I have a 2001 Monte Carlo SS and need to swap out the 3.8 engine from a 2001 SS donor car, the engine in mine has 266k miles and the doner car only has 76k.. I am going to try and unplug the main harness by the battery and remove the harness instead of fighting all the connections, this is my first time doing a engine swap where the procedure removes engine and tranny from the bottom.. if anyone could please help me with a list of what I need to unhook or remove.. I would be greatly thankful for the info.. I know I have to remove the air box, fuel lines tranny lines, brake calipers from the rotors, ac lines and pull the pipe apart at the donut gasket.. if anyone could give me any info that would help I would greatly be thankful..

 

To remove to cradle you need to separate the lower ball joints and pull axels , remove bolts from the steering rack which is easier if you remove the sway bar links. Ground wires are on lower bolts of transportation along with starter wires. Power steering pump and AC need to be removed . There's still all the electric ,cooling , fuel to remove. I'm wondering , why do all that work to pull the engine ? You can leave transmission in car and pull the engine without removing the hood and doing less work in my opinion.

 

I am sorry I did not mention that I need the tranny also because my overdrive dont work.. pretty much I would like to remove the whole frontend with struts and axels.. the main information I need is what all I need to remove and unhook before I can pull the body up and switch it with the other one I have.. I have to remove it also from the donor car I bought.. is it possible to pull out the motor and tranny together without removing the hood? if the motor and tranny can be pulled out together would that still be less work? if so I would need to know what I need to remove and unhook to do it that way.. I know I need to unhook fuel lines, unplug the engine harness by the battery, remove and hang the power steering, remove the AC and the starter, unhook the exhaust, heater hoses, radiator hoses, unplug tranny harness, throttle cables....

 

If you're dropping the engine and transmission out the bottom as a unit I already gave most of the information in the prior reply. A couple things to add are the struts , brakes and rotors can stay in the car during the removal of the cradle. But keep in mind you will need to lift the car about 4+ feet off the ground to get the engine,transmission assembly out from under the car. I have never pulled the assembly out the top before but imagine it's possible. I have separated them before and pulled both out the top with no issues. I guess if it was myself I would still take them out the top because of lifting the car without a hoist so far to clear the engine. If it was only the transmission the car doesn't need to be raised so high . Good luck