3.0 Engine buying

[rrncousarmy]

HEre is the deal. You guys give me your advice please. I am going to be buying a 3.0L block this fall. I also would like to use the 3.0L upper and lower intake manifolds. Should I buy the manifolds now, install the upper, save the lower, and later on just purchase the engine block or should I just wait and buy the whole engine at once. I am looking for advice as far as how hard would it be to just find the block compared with the whole engine and would it cost less to just do it all at once. I think it would be cheaper to do it at once and it seems impossible to find just the engine block on carpart.com. Can somebody please include price estimates/comparisons if possible.

Thanks a lot guys.

[dv6cougar]

i would get the upper uim now yeah...

someone correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure the lower intake manifold would require quite a bit of work to fit the 2.5L heads though....


but the UIM does fit... blackcoog just had an excellent how to on it...

[GrandMasterKhan]

you would save your self alot of time, stress, and money if you bought the entire 3.0L engine all at once. (aka long block)

the only place which sells 3.0 short blocks (just the block) is Sho-SHop. And thats $1500! you can find an entire 3.0 Long block for half that.

if you want to do the 3.0 UIM for now thats cool (it cheap enough) but the 3.0LIM wont fit the 2.5 heads. so dont bother with one of those.

Just remember, you have to get an Aluminum 3.0 UIM (otherwise it wont fit). & only 99-02 3.0L engines will work in the swap

[rrncousarmy]

thanks guys. I thought you just had to remove the butterflies on the 3.0LIM to make it work. I could be wrong though

[Buckshot77]

Buy the entire engine assembly at once unless you're going to buy a prepped shortblock from someone.

Grand Master, FYI, HMS and Buckshot Motorsports also sell the shortblocks and only Buckshot is $1500. SHO and HMS are both over 2K for a prepped shortblock IIRC.

Rick

[overfiend]

i *think* sho is more like 1800. if you're not terribly familiar with these engines or if all the how to's and build ups these guys are doing dont make total sense...it may be worth the money to buy a prepped block from buckhot. certainly a huge time saver. then just mount your existing 2.5 heads (possibly throw in svt cams, port and polished, 3l valves...cash and preference depending) 2.5 LIM (as long as its 2000+) and the pre 2001 3.0 uim. oh yeah and our timing cover and oil setup
i don't think the 3.0 uim has any benifits over our 2.5 and would probably be more trouble than its worth. whenever you get a spare 100 ish bucks go ahead and buy the uim. then once u have the money buy the prepped short block from buckshot, then if you choose have some headwork done (several people on the boards do that kind of work). just my .02