Could I Do an Engine Swap?

[stevenr2185]

What I mean is will I actually be able to do it with the skills I have. I am not incredibly stupid with cars. I have always been able to do most of the work on it. Such as spark plugs, head gasket, brakes, control arm bushings... , alternator, water pump, power windows, A/C, thermostat, just about anything. Wow my car must really suck If I have done all that work to it.... So would I be getting in too deep if I tried to do an engine swap. I have access to all the stuff I would need, such as a engine lifting thing (the thing that looks like a mini crane, engine stand, tools. I plan on doing this either winter break or next summer. If anyone has done this how hard was it, and how long did it take you? I want to do a 3100 to 3400. thanks

[voyager]

i haven't done it, and don't want to say that you can do it without really knowing, but the major thing holding me back from doing it myself is having neither a hoist nor a garage.

my advice would be to have someone help you who has done it before.. i wouldn't try it alone even with all the right tools for the first time. label everything as you unplug/unbolt it so nothing gets mixed up.

if you do the swap, the egr doesn't bolt up. i know a guy on another forum who fabricated an adapter, or you could block it off. the only other issue i know of is the timing chain cover - 3400's have an extra pulley, so either cut it off or use the 3100 cover so you can keep the 3100 accessories.

somebody who knows more about this ought to post..

good luck!

[Korbendallas68]

3400swap.com will be running again... Sometime...

Sorry. I dont get paid to have my site, so it comes out of my pocket. And I'm going back to school this fall, so the money is going to be tight.

[whitegase]

Will a 3.8L 3800 series 3 supercharged gm perfromance v6 engine fit in my 1996 grand am se??

[urweak]

Originally posted by whitegase
Will a 3.8L 3800 series 3 supercharged gm perfromance v6 engine fit in my 1996 grand am se??

Its been done with a 93 GT but its not cheap. around 5k just for the swap.

[GrandAmKid16]

I know in 99 up GA a 3.8L Gen3 supercharged crate would drop right in. I was talking to a few guys at the shop I go to. http://www.gmpartsdepot.com/product1.aspx?UserID=115022&SessionID=KA7EbMiDgErftDNxcP0k&SID=2&Product_ID=1299&Category_ID=2 Would be pretty sweet. But that is a boat load of money to do the swap. It comes down to how fast you want to go and how much you want to spend.

[Freeloader]

If you're really going to drop that much money, then go all the way and convert to RWD.

[hot-bodiez]

Use a video camera. Go over your engine bay realy well before, and during the rmoval of the "old" engine. If you come accross something that stumps you, you can go back and look at the video to help.

[Stephen's GA]

An engine swap is fairly complicated espically when the motor isnt made for that car your gonna need to know how to weld do a complete ecm swap,be able to figure out how to tie into the GA dash, figure out the passkey and the list goes on im sure the 3400 wouldnt be bad but a 3800 your talkin about alot of work, im not trying to bust your bubble im sure you could do it but your gonna need to know about all the differ components that make up the power plant & drivetrain.

My company is working on on a N* swap its not easy and its going super slow but we are getting there but this is a spare time project so we will finish one of these days.

[30thAnnGAGT]

A 3400 swap has been done more than once fairly easily.

All a 3400 is, is a bored over 3100. Forget the swap. Just have your motor ported and polished.

[cliff]

lol it dosent quite work like that, if you bored your motor that much you would no longer have cylinder walls to hold the pistons in, its a different stroek, and maybe even a different block casting.

Fidn someone whos done a swap and buy their old motor off of them for cheap, then pull it apart and build it how you want and put it in your car,, driving your car the whole time you build the motor.

Or they may be a stroker crank kit for the 3.1, i dunno though, someone else would probably know better

[Jerome]

Yeah for all the trouble, why not cram something a little bigger in your engine bay than the 3400...better yet spend the money on some mods (maybe a supercharger).
A stock 3400 is not worth the trouble.

[voyager]

.. because a 3400 swap isn't much trouble if you start out with a 3100. there's no fabrication that needs to be done other than the EGR valve, the 3400 uses the same mounts, and the 3100 ECM can run the 3400.

something else might be cool, but replacing an old and busted 3100 with a new, low mileage 3400 is a good, cheap way to get reliable performance and an extra 15hp or so. it'd be a good way to get experience without the headaches stephen mentioned. it's not going to cost nearly as much as boost - shouldn't be much more than $600-$700 depending on how much you can get the motor for, if you can do the work yourself.

grandamkid, i really don't think that 3800 will "drop right in." that engine will fit, sure, but it ain't going to be easy to make it work. maybe if we all drove GP's we could 'drop that right in' lol.

do the swap. have the 3400 ported and polished and the heads bored over before you put it in.

al you guys naysaying the swap seem to already have 3400's.. ease off guys, we just want to be as cool as you all are, that's all.

=D