QUICK FLIPS! - Cheap Malibu Got A Full Powertrain Swap In ONE DAY!

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]All right, guys. Welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:03]I am running solo tonight. It goes that Spencer has a lot of like kind of main job kind of stuff to deal with. He has the apartment to work on and some things like that. And I did not want to see this project not get footage. So, I think I might be doing this entire video A to Z just by myself and hopefully it passes the the test as far as video quality. He is able to upload this and have this be a video for you guys. So, you'll notice right behind me right now, I have got a Chevy Malibu.

[00:00:38]This thing's like a maybe 2009 or 10. I I actually can't remember the exact year, but I do know that it has a problem. Let me show you. All right. So, this Malibu belongs to a friend of ours and they had a little mishap.

[00:00:53]They were at the Aldi parking lot as I understand and somebody managed to kind of T-bone them a little bit.

[00:01:02]They've got it all kind of taped up things like that just to be able to get by, but the insurance company totaled it. They said the thing's totally done.

[00:01:11]And I kind of agree probably. I mean, it might be able to be fixed, but but the better solution for them since the rest of the car had already been in pretty rough shape.

[00:01:22]And you'll see that here like the it's got some rocker rust issues that have been repaired.

[00:01:30]Um And and this car is is otherwise just kind of you know, seeing the end of its useful life.

[00:01:37]The idea is that it has a perfectly good running powertrain in it. So, it's got a good 2.4 L four-cylinder in there, good automatic transmission.

[00:01:49]And I happen to have a Malibu sitting around here that did not have either of those things. Well, maybe it maybe the transmission was all right, but definitely did not have a good engine.

[00:01:58]It was a a broken timing chain situation. And I'll show it to you here.

[00:02:02]So, I've already gotten ahead of myself a little bit here, but right here this engine, this really entire cradle I I pulled out of this Malibu right here.

[00:02:15]This Malibu um is an LTZ loaded up nicely with leather and all sorts of stuff. And uh I pulled the front clip off of it, drove the bad powertrain out of it, and tonight the plan is to get the good powertrain out of this silver one and uh place it back up underneath the white one, and I'm going to give these people a Well, I mean, they're they're buying it from me, but I'm going to give these people a working white LTZ Malibu with their original powertrain in it.

[00:02:45]So, it took me 2 hours to get that uh that one out there all removed. So, I'm hoping this one will be similar. I'm sure going back together is going to be harder, um but I'm I'm hoping that the other one took me 2 hours, this one takes me 2 hours, and then maybe going back together takes 3 or 4 hours, and I can be done with this project in, you know, 7 or 8 total hours. That's the the dream. And I took apart the the white one the other night by myself, and I have to say that one did not have a good shock for the hood, and it would kind of hold, but very unexpectedly, you'd be working and all of a sudden you just get slammed in the head with a uh with a hood. So, I'm kind of glad this one looks like it might be actually functional, and hopefully I don't get beat up like I did on the other one. That's the That's the hope here. I will say there was one thing I learned whenever I was working on this the first time to take it apart on on the white one, and uh that is that the front bumper cover kind of has to come off for the way I'm doing this. Um it's a little bit of a hassle to take off, but this one's already ruined, so I probably was going to have to pull it off at some point anyway, so I'll start with that. We'll get all the bolts and pop clips removed here.

[00:04:02]Another huge piece, um I'll say for taking this thing apart was um just a lot of like plasticky junk that has to come off just to kind of get you down to your your correct uh fasteners and things that are underneath all that sort of superficial stuff. But, the inner fender was actually I hate inner fenders, but it it's got to be one of the worst inner fenders I've ever had.

[00:04:22]It is like three or four pieces. There's like an outside strip, an inside strip, an inner filler piece, one that goes underneath like the radiator support.

[00:04:30]It's it's crazy. It's one of the worst inner fender setups I've ever seen on any vehicle ever. GM also has a really tricky little hose clamp under here. All right, I think I got that one.

[00:04:43]Funny thing is this engine was giving him a little bit of trouble um maybe I don't know, a little over a month ago or something.

[00:04:51]>> [clears throat] >> And it was either a bad injector or an um bad injector uh wire harness.

[00:05:00]There was it was bringing up a fault code. It was like either a bad injector or a bad injector um wire harness is bringing up a fault code. And I told him, "Hey, I got a parts uh Malibu sitting around that has a bad timing chain. I'm sure the injectors are still fine and all those things." We actually popped the uh the injectors out of that parts engine I just showed you.

[00:05:22]And we uh we put it in this vehicle.

[00:05:27]Um injectors and the harness, the whole the whole setup. So, uh now it's kind of coming full circle. We're going to put it all back together.

