity to get an immaculate '95 Riviera for a very very low price... But the motor is blown. I was planning on pulling the engine and trans and dropping an engine and trans from an '03 SSEI into it. I could get it along with the full wiring harness and PCM. If i had the full harness and new PCM, would the swap go smoothly for me? It seems like the biggest concern would be under-dash issues? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hey guys, I'm still alive! Just kinda ran across this post randomly and figured I'd toss a reply in here.

Back in 01 or 02? I swapped a 97 Series II Motor / Transmission into a 95 3800 Series I Riviera. I've since sold the car, and actually just recently got a call from the 3rd or 4th person to end up with it. He just had to re-build the engine, but it's still fully modded, and he plans to hot rod it a little more. Here's what I remember from the swap, but there's NO guarantees that this information is correct! It's just what I remember doing, and I could be way off.

Donor Engine and Trans: I used an Engine, Transmission and Accessories from a 97 Riviera. The motor mounts were exactly the same, and they bolted into the stock locations. The accessory drive fit the Riv engine bay with no changes, except for the AC system. I didn't hook the AC up, so you're on your own for that.

Electronics: This is where things get tough. I used an engine wiring harness from a 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix. Why? Because that's what I had sitting around, and it also places the PCM under the hood, as opposed to under the dash. I re-used the big through-dash harness connector from the stock 95 wiring, and cut / soldered all the circuits I thought would be required. It worked reasonably well, and I didn't have any big issues related to my wiring.

As for the dash, I said "fuck it" and replaced all of the gauges with Autometer gauges. You could probably make the stock ones work, but I didn't bother.

EDIT: Forgot to add, I'm pretty sure I had to swap to the 97 Riviera CV Shafts, the 95's were a different configuration, but the newer shafts worked good with the stock 95 knuckle assembly.

I don't watch the board, so feel free to toss me an email at RivMan@gmail.com if I can answer any questions!

I'm in the process of an 04 GT to CompG swap, so it's re-sparked my interest in the 3800 world!

-Rob

Rob, if you can convince the guy hot rodding the '95 to join this forum and document it for us, I'd appreciate it!