It's on the road! Finally! Step one of my incredible 'Two Step Process' is finally completed. It's really strange to open the hood and see nothing different. It looks EXACTLY the same as the 3.0L except it's cleaner. Weird.

After running it for twenty miles in stop and go traffic in 85 degree weather up to 45 MPH I fired up my OBD II scanner to check out the computer - my primary worry with this swap. Fuel trim, O2 sensors, etc. are all reading what they're supposed to be reading. The next step will be testing at highway speeds - 70-75 MPH - and higher RPMs.

The only issue so far is the temperature dash gauge. For some reason it's reading higher than it should at a specific temperature. The sensors are the same for the 1997 3.0L and 2002 3.5L and the engine isn't running as hot as the gauge says so I suspect it may be due to the extension of the wire. At least that's my best guess at this point. ???

The extra torque is definitely noticeable. It doesn't accelerate much differently from a stop but it's easy to tell that the engine doesn't have to work nearly as hard to get 5500 lbs moving. I can accelerate in fourth gear up hill starting at 2000 RPM. With the 3.0L that was impossible.

Next step is the suspension and oil pan modification/whatever. Once the suspension is back where it should be and the pan is out of the way it'll be time to take it off road. Can't believe the 3.5L SOHC is that much heavier than the 3.0L SOHC. Hmmmm.

Edward