ultimohero

Hello, My mom has a 2011 with the Le9 in it. We replaced the transmission in October now suddenly there's a hole in one of the pistons. It has the flex fuel engine in it but the price difference in the engines is crazy. Plus the fact they we don't even have flex fuel in her area and it has never had flex fuel in it. It has 170k on it and shes in love with it so I decided to replace the engine. The question is, can we put a LE5 in it or do we have to go with the LE9?

aradmahogany

Simplest answer would be injectors and computer tune are the only difference between the two. There was a member on here who was featured in a documentary where he took an older 2.2 cobalt, reflashed the ecu and had it running on 100percent ethanol. Imo the flex fuel thing is a gimmick. Only problem you would really encounter is the computer not liking the le5. You would need a flash.

ultimohero

Thanks for the quick reply. So if I were to switch the injectors, the stock computer would se the LE5 as a LE9 and couldn't tell the difference right? Because the injectors are really the biggest difference.

aradmahogany

Theoretically. I really am not 100percent sure. The internals and accessories and all other parts of the two engines are the same. I don't know if the stock tune for the LE9 would have an issue with an LE5 installed. Injector switch may not even be necessary. Let's wait for one of the gurus to chime in to be safe.

Oldblue

The tune would be in the ECM

ultimohero

Right? So the accessories are the difference right? As long as I use everything off of the LE9 the computer should read no error

donbrew

Maybe you could get away with just replacing the ECM and BCM and TCM from the donor. Then programming the VIN into the computers.

Much simpler to just get the correct engine.

ultimohero

You're right. I mean save a few bucks up front and spend a grip getting it to work.