Almost finished. Got the exhaust patched back together on Thursday. The exhaust shop did a really crappy job so it'll need to be redone but it's legal. Tech drove it about 15 blocks back to the shop. There are major clearance issues between the track bar and oil pan. The 3.5L pan is really a pain in the rear end. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

So, between the oil pan and losing about 1" of clearance do to settling - didn't know the 3.5L weighted that much more than my 3.0L - there's only .5-.75" of clearance sitting flat on the ground. Not even enough to drive it back home. Friend of a friend is cutting the back off the pan and I've got new coils on the way. Should have it back to driveable next week.

Motor mount brackets were kind of a pain without direct access to a welder. We took a set of 3.0L and 3.5L motor mount brackets and separated the stand-offs from the engine plates (just snipped the Mitsu welds), swapped the 3.0L stand-offs to the 3.5L plates and welded them back together. Ended up using the existing 3.0L '97 motor mounts (rubber isolators).

On a more positive note - it runs. Started right up even with no exhaust and no O2 sensors. Sounds good!

We had to use the 3.0L throttle body, TPS and IAC. Lengthen the wire for the temperature gauge a few inches, and replace the PS belt with the one for the 3.5L. A few of the wire loom brackets needed to be tweaked just slightly. The throttle cable bracket that mounts to the manifold need to be modified just slightly so the throttle cable would reattach to the throttle body.

That's it. So far, so good. Once the pan is done and the new coils are in its test time. Keeping my fingers crossed....

Edward