I am currently swapping a 3.5L out of a '95 SR into my '89 Gen 1. I'm not too terribly far into the process, but I'm feeling good about how things are going, and thought it was about time to start documenting it. Overall, it's been fairly straightforward...there are some fitment issues, but I consider them minor. I haven't yet run into any "show-stoppers".


The only firewall clearance issue I've run into so far is just to the left of the brake booster (facing it). The doubler for the steering column needs to be trimmed a bit, and the firewall needs to be hammered back...though, there is nothing behind it, so it is a pretty easy task. It's pretty ugly, but I figured I'd make sure everything fit before I made it pretty...even though it will be impossible to see.


The next clearance issue is with the oil pan. It hits the front axle, and the axle-crossmember mount. For now I have just cut out the interfering sections, and will weld in patches later. This too was easy, neither location interfered with the oil pickup. At the moment this picture only shows the first cut, but I will get an updated pic posted.


Neither the Gen 1 or Gen 2 engine mounts will work, so I'm currently working on making a hybrid of the two. I've cut the Gen 2 mounts and am just using the plate that mounts to the engine, and I'm using all of the Gen 1 mounts EXCEPT the plate that mounts to the engine. I haven't finished this yet, but the test fit looks good, and I just need to weld them together.




I don't have any pictures of the exhaust yet, but I've test fit the 3.5L Y-pipe and it appears that it'll work with no, or minimal modification. It seems to line up with the stock catalytic converter location and may or may not need to be shortened.

I've only done a minimal amount of work to the wiring so far. I pulled every last bit of wire out of the 95 donor, but I'm not sure how, or if, I'll use it all. At the moment all I've done is eliminate the ABS and Airbag wiring. There's some decisions to be made regarding how I'm going to go about the wiring, but really it's what I consider "the easy part"...getting the engine to physically fit seemed to be a far bigger problem.