Can you ?

Can you put a 5.0 engine in a 1990 SC ?
and ... can you do it if you purchase a crate motor...
And... is it a difficult job or is it better to fix the headgasket on the SC ?

Yes and Yes. You can put a motor into damn near anything with a certain amount of effort. But in my very humble opinion, it would be a whole lot cheaper and less work to rbuild the motor that is in the car. With the money saved from not buying a crate motor, you can invest in a good re0build with a few upgrades that will kick the balls off the 5.0. Everyone has a V8,... blowers are cool! I say Rebuild it.

Okay so I'm good with that answer.
I guess it just looks pretty intimidating when you look at an SC and you have all of that "stuff" going everywhere... my fear is that I pull it all apart and get it back together and blow the gasket again or worse... find out I need new heads and a new gasket...

I'm thinking of doing it myself ( well right now I may need to sell the car to make ends meet) but I would need a seriously detailed book or something...

Do we have an Engine Rebuild Forum ?

jleopold said:

Okay so I'm good with that answer.
I guess it just looks pretty intimidating when you look at an SC and you have all of that "stuff" going everywhere... my fear is that I pull it all apart and get it back together and blow the gasket again or worse... find out I need new heads and a new gasket...

Click to expand...

I hear ya on that one. I for one don't have the testicular fortatude to try something like that myself. I'll let the pros chime in here but if your on a budget, replacing the HG's Vs. a motor swap seems like a no-brainer. From what I've heard replacing the hg's although very time consuming, isn't all that expensive if you DIY. I've heard of many people who have done it on these cars for their first time without alot of experience. I'm sure you will have no problem finding the resources around here to help out.

Good luck!

jleopold said:

Okay so I'm good with that answer.
I guess it just looks pretty intimidating when you look at an SC and you have all of that "stuff" going everywhere... my fear is that I pull it all apart and get it back together and blow the gasket again or worse... find out I need new heads and a new gasket...

I'm thinking of doing it myself ( well right now I may need to sell the car to make ends meet) but I would need a seriously detailed book or something...

Do we have an Engine Rebuild Forum ?

Click to expand...

Why bother if youre going to sell the car anyways.

If you want to keep the SC, as a SC .. rebuild the SC engine. No brainer.

Want a V8 ? Go buy a car with a V8 already in it, trust me, it will be cheaper. I sold a 5.0 V8 Tbird a few yeras back for $500, that I bought for $300.

I was actually writing an article on basic SC engine rebuilding, with all of the specs, and some other information, LOTS of pictures .. a lot of the information and pictures are done, I just need to edit and re-format it. No high performance rebuilt stuff. But I stopped working on it over a year ago .. maybe one of these days it will be finished.

- Dan

Replacing the head gaskets isn't REALLY that difficult ya know. Its more of time consuming.

I managed it in 2 weekends worth of work. Its not bad. I think the hardest part may be the having to clean the mating surface for the new gasket. That was a pain in the wrist. lol

THe gaskets were like 40-50$ from a store, and its all elbow grease.

If you have problems, you could take a camera and take photos of every thing you take off so you know where it goes back to. and label bolts... thats almost a must. lol

I was intimidated at first but I wrote a how to. This has helped many SC owners.

http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showpost.php?p=285427&postcount=1

PS. If your A/C works, just unbolt the compressor and leave it attached, I think you can secure it over by the airbox location on the fender. It's been done both ways. Mine didn't work so I just unbolted the compressor and removed it completely.