Hello,

Thanks in advance for any help and advice. I have a 87 GTS coupe, that is running great; motor, trans, rear end, suspension links are all sound. However, the chassis is starting to go bad. really bad.
I found a GTS shell, 86 coupe, that's damn near pristine, and will buy it to swap everything over. I was just wondering what precautions should i take, is there anything you guys have done that would make my life easier, and alleviate any problems i may face? I have patience, a few friends that'll help, hot pockets, beer, and cigarettes for the process. Plenty of garage space, 4, 5 solid ratchets, a variety of sockets, a couple torque wrenches, normal open end/box end wrenches, allen keys, so on and so forth. (I do have the dual throttle cable type thing, where to the side with the exhaust manifold , there's a throttle cable / body type thing)
Please please please, if there's any write ups, guides, etc; pass the information this way, as well as your own experiences!!!!

Any and all help is much appreciated. I do have some mechanical knowledge, and have done many repairs/upgrades on my own. Help a hachi rokuan out y'al!!!

- Paul

Stay organized! I just did a GTS to GTS and Am in the middle of SR5 to GTS and my biggest problem was staying organized. I lost so many damn bolt and now I have to figure out what im missing. I would go through and replace any that are rust and throw in some anti seize goup.

I would also take a decent amout of time prepping your shell. Its the perfect time to take care of dirt, grime and rust. Have plenty of degreaser and solvent on hand. I sheered off 4 bolts in the engine bay bit having not loosened things up enough. Mainly the two bolts that hold in the brake proportioning valve, but that was just in my case.

You should post a pic or two of the shell that you have! Coupes all day

Oh and when you are putting the engine in watch the clearance of the EGR valve. When installing the engine and transmission together it was a tight fit with the heater core hose thing on the firewall.

Also helped me move a bit faster to work in this order
I drained all my fluids first and then moved forward with the swap


1. Disconnect rear brakes
2. Remove rear suspension (struts, springs, panhard, 4link)
3. Remove gas tank
4. Remove rubber brake and fuel lines in engine bay
5. Remove brake and fuel hardlines under car
6. Unplug wiring haness (helps to mark plugs for reinstatement)
7. Remove clutch slave
8. Remove clutch master and clutch hardline
9. Brake master cylinder and proportioning valve
I0. Radiator hoses, vacuum lines, heater hoses
11. Radiator and fan
12. Engine


Thats the gist of everything but back to front worked way faster for me.

having a cordless impact wrench helped me out tremendously as it quickened a lot of the process, but if you are not familar with a impact wrench, i wouldn't recommend it as you can start breaking off bolts or stripping threads. getting cheap cupcake pans will help organize bolts and nuts also for different jobs. swapping from gts to gts will be alot easier then sr5 to gts as everything should just swap over fairly easily. but as dinker said, nows the perfect time to prep your new chassis, cleaning off dirty parts, changing out gaskets that need changing since the engine will be out of the car. good luck!

Thanks a bunch guys; I know to bring several sandwich bags and mark virtually everything, and take many many pictures. My engine is totally rebuilt; has like 12000 miles on it. Newer clutch/lightweight flywheel, drilled & slotted rotors, new pads, TRD blue springs, KYB AGX shocks, prothane bushings everywhere, just rebuilt the rear end (4.778 R&P, 2 way LSD, full rebuilt kit), driveshaft bearing, axle seals and bearings. SO i should be in good shape there. If y'all got any pics that'd be super helpful of anything to look for

say y'all; i figure i'd show you what my donor (clean ass shell) looks like. These are the only 2 pics i have thus far. but checky check it out. It's got the Sc400 front crossmember which i'll obviously have to swap mine over. Full interior, clean as ****.

The ass end