[00:05:34]>> [snorts] >> So, this car was actually a uh a high mileage review if you never got to see that one. If you look up the uh the high mileage reviews on the channel, you'll you'll see this Malibu a while back.

[00:05:52]And uh I don't remember for sure if it was a buy, but I I think it was um just because they they really are like I mean they're so cheap now. Um even if they're really not like the cream of the crop as far as like quality, um they are like if it's not a buy on that video, you know, it potentially maybe should be. Um not based on overall quality, but based on just attainability. Like they're you know, you can get them for a few thousand bucks and they they run pretty decent.

[00:06:33]The 2.4 was the more problematic engine. It was the one that people didn't like quite as much.

[00:06:42]But uh even they're good enough to get you by.

[00:06:57]Oh, man.

[00:06:58]Well, I don't feel like totally defeated, but it is late at night and I am getting tired, but the other part of me wants to just kind of see this thing through. So, you know, this is like that confession booth time, you know, kind of like uh in the office or whatever, you know, where I'm like, "All right, guys. Today was a hard day." And I'm not sure exactly how I'm doing it yet, but I would like to block up this engine in some way. I'm thinking actually maybe something I can just wedge or shove underneath there just flat.

[00:07:29]Um I don't know if you can see that there.

[00:07:33]I'll I'll bring you up a little bit just to Like I'm thinking something in this gap that when I release the motor mount it would actually keep it from just dropping. Oh, slippery there, but Yeah, something like that.

[00:07:50]Okay, I think that's going to help me a lot.

[00:07:57]There we go. I think I've got a hold.

[00:08:00]And really the only other thing you have to do, I'm going to have to bleed the brakes after this project's done, uh in the front. I left the whole brake assembly assembled in the other car except for the front brakes. And I only disconnected them right here just so the strut could come down as one whole unit. Um in hindsight, I probably No, I don't know. I I think the the rotors and calipers and and pads on this one are better.

[00:08:29]So, I I think I wanted to switch these over anyway, and I would have had to had to bleed them anyway. So, I don't know if I'm regretting that too much.

[00:08:38]And then wheel speed sensor, I'm just going to pop that off and leave that with the vehicle.

[00:08:54]One thing you're not going to be able to really see, but I did do last time is just made sure the intermediate shaft was actually like coming loose. I didn't want to find out after I was halfway down that it was all bound up on something.

[00:09:07]So, I'm going to just pound on that a few times.

[00:09:12]Take it the whole way just in case.

[00:09:14]All right, I don't think there's anything else that has to be taken apart down here.

[00:09:17]I think it's all up top now. All I got to do is get this um cradle centered up on some jack stands.

[00:09:29]Work my can of PB Blaster.

[00:10:07]>> I'm calling this intermission and I'm going to call this a night. Um start fresh in the morning and use the fork left. I'll take the um the uh cradle out and uh yeah, we'll be good to go. Put the new car in and uh we should be good to start going back together.

[00:10:51]Uh-oh.

[00:11:10]There we go. All right, now I'm going >> My little stool [music] that I was sitting on kept rolling over rocks, and it was like impossible to roll around. [music] So, to start this project off again, to put it back together, >> [music] >> I want all the little rocks and dirt off the ground, or at least [music] most of them, so I can actually roll around and not [music] have my stool almost fall over.

[00:12:32]So, I just two things I had to deal with here before putting this back together.

[00:12:35]>> [music] >> Uh one is I have a broken uh bolt or stud [music] on this uh exhaust here, so I need to hit that out and get rid of it.

[00:12:48]And then [music] number two is uh my one heater hose I need to get off of this car and switch it to the other car.

[00:12:54]But, beyond that, >> [music] >> I think this is pretty much lined up ready to start to go back together.

[00:13:06]Now, all I got to lower enough to get in the garage. Let's see if I can do it.

[00:13:18]>> [music] >> All right.

[00:13:30]>> [music] >> Got to hook up the AC lines back here.

[00:13:58]That's probably the hardest thing to get to right now, so I think I'm going to try to do it.

[00:14:02]And then, I'm not sure what I'm doing next.

[00:14:05]I have to remember when I go to restart this car that I think it might be in reverse or something like that as far as the actual placement of linkage is. It's not not centered down where I would expect it, so.

[00:14:21]See if I can get that to push on. There it goes. All right.

[00:14:24]So, shift linkage is in place. Try this transmission mount, see if I can get it.

[00:14:37]This is where I keep confusing myself.

[00:14:39]I'm like, I need to make sure that I put I need to make sure I put the original computer from this white car in this one and not the one that I took out last night.

