I currently have a blank slate. That is, I'm currently restoring an '87 convertible Sunbird and have spent many hours stripping the car to bare metal and fabricating replacement sheet metal. I’m currently transforming an ‘87 and ’89 doors from a coupe into doors for the convertible (hopefully that will be done over the next two weekends). As I take a break and wonder; what is the next thing I should tackle? I notice that I need to re-weld the transmission mount back into the engine sub-frame rails (I had to replace the rails because the battery completely dissolved the old ones) and wonder if an EcoTec 2.0 LSJ would fit? Ideally, I would try to find a totaled ’08-10 Cobalt SS with a functional ECM, engine, transmission …etc. as a donor. Does anyone know where I could find the overall dimensions of the engine with a manual transmission? Has anyone ever heard of such a swap? I know this will be a big pain, but I’m thinking 260 hp would be a lot of fun in this car (assuming the wife does not shoot this out of the sky)!
Any suggestions welcome.

A turbo or M62 S/C on a 2.2L eco(L61) would fit your power goal and they are more plentiful.




219whp - I <3 whine

Were you able to find any information on this?

Afraid not. My neighbor happens to be a GM tech and thinks that is is very doable. I'm still waiting to find a descent donor car for the project. I guess I'll stay glued to copart for a while :-)

I know it will fit in there, and I know its been done on a 1990 sunbird convertible so an 87 cant be too different.

cool i want a l61 in my j2000 hatchback