'94 Crate Engine into '90 ZR-1 - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

Ted Wright · 08-18-2004

HI! New member here. I'm the proud owner of a '90 z-car(Dark Red Metallic on Saddle) with 136K on the clock. (Only 11K are mine, having bought the car in 2002). Last December she decided to take a holiday, and I and my local shop have been unable to bring her back to life!! The best we could do was determine the ECM went bye-bye. I had it "rebuilt" , but whatever they rebuilt wasn't what was wrong. GM NO LONGER supplies '90-'91 ECM's!!! Anyhow, she was beginning to show blue smoke on startup, and chattered on most startups(cam drive!?) before "retiring". In troubleshooting the dead engine, a "loose" piece of metal was noticed rising to the oil fill nozzle whenever we cranked. All above has led me to buy a '94 crate engine with '94 ECM. I also got the '94 Manuals. It's (painfully) obvious the Chevy Electronic Engineers were busy little bees during those 4 years!! The crate engine is NOT a dropin electronically. QUESTION??????(Finally) Anyone out there done a late model engine transplant into a '90-'91 Z??? Know of any sources of information on such an undertaking? Yeah, I'm a masochist - I'm gonna do the whole thing myself, under the comfort of (my neighbor's) shadetree in my driveway. Any help would be extremely appreciated!!!! THANKS.

08-18-2004	#1
Ted Wright Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: HOUSTON, TEXAS Posts: 14	'94 Crate Engine into '90 ZR-1 HI! New member here. I'm the proud owner of a '90 z-car(Dark Red Metallic on Saddle) with 136K on the clock. (Only 11K are mine, having bought the car in 2002). Last December she decided to take a holiday, and I and my local shop have been unable to bring her back to life!! The best we could do was determine the ECM went bye-bye. I had it "rebuilt" , but whatever they rebuilt wasn't what was wrong. GM NO LONGER supplies '90-'91 ECM's!!! Anyhow, she was beginning to show blue smoke on startup, and chattered on most startups(cam drive!?) before "retiring". In troubleshooting the dead engine, a "loose" piece of metal was noticed rising to the oil fill nozzle whenever we cranked. All above has led me to buy a '94 crate engine with '94 ECM. I also got the '94 Manuals. It's (painfully) obvious the Chevy Electronic Engineers were busy little bees during those 4 years!! The crate engine is NOT a dropin electronically. QUESTION??????(Finally) Anyone out there done a late model engine transplant into a '90-'91 Z??? Know of any sources of information on such an undertaking? Yeah, I'm a masochist - I'm gonna do the whole thing myself, under the comfort of (my neighbor's) shadetree in my driveway. Any help would be extremely appreciated!!!! THANKS.