Good luck with that trans swap Dan. I'm not familiar with those alum frames, so this is gonna be interesting.

Who'* fridge donated the crisper drawer? hahaha!

Came from one of my moms old fridges. It was just laying around and I was going to toss it.

Dan, pm is waiting for you.

Guys.. why would you think the aluminum subframe is special or that it can't be removed from the body of the car? Remember unless it'* welded, there'* a way

Remember back to the post about my DD Regal, it'* a simple swap. The 00 timeframe Impala and Monte Carlo'* (W bodies) had aluminum subframes. Basically the same, but less weight (~20-30lbs), weighing in at 44lbs w/o control arms.

Steel


Aluminum


I mentioned in the pm to Dan that it'* probably easier for him to swap it out in a W than an H body. Our cradle splits, which is nice but in reality if the cradle is out of the way, things are much easier to get at. Like the diff to engine bracket. The W body also has no rear trans mount and until you've done an H body one, you can't imagine how much it sucks to deal with.

Funnier yet is that the W body cradle comes down with 4 bolts (vs the H body 6 bolts) and that'* less than the number of bolts if seperating the cradle in an H body.

Dan the way you see the aluminum frame above is the way you should take this one out, minus the oil pan. Leave that in the car. And in case he doesn't mention it, you may find spacers at the engine mount. The aluminum cradle does appear to have one difference, that the engine mount may be taller. This means the steel mount is a little short and most guys use spacers to fix the issue of the nosedrive aiming to the ground.