speedvisioncavalier
05-12-2003, 09:22 AM
i've done one of the swaps you are talking about. i've only done it once myself, so the years i give you will work, and others should work too. i now also have an 87 sunbird with a 2.3HO swapped in too, its basically the same situation described.
i have a 91 cavalier and i had a 91 GTZ to use as a donor car. luckily, the 91s and earlier use the front motor mount near the oil filter, and not the axial mount. my cavalier wasnt equipped with the axial side motor mount, so this made things easier.
one thing i cannot stress enough is to buy a whole donor car. you will need tons of things that are in the donor car that you will need that i will forget to mention, and you will see that its just sitting there in the donor car.
most things will bolt in physically, so no real trouble there. more on this later. the wiring is the main PITA. you need to use the quad 4 wiring harness and ECM. connecting this to the wiring harness in your current dash is up to you. its tough, and it takes tracing wires to know each of their functions. then you have the quad 4 harness run the items in your cav dash. or, you can skip all that mess, and run your own autometer gauges. you will lose the functionality of little things like check engine light, and other stuff like that.
from the winshield forward, the berettas and cavaliers are basically the same. that means you can use the same suspension spindles, but put in the HM282 axles, tranny, engine etc. the rear passenger side motor mount will bolt in. the front mount that is connected to the subframe wont bolt in, but you can put in the whole subframe from the donor car. the tranny mount for the HM282 or NV550 is in a location that the cavalier doesnt have a bracket to accept it. you need to weld in the bracket. you need to cut the old bracket out of the donor car, and weld it into your new car. this is a PITA too, but it can be done. if you have an idea of buying the bracket from GM, it will already be welded to a frame member, so you would have to cut it out anyways. may as well use the free one in your donor car.
now, once you have the engine firmly sitting in your ride by the engine mounts, you are half way there. buy new heater hoses, radiator hoses etc. you need to have either a Z24 radiator, or GTZ radiator. if you are like me, and had a 2.2 in the car to begin with, you will need to move the current radiator forward to make room for the intake, and also put the fan in front. i could have bought a Z24 radiator, but mine was new already, so i just moved it. (i have done this swap a second time, and using a 1990 calais radiator will fit in perfectly, and it sits further forward, meaning there is more room) it also uses a standard water filler neck, and not a secondary overflow/fill tank like a GTZ or Z24 would)
you need to put in the new shifter cables, but they should fit on your shifter. if not, move the GTZ shifter into your car, and it will bolt up. the throttle cable is the same situation. use the HM282 tranny clutch master and slave cylinder, and it will bolt up. mount the fluid resovoir where you find room. use some hoses from the autoparts store, and some steel piping to flare out to extend your power steering lines to the new location on the other side of the engine. you will also need to modify the connections to the fuel lines. my quad had quick connect style fuel lines, and the 2.2 cav had screw in type. i just modified the lines to make it work, but later found a 90 grand am with screw in type, so i bought its fuel lines, and now it looks more factory.
you will need to use a quad 4 or v6 specific front sway bar, because the 2.2 equipped cars had the downpipe going under the sway bar, and the v6 and quad had the exhaust downpipe going over the sway bar.
this is basically all you need to do to make it work. i took out the A/C, so you can leave it in if you want, but shouldnt be too hard to figure out.
here is a pic of the final result.
i have a 91 cavalier and i had a 91 GTZ to use as a donor car. luckily, the 91s and earlier use the front motor mount near the oil filter, and not the axial mount. my cavalier wasnt equipped with the axial side motor mount, so this made things easier.
one thing i cannot stress enough is to buy a whole donor car. you will need tons of things that are in the donor car that you will need that i will forget to mention, and you will see that its just sitting there in the donor car.
most things will bolt in physically, so no real trouble there. more on this later. the wiring is the main PITA. you need to use the quad 4 wiring harness and ECM. connecting this to the wiring harness in your current dash is up to you. its tough, and it takes tracing wires to know each of their functions. then you have the quad 4 harness run the items in your cav dash. or, you can skip all that mess, and run your own autometer gauges. you will lose the functionality of little things like check engine light, and other stuff like that.
from the winshield forward, the berettas and cavaliers are basically the same. that means you can use the same suspension spindles, but put in the HM282 axles, tranny, engine etc. the rear passenger side motor mount will bolt in. the front mount that is connected to the subframe wont bolt in, but you can put in the whole subframe from the donor car. the tranny mount for the HM282 or NV550 is in a location that the cavalier doesnt have a bracket to accept it. you need to weld in the bracket. you need to cut the old bracket out of the donor car, and weld it into your new car. this is a PITA too, but it can be done. if you have an idea of buying the bracket from GM, it will already be welded to a frame member, so you would have to cut it out anyways. may as well use the free one in your donor car.
now, once you have the engine firmly sitting in your ride by the engine mounts, you are half way there. buy new heater hoses, radiator hoses etc. you need to have either a Z24 radiator, or GTZ radiator. if you are like me, and had a 2.2 in the car to begin with, you will need to move the current radiator forward to make room for the intake, and also put the fan in front. i could have bought a Z24 radiator, but mine was new already, so i just moved it. (i have done this swap a second time, and using a 1990 calais radiator will fit in perfectly, and it sits further forward, meaning there is more room) it also uses a standard water filler neck, and not a secondary overflow/fill tank like a GTZ or Z24 would)
you need to put in the new shifter cables, but they should fit on your shifter. if not, move the GTZ shifter into your car, and it will bolt up. the throttle cable is the same situation. use the HM282 tranny clutch master and slave cylinder, and it will bolt up. mount the fluid resovoir where you find room. use some hoses from the autoparts store, and some steel piping to flare out to extend your power steering lines to the new location on the other side of the engine. you will also need to modify the connections to the fuel lines. my quad had quick connect style fuel lines, and the 2.2 cav had screw in type. i just modified the lines to make it work, but later found a 90 grand am with screw in type, so i bought its fuel lines, and now it looks more factory.
you will need to use a quad 4 or v6 specific front sway bar, because the 2.2 equipped cars had the downpipe going under the sway bar, and the v6 and quad had the exhaust downpipe going over the sway bar.
this is basically all you need to do to make it work. i took out the A/C, so you can leave it in if you want, but shouldnt be too hard to figure out.
here is a pic of the final result.