Motor swap issues

Larry85326

Larry85326

Active LVC Member
Joined
May 8, 2021
Messages
119
Reaction score
26
Location
Az. Usa
I have a 01 V8 that I blew the motor on. I had got a rebuild motor with no miles on it for a 02. We got them switched out but my problem is the transmission when you bolt it to the block the motor will not turn over. I used my old trans from the 01. If you have any ideas I would greatly appreciate the help it's been a month now and I have done all I know how to. Please help I have service manuals and all the tools I want my car back
 
Did you mess with the shifter cable during R&R of the engine... or maybe damage the transmission range sensor. (neutral switch)

Try jockeying the shifter between gears while holding the key in the "start" position. If you get it to turn over... the cable needs an adjustment or range sensor (or both).
 
Yes. We pulled motor and transmission out together so we would have messed with the cable. That would make it not turn over like the motor is seized? Not trying to sound stupid but (ok yes it is a stupid question) that would make it not turn at all. With a socket on the crank pulley? I hope that is it I'll try that but if we loosen the bell housing bolts the motor will turn over by hand .
Thank you for your help I really hope this works. If not any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated. You guys here seem to know your stuff only reason I come here to get the right answers thank you very much.
 
Larry85326 said:
the motor will not turn over
Click to expand...
Sorry... I took that as the starter wouldn't engage/turn the engine.


Larry85326 said:
I hope that is it I'll try that but if we loosen the bell housing bolts the motor will turn over by hand .
Click to expand...

That means you didn't get the notches on the torque converter nose aligned with the slots in the transmission pump (inside the front of the tranny around the input shaft)... and the torque converter is not seated all the way in... putting everything in a bind.

Hopefully you didn't damage the transmission pump (and/or input shaft seal).

2nd idea.... Are you sure the engine was bad? You mentioned a severe transmission leak. Are you sure the tranny (pump) didn't seize up due to lack of fluid?
 
Last edited:
Here I'll give you a rundown of it all.
About a month ago on my way home from work. Car was over heating down the high way ( I will admit it yes I was pretty hard on my car with 167,000 ) I seen temp go from mid way to 3/4 fast and in my attempt to get over to full hot the motor started knocking hard. I waited about a hour to cool and AAA to show they towed me home and I started the car to pull it in my parking spot.started fine sounded funny and shut it off. I get up the next morning for work and I start it again. Fill the block and degass with fluids and the grinding of 2etals as I turn the key 3 BBs in a coffee can is all I herd MOTOR TOASTE.
So I look in Offerup and God blessed me with Kev who has a 02 motor and trans for sale $250 motor so clean you can eat off of I bought it bring it home and it turns by hand plugs in it fine not knowing really it sat 3 years in storage under cloth not plastic but clothe pull the motor and trans from my car. ( You need to see the photos of this shit SKETCHEY) take old motor and trans apart and mate up new motor to old trans not easy fighting all the way ( this is going to be were you tell me I f'ed up ) got them in to the car and now motor won't turn over by hand thinking motor is junk call Kev back talk to him he tells me no it should be fine so I pull all the plugs fill the plug holes with Marvel mystery oil and let it sit a week. Nothing. So we undo the bell housing bolts and back off trans about a inch motor turns over fine put bolts back in Nothing, and now this is where I am on my knees praying to LVC god's for help help.
Ok so now your telling me that I should drop trans and realign the torque converter and hope I didnt REALLY F**K UP?.
Ok so if I messed up my 01 trans will the trans from the 02 work in my car ? Not sure if it was a SST t
 
Larry85326 said:
Here I'll give you a rundown of it all.
About a month ago on my way home from work. Car was over heating down the high way ( I will admit it yes I was pretty hard on my car with 167,000 ) I seen temp go from mid way to 3/4 fast and in my attempt to get over to full hot the motor started knocking hard. I waited about a hour to cool and AAA to show they towed me home and I started the car to pull it in my parking spot.started fine sounded funny and shut it off. I get up the next morning for work and I start it again. Fill the block and degass with fluids and the grinding of 2etals as I turn the key 3 BBs in a coffee can is all I herd MOTOR TOASTE.
So I look in Offerup and God blessed me with Kev who has a 02 motor and trans for sale $250 motor so clean you can eat off of I bought it bring it home and it turns by hand plugs in it fine not knowing really it sat 3 years in storage under cloth not plastic but clothe pull the motor and trans from my car. ( You need to see the photos of this shit SKETCHEY) take old motor and trans apart and mate up new motor to old trans not easy fighting all the way ( this is going to be were you tell me I f'ed up ) got them in to the car and now motor won't turn over by hand thinking motor is junk call Kev back talk to him he tells me no it should be fine so I pull all the plugs fill the plug holes with Marvel mystery oil and let it sit a week. Nothing. So we undo the bell housing bolts and back off trans about a inch motor turns over fine put bolts back in Nothing, and now this is where I am on my knees praying to LVC god's for help help.
Ok so now your telling me that I should drop trans and realign the torque converter and hope I didnt REALLY F**K UP?.
Ok so if I messed up my 01 trans will the trans from the 02 work in my car ? Not sure if it was a SST trans or not my car is NOT a SST car it's a base I don't think SST. came out until 02 anyways but if it is a SST will it work in my car what do I do here you know everything I do now . Please help me I $2000 down on cash and going very bald but I won't give up my car I can't I love this car to much to part ways with it .if I can send photos I will if not sorry. Please LVC God's help.
Click to expand...
 
Larry85326 said:
Ok so now your telling me that I should drop trans and realign the torque converter and hope I didnt REALLY F**K UP?.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately... yes... by the sounds of what you are saying.