[00:14:52]And I also I'm going to just change the stupid gas shock cuz I am tired of [music] being afraid of it.

[00:15:30]>> Certainly not part of my original plan, but um the headlights look kind of rough and and when I was taking this apart one of the brackets broke.

[00:15:38]>> [music] >> And it just so happened that I have a set of new Malibu headlights here. So, I thought what the heck, I'll switch them out, make them nice for for the the gentleman we're fixing this for and [music] and they'll just look a little bit nicer.

[00:16:23]I did run the propane out on the forklift, so it is literally dead in the water until I can figure out a way to go refill the propane tank, which there is one place open today. I might be able to go there, but it seems like every time I go there they you know, don't know how to do it or the guy that does that isn't there that day or whatever. So, I don't know. We'll see. And the moment of truth, let's see if she starts.

[00:16:50]Might prime the old uh fuel pump once or twice just to get some pressure up.

[00:17:06]Okay.

[00:17:09]It's a good sign.

[00:17:11]All right, guys. This is Spencer now because Lance forgot to plug his microphone in. He got the car outside, he actually washed it, took nice good care of it, and then took it on a pretty good little test drive, and realized that the computer was having an issue syncing up for the transmission. So, he ended up having to do a relearn on it.

[00:17:34]You can see this car has like the paddle shifters on it and stuff, and the original car did not have that. So, there's some issues with that, I think.

[00:17:41]I don't know all the details, but he had some issues with that, and he did take a fair amount of time to get that sorted out, but it was sorted out, went on a good long test drive, everything worked perfect on the car, and pretty much a good to go car now for these folks. So, here it is.

[00:18:00]Hey.

[00:18:01]Look at this guy to show up once all the work was done. I know. I heard I heard it was done, and I was like, I'm coming over. Busy day? Uh very. Okay. Very Oh, hold on. You can't hear They can't hear me. Let me >> What's up? All right. Hey guys, I I took the day off. I went to an amusement park by myself.

[00:18:17]>> You did not. No. I I worked all day long.

[00:18:20]>> Let me tell you something. I understand why you wear sunglasses. The camera is right here. Yeah, why is your head so far back? You just You put your You just stand. You just stand. You're You're back here. Like Yeah, you're doing that. You're doing that. You'll learn.

[00:18:37]Okay. Well, anyway, I'm having trouble looking at this. I want to look at my own face, but when you do, the eyes aren't looking at the camera.

[00:18:44]It's tough, okay? But >> Dude, it looks nice. It's It's >> I've never even I've never even opened the door. Dude, it's >> Sitting at the top of the roof. FIRE IT UP for the for the people. Did they hear it yet? Uh yeah, I did an engine start.

[00:19:00]I uh Just to summarize, I took it on a test drive. The seat The seat is a little It It The foam's worn out.

[00:19:09]>> Yeah. Yeah. So, to summarize, I took it on a test drive and on the test drive the transmission would not shift right.

[00:19:17]And it's because I switched the entire drive line from a different transmission. Like like it had the same engine, but when I used the engine and transmission control module, which is all one unit, um it did not have like the shift points or the the things it needed for this particular setup. So, I had to put a whole new ECU from the other vehicle on this.

[00:19:38]And then I had to do a 30-minute GM relearn, where you have to turn the key on for 10 minutes, then turn it off for 10 minutes, then turn it on, you know, vice versa or not not vice versa, but you know, again and again. And after 30 minutes, the key was programmed and it came up and fired up and it brought up a check engine light because it thought it was a brand new engine.

[00:19:57]So, it needed a crank position relearn.

[00:19:59]So, I did that. And now all check engine lights are gone, I think, right?

[00:20:05]Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And it runs quiet. Went right into gear, all that stuff. Took it on a test drive, it shifted good. It's right now. So.

[00:20:12]>> this a quick flips or are we I don't know what this is. I mean >> it actually by definition of I can tell you I didn't >> One day. It is one day. I mean, sort of.

[00:20:23]I It was like 2 hours and 2 hours and then 8 hours total?

[00:20:27]>> 5 hours today or something. 9 probably.

[00:20:28]9, 10. Not bad. By yourself? Not bad by myself.

[00:20:31]>> No, I didn't help at all.

[00:20:32]>> Yeah. All right. Feels good. Yeah. Feels good not to help, I'll tell you.

[00:20:36]>> Yeah.

[00:20:37]Well, you know, write your thoughts in the comments and you know, please like and subscribe and all the other things you're supposed to say at the end.

[00:20:45]So.

[00:20:46]>> know that I say them. I say thanks for watching.

[00:20:47]>> Yeah, that thanks for watching.

[00:20:48]>> a gentleman. Yeah. Well, and a scholar.