Hey guys, I know some people want more detail into my 03 3.6 and 6t70 swapped monte so here you go
first of all, this was a pretty fun swap, and as far as I can tell I’m the first one to actually do it!
so we had a 2012 impala sitting in the yard (accident car) and I was having a lot of issues with the 3.8 and 4t65e that are original to the car
i started by stripping the 2012 almost all the way to the ground, whole interior, all of the interior wiring, I pulled the entire engine/trans/subframe assembly out the bottom of the car since I have a garage with lifts, I even pulled the fuel tank and all the the brake and fuel lines out of the car since they where all in brand new perfect condition and the fuel tank and pump have differences to the monte (mainly because the 3.6 is direct injection and has the ability to run e85 factory) once you have the interior apart you can pull the dash apart and you can actually get the whole dash and climate control box out in one piece, make sure you grab EVERYTHING out of the impala donor because almost all of it is specific to the impala dash (the ac box and all of the vents only work with the impala dash) you also have to use the impala throttle and brake panels because the 3.6 is drive by wire and the brake pedal is different with having pedal position sensors and other sensors attached to it, you also have to use the entire impala steering column becuase the flex joints are different and the column has a steering angle sensor due to the impala having stability control as well as abs and traction control, you have to use the impala shifter and all of the sensors in the center council (yaw rate and there is a sensor that detects what gear you use on the shifter itself) any thing besides seats, carpet, trim panels and stuff you HAVE TO USE. Every single wire in the inside and outside of the car is now 2012 impala wiring, none of the factory 00-05 wiring will work due to all of the plug ins being different because the impala uses can-bus and the monte using gmlan, for the doors to work and windows to operate as normal you have to use door wiring and latch from a 06-07 monte (all of it bolts directly in and plugs into the impala harness) if you want the interior lights to go off you have to keep the wiring and latches from the impala rear doors and hide them somewhere in the monte with them latched, for the outside of the car you must use the impala subframe due to all of the motor and transmission mounts being in separate areas but the subframe itself will bolt up and line up directly to the factory subframe mounts, you have to use the impala abs block and master cylinder/booster due to it being different, impala fuse box is necessary, and you will have to re wire the headlight harnesses due to the impala using different bulbs in different locations, same with the taillights. The 3.6 uses one dog bone that will mount up to the same place as the monte dog bone mounts, the radiator will have to be changed to the impala radiator as well, (in my case I’m using an impala radiator and seperate transmission/power steering cooler, I was able to keep my f body brakes but I will be upgrading to gt500 rotors and cts-v calipers, all of the monte factory wheel bearings will work with the impala stuff, none of the rear suspension needs to be changed as it is the same, you will have to use the impala air intake and box unless you make or get and aftermarket cold air intake, I will be posting more about this and posting pictures showing any differences, but everything bolted up directly and worked just fine besides the onstar and the fuse boxes inside the car (still looking for a way to mount those, will report later when I make working mounts) but as for that, that’s about it, if I remember any details I will make sure to add posts later.

 

So I know the 2000-2007 Montes are pretty much a 2-door Impala when you boil things down. And Everything I read about your swap confirms that little to nothing in the 2000-2005 body has really changed when compared to a 9th generation Impala! Not a swap I plan to mess with, but this is truly cool to see and I bet you are one of few (if not the only) person to make this swap!

Makes me wonder, if you wanted to keep a Monte dash, could enough pieces from the 2006-2007 Monte match up and still be plug and play with your donor Impala parts? Granted, good luck sourcing good 2006-2007 Monte dash parts that are not destroyed.

I enjoyed the pics/video from your other thread. It would be cool to see any pics you have from all the work you did swapping it.

So is this Monte purely a "toy" car now? Or does it still serve as a daily driver?

 

haha actually I have an 06 ss out back with a mint dash, car is wrecked though, I wanted to figure out but I just wanted to get everything to work stock for now, but there is no reason I couldn’t get the 06-07 dash to work! and for not it’s still gunna be a daily, but once I get one of the other cars back on the road I plan to do just about everything to this one (as mentioned the 4 piston 14 inch brakes in front with gxp rears) I also plan on getting full kyb agx struts, bmr rear control arms, brand new front suspension rebuild kit, and many other things like stiffening the chassis to make it fun on like an autocross or time attack setting, I do plan on keeping it able to daily drive and I do not want to strip the interior.
also, as far as I can tell, I’m the only one to ever swap the 3.6/6t70 combo into any other w body besides an impala!
but I’ve been researching these w body’s since I was 15, I got my first car, a 2000 lumina, and did all the work myself (including a few transmissions, oops haha) then I got an 06 impala, learned more from that one, and then I got this one when I was 17, did a few things to it, lowering springs and intake/exhaust and some other basic things, but I started this whole project in November (18 years old at that point) and I’ve slowly been working on it and now it’s almost complete! I was hoping to get it done on my birthday a few days ago but sadly the parts didn’t show up yet so, but I’m glad I still can say I’ve done something that (as far as I know) nobody in the world has ever done at 19! I am lucky enough to say we have basically a scrapyard becuase my uncle and grandfather have been collecting cars and working on them since they where young, we have roughly 130 cars so finding parts and buying them from my family makes it pretty simple!

 

Cool stuff! Could be a a cool Monte to show around. People who know these cars would be shocked at the drive train.

 

yeah, a lot of people didn’t get why I did it or how but it’s kinda funny when people say stuff like “wow I didn’t even know it was possible”