LX9 swap on a budget

_HeC_ · 12-03-2014, 12:25 AM

Don't see a lot of info on this LX5 TB on the N-body forums so thought I'd show how easy it is to use with the LX9 swap

for those who don't know the LX5 is the engine found in 99-02 Oldsmobile Intrigues and 01-02 Oldsmobile Auroras(3.5 DOHC)... WOT-Tech sells the adapter plate, modification to TB cable bracket is needed to make this work

The way I went about it was a bit more involved as I wanted everything to look rather clean and involved a welder but the factory 3400 bracket can be used with some minor work(couple slits cut and bends)

3400 vs LX5

I had my factory 3400 and LX5 TB cable brackets to work with

I pretty much cut out the middle of the LX5 bracket and cut the 3400 middle to fit and tacked it together, and trimmed some useless metal from the LX5 bracket

when tacking this together you want NO play in the cable

welds cleaned up and painted

if your the one pulling the LX5 TB from the junkyard grab the vac line fittings with it, it will have a 90* degree elbow which works perfect for our FPR and a 70-80* elbow for the HVAC line, this eliminates the need for drilling/tapping your UIM for vac lines. You will also need to grab a plug from your local parts store for 1 remaining vac line on the TB. 3400 IAC and TPS bolt/plug right in

rather cheap alternative to the $340+ TCE TB/adapter, not knocking the TCE setup at all or saying the LX5 setup is better just another option

if you don't have a welder this is still possible although I have personally never tried, here are some pics to show a modded 3400 bracket to fit

if you can solder wires and cut open some electrical tape etc you can do the LX9 swap for cheap, all I bought was my external crank trigger from Milzy and a homemade TB adapter from a buddy

3400 and LX9 MAP sensor use the EXACT same wire colors for plugs, simple to wire up and you should have the LX9 plug with your engine as most junkyards don't remove the UIM to remove fuel rail/wires

green plug 3400 and black plug in the UIM is the newer MAP with wires showing

CTS(coolant temp sensor) is located in the T-stat housing on the 3400 but rear head on the LX9... to solve this you open up your wire loom/tape on your 3400 fuel rail harness, LABEL your injector plugs and yank your CTS and MAP wiring from the injectors(MAP and CTS share a wire so pull both)this gives you plenty of room for your CTS to fit with no cutting, simply retape/loom afterwards

coilpacks... I used a combination of 3400/LX9 brackets to bolt this up with all 4 mounting points on the LX9, NO welding or anything was done for this, I still need to trim some metal and paint but whatever

AC compressor I'm using 2 out of 3 bolts and not at all worried about it, the bottom 1 wont fit but pretty sure you can make it fit if you bore the hole out on the AC compressor(not positive)

Diff bracket... I have a 5spd bolted to my LX9 so no help there but multiple people run the 3400 bracket with 2 out of 3 bolts, your call if you can't find the LX9 bracket

finished product

hopefully I didn't miss anything

lol