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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jayrnye@gmail.com" data-source="post: 15255" data-attributes="member: 3275">LAF to LEA conversionHi guys I have a 2010 GMC Terrain 2.4L Ecotec LAF.  I purchased the car with 105,000 miles on it about 4 or 5 years ago.  Since then I have drove the wheels off of it averaging 100 miles a day.  Back in March of this year the timing chain guide broke and the chain jumped a tooth while driving home from work and broke valves and engine blew up.  I started doing my research and started reading about this conversion and seen videos on YouTube and I said I'm going to do it myself I am a mechanic I'm a technician that's my job so I can do this no problem.  So I purchased a 2016 LEA 2.4L out of a wreck Equinox and I also purchased a 2013 transmission out of a wrecked Equinox.   I got a great deal the engine from 2016 had 1800 miles on it and the transmission only had 6000 miles on it. I pay $1200 for the engine $600 for the trans.  I installed both of them in my garage taking them both out the top never dropped the sub frame everything worked out great the transmission went right in engine went right in but then I had to change the intake camshaft.  I did not want to use my camshaft from my blown up engine because it is 230,000 miles on it. So I started looking to buy another camshaft which was discontinued many years ago they offered refurbished ones but those are long gone now I have been searching now for well over a month and cannot find a camshaft from 2010 2011 LAF engine.  One salvage yard told me he had a head with both camshafts in it had it shipped from Texas and it was the wrong one it was a newer model a 2012 or newer. 2012 they change the intake camshaft to create the higher fuel pressure needed for flex fuel engines so the intake camshaft and actuator will not work in the newer engine.  This salvage yard had 17 locations across the country and has been searching for about 2 or 3 weeks I since gave up and decided to use my old camshaft with 230000 miles on it and turns out it work great I had a machine shop check it out and clean it up and since they have roller rocker arms there was no where on the lobes so I installed the camshaft and 2 days ago I fired it up and it runs great no check engine light. When I had the newer version of the Cam in the engine the original Cam for the 2016 engine the only code I got was hi fuel pressure and that was when it sat at idle and put the engine in a reduced power mode so you're unable to drive it. So all that is needed to do the conversion is the intake camshaft and the actuator/phaser gear they call it, the gear they still make no problem to get it for about a $100 the camshaft, good luck, you better have the one out of the original 2010 and 2011 LAF or you're not gonna do anything. I told this guy at the salvage yard I will still pay him the 500 bucks if he can find me the camshaft, I can put it in my old engine and rebuild the rest of my engine and sell it for $3000  or more.  If you are trying to buy LAF engine from 2010 or 11 again good luck, anything running from that year has gone for $2800 with 100,000 miles on it and you're taking your chances on what's inside.  I highly suggest buy used 2016 engine for $1200 like I did with a 1000 miles on it and have someone put your old cam and gear you have in that engine or do-it-yourself it is really simple if you can do the timing chain job takes a couple special tools but if you're mechanically inclined it's pretty simple.  I just finished my engine like I said 2 days ago but unfortunately I had bad temp sensor in my new/used transmission of course there was no warranty so I had to fork out 1200 dollars for them to drop the sub frame change out the temp sensor inside the transmission.  The sensor is part of the transmission control module which is $500. And  I would have done it myself but I could not take the body off the sub frame in my garage and I am not about to pull the engine and transmission back out the top again.  So total I have $1200 in the engine plus about $200 special tools now with the repair bill I have $1800 in the transmission. So $3200 or a whole new power plant and drive train with less then 6000 miles on it.  Then hopefully I'm gonna spend $500 on this camshaft and maybe another $500 in parts and rebuild this LAF motor and sell it for $3,000 which means I'm pretty close to breaking even and getting a new engine and transmission in my car.</blockquote>

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