exhaust manifold swap questions...

I'm putting a 1996 engine into my 2000, and i'd like to use the exhaust manifold from the 1996, and the intake manifold from the 2000. Is there mating differences that will stop me from this working correctly?

thanks

I do not think there is.

I'm going to do close to the same thing when I put a '98 head on my 2000. The 2000's have the cast iron exhaust manifolds, while the earlier ones have the tubular headers. To hook in to the exhaust pipe going to the cat takes some kind of adaptation. And if you have the California emissions package (not only found in Cal) you will have the pre-cats and 4 o2 sensors instead of 2. As far as the two manifolds assembling to the head, there is just a little grinding of some interference between the two manifolds. If you search on the 0331 head, you will get more details.