I'm on the fence about a V8 swap. I found a shop in Northern Cali who has done a few and will guarentee passing BAR which is awesome. The approximate price including all parts is between $12-15k according to them but things can always be higher if you choose a bad donor car, etc.

I'm just curious for anyone that has done a third gen swap or even someone who has parted out a fd, what do you you think can be recouped from parting out most of the items under the hood? My engine has about 30k miles on it and many of the parts were swapped out on the last rebuild.

 

I sold a motor/tranny/ecu/subframe package with bad coolant seals for $1200 picked up locally when I did my ls2 swap. I think I made around $175 or so for my rear diff and $70 for my driveshaft after shipping.

 

If its stock don't expect much more than $2K. If your car is nice with a decent motor sell it and buy a swapped one, paying the shop to help you pass BAR. IT will probably be the cheapest and least painful option...

 

Mdessouki is probably right. Buying a car already swapped IS gonna be the cheapest option. However, that also means settling for someones cut corners, styling choices, etc. To be honest $12-$15K sounds cheap for a running swap. Make sure you get a pretty complete list of what that does and doesn't include.

As for parting out your engine bay. If everything is running / in good condition... I'd say $3-$4K is doable. $500 per housing ($1000), $250 per rotor ($500), Harness ($300), Turbos ($200), Trans ($200), Coil Pack ($50), UIM/LIM ($50), Injectors ($50), radiator ($50), radiator fans ($100), stock airbox ($50), stock battery tray ($50), etc, etc, etc. I mean... you can probably nickle and dime this to $5000 if you stay on top of it and everything is in good shape.

 

Buying a car that is already swapped is the cheapest option unless you're in California from what I can see... There's also the issue that some of the cars I'm seeing aren't BAR certified here. People just do the swap or get them from another state and call it a day because it's a lot cheaper. Another reason I'm looking to do the swap in my car is because it has fresh paint and the suspension was pretty much completely rebuilt.

The shop has high ratings and I've seen a couple of the cars they've built around the net with happy owners. I'll be sure to see exactly what it includes because I 100% need A/C lol.