Torque converter is attached to the engine. When the engine is running... the torque converter turns the pump to circulate the fluid in the transmission.

The torque converter has notches in the nose... and has to be rotated to be lined up ("keyed") with the slots in the pump.

Larry85326 said:
So we undo the bell housing bolts and back off trans about a inch motor turns over fine put bolts back in Nothing
Click to expand...

Yup... the torque converter wasn't "keyed"/"clocked" to the transmission pump... so when you tightened the bolts to the engine and transmission... you put everything in a bind.

Was there any damage done??? You won't know until you get everything bolted up properly and run the engine, or try to drive it.

Sorry to be the bearor of possibly bad news.
 
Will the other trans Kev has... work? Don't know. He will be the one to tell you if the trans he has is SST.

Worse case scenario with Kev's trans... is that you may have to swap out the valve body and solenoid pack to convert it to SST.

Edit:

Most likely just the solenoid pack... but not sure.
 
Last edited:
Thank you so much for the help I figured as much as swapping out trans I hope that maybe we got lucky and not done damage but like you said won't know until we get it to start up.
So if the 02 trans is a SST not a base like mine then we can swap out valve body's or convert my base to a SST trans ( I would like that )
 
No... I don't think you will be able to convert to SST if your LS didn't originally have it. I suspect it won't have the proper wiring (or programming/PCM)... but I could be wrong.
 
Larry85326 said:
Thank you so much for the help I figured as much as swapping out trans I hope that maybe we got lucky and not done damage but like you said won't know until we get it to start up.
So if the 02 trans is a SST not a base like mine then we can swap out valve body's or convert my base to a SST trans ( I would like that )
Click to expand...
The valve body is exactly the same for SST and non-SST. It's the same transmission. That's been discussed several times.
The only difference is the shifter in the car and the programming in the PCM. (It will mostly work with the wrong programming, just the lower gear selections will be wrong.)
 
How so do you mean the lower gear selection will be wrong? It will still drive correct? If not then I'm not going that route. I'll try to find where it's been dicused to get answers also. But still am very curious as to why it won't work. Thank you again
 
Larry85326 said:
How so do you mean the lower gear selection will be wrong? It will still drive correct? If not then I'm not going that route. I'll try to find where it's been dicused to get answers also. But still am very curious as to why it won't work. Thank you again
Click to expand...
Yes, it will drive correctly. There are several threads on here about this, as early on, several LS owners swapped the normal shifter out for the sport shifter. Again, this has absolutely nothing to do with the transmission, and everything to do with the shifter inside the car. Your current transmission (if it still worked) would work in sport mode if you changed the shifter. It's just a matter of having the switches for manual mode and up and down shift. Without programming, the D5, D4 positions will not be D5 and D4. I forget which gears they would be instead, but probably 3 and 2 or 2 and 1.
 
1st, for the motor/trans, check out videos on installing a torque converter. There's three engagements that must be made to ensure the torque converter is fully seated. It can easily slip forward if the trans is moved or tilted. Also check the service manual on transmission R&R - the process is pretty specific for lining up the torque converter to the flexplate. Does it really matter? Maybe, maybe not. I just found it unusual.

Like Joe said, this has been discussed. Back in 2010 I used an old thread to convert my '02 to a SST shifter. It's on here somewhere.... Just need to move a few wires in the connector. Everything works correctly EXCEPT the "D4" position on the shifter gets interpreted as "3". So you cannot select "D4" normally. It'll also confuse anyone that borrows the car and, for whatever reason, wants to drive in D4 (I'm ignoring downhill engine braking here).
 
Well reading my service manuals and all the advice from 04_ sport _ls , joegr, and oddball. I think I got my answers. You guys are wonderful and as always spot on with your knowledge and advice. I'll keep you posted with what happens I'm not giving up my car because of a stupid mistake like this . You guys are great thank you . Thank you and again , thank you
 
oddball said:
1st, for the motor/trans, check out videos on installing a torque converter. There's three engagements that must be made to ensure the torque converter is fully seated. It can easily slip forward if the trans is moved or tilted. Also check the service manual on transmission R&R - the process is pretty specific for lining up the torque converter to the flexplate. Does it really matter? Maybe, maybe not. I just found it unusual.

Like Joe said, this has been discussed. Back in 2010 I used an old thread to convert my '02 to a SST shifter. It's on here somewhere.... Just need to move a few wires in the connector. Everything works correctly EXCEPT the "D4" position on the shifter gets interpreted as "3". So you cannot select "D4" normally. It'll also confuse anyone that borrows the car and, for whatever reason, wants to drive in D4 (I'm ignoring downhill engine braking here).
Click to expand...
Oddball can you if you have it send me a drawing or something of what wires I need to move and any other info you may still have . If there is a chance I didn't muck up my trans I'm going do what your talking about here. Thank you for the info and advice .
 
here you go:

SST Install instructions

I just installed my SST that I got from LS4me this weekend. Anyways the instructions I got helped a lot. They are written by Gary Schwartz from llsoc.com, he's okay with posting them here. Not exactly sure how my scans and uploads will work out. But here they are...
www.lincolnvscadillac.com
 
THANK YOU thank you Oddball most helpful .Article is over 15 years old but I haven't heard nothing bad about this convertion yet so you just made me very happy . Again a million thanks to all who helped me here. I will keep you all posted as I go threw all this. I hope it is a smooth transition. I have always wanted a manual shift in LS but this better to me. Thank you again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 233 (members: 0, guests: 233)
Back
Top