I HAVE READ the stick above, but i need some opinions about this.

Me and my brother convinced his friend to buy a thirdgen. well, he got a 1992 for $200. has a strait body, and the paint isn't too shabby.

THE bad:
160,000 miles
spent last 3 years sitting outside.
Everything leaks!
-rear end
-tranny
-everything on the motor.
motor has no compression

spent last few days pulling motor and checking things out... cylinder walls are fubar, and there is a TON of sledge buildup.

My brothers friend is on a tight budget, and for insurance purposes would like to keep the v6 car. Since it is the 3.1, it is a 60* motor and is completely undesirable. I know he wants v8 power, but can't afford to get a v8 car.


I SAY that he should get a good V8 car with a good motor and tranny, (from a wreck maybe) and swap every bit of v8 stuff into the v6 car to get cheaper insurance.

he want to keep the v6, but i told him the cost to rebuild it would be a waste of money, and he would never be able to sell the car for anything anyways.

I need a poll: Get a donor v8 car and swap EVERYTHING into the v6 car and part out all leftover stuff.

OR

rebuild the v6 as cheap as possible just to get buy, and then swap in a v8 later down the road anyway.

I say first option, but he thinks it will be too much money to do so...

what do you think?

 

The cheapest option is to get another complete V6 from one of your local salvage yards. It's also the least work.
But I can't even tolerate the sluggishness of a well-built 305 now that I've driven so many 350s, and i truly hate the lame 60 degree V6s.
The V6 cat-back is usually the exact same as for the low-output 305s, so you might not need to change that right away, and the V6 axle has gearing that is more performance-oriented, and is plenty strong, so you shouldn't change that, either.

 

I know back when I had my 96 Firebird I asked my insurance company about what would happen if I put a V8 in it. They said it would barely go up at all. They look at the VIN and give a quote based on that.

 

It is a common misconception that a V8 equals higher insurance. It is true some of the time but doesn't always. With cars this old the difference is small. In fact a friend of mine had a V6 which developed a rod knock. He sold the V6 car and bought a V8 car. His insurance went down. The only reason I could come up with that is due to the V8 car having 4 wheel disc brakes instead of drums like the V6 car had.

 

The phrase "tight budget" mixed with the fact that the guy is young means that you need to just help him drop another V6 in there. Maybe you can find a decent used 3.4 from a fourth gen, but don't over do it.

 

My son bought an 87 bird with the V6 for $200. The engine block was cracked, and it had 187K on it.

I seriously considered swapping in a V8, but my son insisted on keeping a V6, for fuel economy as well as he figured it would be cheaper and easier.

I can tell you after the fact that we probably would have been better off doing the V8 swap. We were unable to locate a suitable replacement engine that didn't have very high mileage, and ended up finally buying a used V6 that we rebuilt. The project ended up costing a lot more than we would have spent putting in a used V8 -- I had found a donor car with all necessary parts for $650 with about 117K miles. The parts to rebuild the V6 were significantly more than those for the V8, so even if we had rebuilt the V8 it probably would have cost the same or less.

I think your friend should seriously consider the V8, unless he can find a good used 3.4 for not too much money.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend putting a dollar into it for a rebuild, I should have been more clear.

I was talking about a "take-out" from a wrecking yard that is usually already on a pallet and ready to install.

Good luck!!