The husband has two blazers. A piston blew in the 2000. Then the transmission went out in the 98. He's now driving a car and hating it. He wants his Blazer back and I want to get it back for him. He's working 90 hour work weeks right now in a fellowship program and doesn't have the time to do any work on his own. I really, really want to be able to get one up and going for him for Christmas (he's that impossible to buy for guy). I've been making calls and found one person who quoted me $800 to swap the motors (put the 98 in the 2000- both 4x4). The next person took my info and called me back, he told me that he made a call to check if this was possible and found that the motors are different and can't just be swapped, and that I'm looking at a lot of money (more than $800).

After talking to the second guy for a while, he tells me that it would make more sense to just buy a new Blazer, and that his daughter in law has one for sale. 2003 4x4 with about the same mileage for $2k. No known issues. Serviced by the shop owner. That seems pretty good considering we would be able to scrap the other two to go toward the amount, and I would have to tow one of them three hours to get it to the location of the other/shop area. To be honest, both of the ones we have may have other smaller problems that would need attention at some point as well, but they're all older used cars, so that's to be expected.

I'm not really knowledgeable about all of this. I need some advice. Are these motors interchangeable or not (husband also seems to think they are and actually wants to take some of his vacation time to try and swap them himself. That doesn't sound like the way I want him to spend his vacation, or how he really wants to either)? Is it a good idea to fix the existing ones, or would it be better to just buy this (or another) different one?

 

if the 8th digit of the VIN number(engine code) are the same they are a direct interchange

 

2000 has secondary air system, (emission control device) 98 does not. The exhaust manifolds will need to be swapped, along with some other cosmetic items. The basic engine is the same and is interchangeable. Do some research on scrap value and buying another vehicle, compare the results.

 

As the captain said secondary air injection needs to be swapped over, and the knock sensor might be different.....newer motors have a 2 wire knock sensor & older motors use a 1 wire sensor......this is easily remedied!!!! Sounds to me the 'other guy ' is just tryin to sell his blazer......... I would steer clear this person!!!