55.2-59 What’s the most practical way to swap engines?

[Phungki]

Originally Posted by joedoh

do you mean cheapest or literally the most practical? I dont want to assume one or the other but a lot of people use "practical" when they mean "cheapest"

the most practical way would be to buy a complete donor like mikebte suggests and take out every single part you need to swap over. I have a theory that a wiring harness/drivetrain doesnt inherently KNOW what chassis it is installed in, it just looks for certain inputs, and if you can make sure it has those inputs you will have a working system even with it laying on the ground. in aerospace they call it an "iron bird".

then look at what you cant reuse but need to. for example your donor may be a column shift auto but you cant add that to your stock column. your donor may be EFI but needs the harness pared down and a different gas tank with the same pump. lines may not switch over.

the easy part is mounting, buy or more likely build the mounts.

I looked this morning on cl and found many possible donor vehicles with the engine/trans combo I think I want. Even auto with shifter on the floor which I want. What I’m wondering is about the wiring. They sell new harnesses for these truck. The newer the donor truck the more dependent on computer crap. Is there a range of year I should be looking for in a donor? What I want is minimal issues with a new harness and a donor drivetrain. I know I’ll have some.
By practical I mean what makes the most sense. What’s going to be the easiest. I’m in no hurry to have my finished project. This is just something to put my head into and take it off of the normal issues with life. I guess I would call it a hobby.
Thank you
Jason