95 360 magnum into a A body?

[71dartboy]

I have a friend whom just got a truck that has rusted to death. He wants to put the entire motor and trans into his 68 A body. Has anyone here done that? What major hurdles will we have to go through? My biggest fear is the wiring, the computer and stuff will all go right into the car but I am concerned about the ignition switch and certain features like the cruise control. Any suggestions or a good website would be great.

Bill

 

[Woods74]

Read the forum your posting in. It's all there. Every build, it's the same stuff. Over and over, like a broken record.

 

[player1up]

Bill,
Find a factory service manual for the donor.
You'll need to layout the new and old harnesses to see where to make the old harness connections to the new one.
I recommend keeping the power distribution center ( PDC ) from under the hood.
It'll make getting power to all of the new sensors easy.

I think this section of the forum is most helpful when you've decided what pieces you're using so you can ask specific questions. This will of course depend on your skill level and intended use.
Most of the information here is a bit general as there are a huge number of combinations that can range from just the engine to gauges, column and A/C stuff.

It can get a bit complex when you start thinking about cleaning up the donor harness to remove unused wires.

Have a look over the schematics for the '95 to see if it's even possible to keep the cruise control without swapping the entire drive train.
I ditched the cruise control due to the fact that on the 99, the cruise uses ( at least partially ) the ABS computer for vehicle speed and that was on the limit of what I was willing to tackle for the intended use of the car.

Schematics are only as confusing as a road map, don't let them overwhelm you.
They have numbers and colors, even intersections
The main decision is that you have to make the cutover between old and new somewhere...and that can be tricky depending on how much new stuff you're wanting to transplant.


I did a basic power train swap. Only used what was needed to run the engine / trans combo ( including the needed sensors ) .
I used the original gauges, ign switch, column etc ( you get the idea )
For the 97+ harness the power train ( MPFI and 46RE ) option as simple as:
1. Hooking up the main on the PDC to the battery ( this is why you'd want to keep the PDC )
2. Connecting the alt to the other main
3. Grounding the engine and ground section of the PDC
4. Connecting old ign switch output to switched power input on the PDC harness ( for me it was light green with black trace )
Yes, it's really that simple from a connections perspective and I have to imagine that it's roughly the same for the earlier ones.

 

[jbc426]

I bought a premade harness from Hotwire Auto. It hooked up with 4 wires. I used a PCM from a 98 2500 pick-up with a 5 speed and had it custom programed from Solo Electronics in Florida. I got a custom tune from HemiFever. Great guy to work with. Aside from a few minor issues. It was plug and play.

My big disappointment came when I found out my used motor only had 90 psi cranking compression in the #2 cylinder. The rest came in between 145 & 155 PSI. It still runs mid 13's with 3.23's and a 727.

The interesting part is designing a fuel system that doesn't have to have a half tank or more of fuel to do some spirited driving on a mountain road or a track without constant sputtering from unstable fuel pressure due to cavitation. Most baffled tanks I've seen on this site and others don't work well when you get down to 5 or even 10 gallons or less.