5A-FE to 5A-FE conversion. Old vs new questions

[sam clarkson]

89 sprinter abandoned in my yard. It had no compression....(frost plug popped as it turned out) but its a straight car, so I sourced another 5A-FE from an AE110 corolla. It's a newer generation of the motor and (I'm surprised) has far FEWER plugs and connectors off the injection manifold and head than the motor I've pulled out. Does anyone have advice as to how critical all that extra crap might have been on the old motor? As an example the new thermostat housing has 2 connectors, the old had 5!

Also I had a devil of a job to get the motor out,separating it from the auto transmission there just wasn't enough room. I was wondering if I should slip the torque converter onto the trans FIRST. Then slip the motor into place and then attempt to bolt the torque converter to the flex plate afterwards i.e. in situ. Is that a good plan??

[sergei]

The easiest solution for you is to bolt on all the stuff from your old engine.
This might not work though as I am not sure if the newer 5AFE has the injector ports in the head (vs in the manifold as older might be).

I did similar transplant for 89 Camry, I got the motor from 95 Camry, and used just the long block, while maintaining all the EFI and accessories from older. Much simpler this way, as to maintain newer manifold required newer ECU, which requires a lot of mucking around with wiring loom.

As for pulling engine out, pull it out with gearbox, and reassemble it out of the car, and put it in with the gearbox assembled.

[sam clarkson]

Actually bolting the torque converter to the flexplate technique worked! As usual aligning the bellhousing to the block is the hardest part. Once one bolt goes in the rest is easy.
The manifolds are as you describe however throttle body does swap over and thus far it appears to be going well at the fuel supply end of things.
Waterworks I'm not so sure...there are still fewer sensors on the new rig than the old. Geez how many ways can you measure water temperature eh?!
Bloody alternator has a different plug AND a different bracket mountings to the block, so I can't swap. A minor pain in the big scheme.
I took the lid off the head and the internals are VERY clean so that's a great sign.
Lunchtime now...

[sam clarkson]

Ok, it's in, it goes!!
Everything appears to be working, despite my having spare plugs with nowhere to attach to on the engine.
It's an auto (yuck!) and the overdrive doesn't appear to be working. Pushing the OD button achieves nothing, including no 'OD off' light on the dash. Would I be correct in assuming one of the 5 water sensors was to keep the OD off until the engine warms up? Might that be a single wire of dual wire feed?
What other possible sensors are there?
Temp gauge. (Working)
Fan (working)
Cold start enrichment (don't know if it's working)
Overdrive controller? (As above)
What else??
Thanks for the help

[sergei]

Ok, it's in, it goes!!
Everything appears to be working, despite my having spare plugs with nowhere to attach to on the engine.
It's an auto (yuck!) and the overdrive doesn't appear to be working. Pushing the OD button achieves nothing, including no 'OD off' light on the dash. Would I be correct in assuming one of the 5 water sensors was to keep the OD off until the engine warms up? Might that be a single wire of dual wire feed?
What other possible sensors are there?
Temp gauge. (Working)
Fan (working)
Cold start enrichment (don't know if it's working)
Overdrive controller? (As above)
What else??
Thanks for the help

Check ECU error codes... Check O/D solenoid is plugged in (I believe it is next to the selector plug on the gearbox).