i have seen alot of people post that they were either working on or have a 3.8 are they supposed to be something great and what car are they from?
thanks

 

Its a V6, 3.8L Buick Grand National engine, or 89 Trans Am engine with a turbo on it. It'll do 12's easily with free mods.

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There is a 3.8 V6 in the fourth gen f-bodies, but maybe you mean the Buick motor. The turbo V6 swap is probably what they are talking about. This was the motor in TTA's and Buick T-Types and Grand Nationals.

 

What kind of horsepower and torque do these motors make and are they good on gas?
thanks

 

My old boss had an '87 GN, it looked TOTALLY stock and ran high 11s WITH THE A/C ON!! He got 24/30 MPG (city/highway)...

Just add a larger intercooler, tweak the turbo, and upgrade the fuel system and you can run 12s EASY...

For every 14.7 PSI of boost you basically DOUBLE the displacement of your motor.

3.8 (231ci) on 24#s (about the most you can "safely" run on a stock bottom end) = 600ci!

 

There is also a newer version of the famed 3.8 V6. I have one in my '99 Grand Prix GTP. It's supercharged and puts out 240hp/280tq stock. I added a smaller supercharger pulley to get 11lbs of boost and also added a cold air intake setup. The engine now has about 275hp/320tq and it's only a V6!!

Most of the '97-'00 Grand Prixs with this engine and very minor mods run mid 13's in the 1/4!! And 12's are not out of the question either. Several GTPs are already there. Try that with minor bolt-ons on your L98, LO3, or even LT1 V8s........That's the big deal with the 3.8!!

 

here is some info on intercooler for the supercharger 3.8L engine. http://www.thrasher-ep.com/L67_htm/new_cooler.htm
3.8 supercharger with intercooler
now that is the combo should come directly from the gernal(especailly on the monte carlo ss, or the s10 Xtrme).
and here is the everything you want to know about gn/t-type/turbo regal engine www.gnttype.org/

dw

 

When people ask me what the 3.8 motor is all about I usually let them know it is the motor in the GN or TTA. It is basically what gives most muscle cars or car guys in general a reason to stay awake at night worrying.

 

AFAIK, that's the same block. And if it is... those engines seem to be bullet proof!!!!

I went to the strip last week end and there was a guy with a '99 GTP. He was running consistant low 13's.

Later I asked him what he'd done..... CAI, Reprogrammed computer, exhaust system, and street radials on the front.

Maybe that engine was an inspiration for imports.

 

Nah. It's too big for an import engine. The displacement tax in most countries would eat the owners alive with that many cubes. That's why most German cars have weenie little engines that are built and strained to the max to make power. Daimler would absolutely LOVE to be able to make some of the big V-12s they did years ago for some of their larger cars, but that isn't going to happen any time soon.

As for the Buick 231 (one-gallon engine), GM built two versions in the early '60s, then sold the design rights to AMC/Jeep, then bought the rights back from them in about 1972. It's a tank. You almost have to try to break one. For a small engine, it has a lot of torque. It's not a replacement for a big V-8, but can be made to make some real power with power adders, and survives the higher output a lot better than some of its offshore counterparts. Ford and Chrysler have both tried to duplicate it, but have failed miserably. The original design had some very good flow work, and has remained to this day. Someone at Buick had their head out in the bright sunshine and knew what they were doing.

There must be eleventy-jillion of them running around in all years and makes of cars. I'll bet there are almost 1/5 as many 231s as there are SBC 350s, and that's a lot.

You won't see any in NASCAR any time soon, since they just don't have the displacement to make the power needed. The best one I've ever read about in a magazine article was making just shy of 650HP with a blower and a lot of $$$ to hold it together. That's pretty damned impressive for a V-6 or that size.

 

my friend had a turbo regal with a twin turbo setup that was running low 8's, those motors are freakin bad dude!

he now has a fourth gen camaro with a TT-BBC running 6.50's, pretty impressive.

 

:hail: LC2

 

I havent been impressed with the 3.8L in any platform. Granted its better then any 2.8, 3.1 or 3.4 but when you spend all day working on a superchrged regal, getting all excited then finally test drive it you find your expectations way short. (thats what she said)

 

A/C might have been ON, but chip shuts it down in PE mode, otherwords, full throttle.

 

1989 20th Aniversary Turbo Trans-AM is rated at 250HP/350TQ. However many people claim stock dyno numbers of 301HP/350TQ.

Consider that GM never lets anything beat the Corvette on paper. So as a result GM may have lowered the rating to keep Corvette sales higher. Without actually changing the 1989 Turbo Trans-AM specs.

In reality at those ratings the 1989 Turbo TA would have the HP/TQ advantage over the 1989 C-4. *If* it really was 301HP/350TQ.

Also keep in mind that in 1989 they ran low 13's stock. For a thousand bucks your in the low 12's or high 11's.

That's LS1 territory.

 

I'd like to see a photo of that BBC sandwiched between the fenders of a fourth gen along with two turbos. That's gotta be one snug package. That would also be pretty close to insanity. Time to go hunting a Ferarri or two...

 

TTA LC2 numbers

"Official" 250 hp@ 345 lbs
Stock Dynoed 310hp @ 397 lbs

TTA fact: the "301" hp people hear about is when GM randomly pulled 10 TTAs off the assembly line and had them dynoed...THE LOWEST of the 10 DYNOED AT 301 hp!

0-60 in 4.6 sec on a stocker TTA remains one of the best F-Body blasts in the history of the Camaro/Firebird.

It was difficult back in 1989 to explain why a TTA (250hp/345lb) would have almost a full second advantage through the quarter mile when pitted against the 1989 Corvette (255hp/350lbs)

 

well, i know this has been a while since last talked about. the bbc is actually an oldsmobile motor and the turbos are kinda underneath the car. it is hard to describe. you may be able to find pictures of his car on the internet. his name is Lawerence Conley

found his website: www.tweaked2.com

 

It was only rated at 245hp/345ft-lbs. I know thats only a small difference but it was less than the TTA.

 

Oh no not this fictional conspiracy again.

 

Let's get it straight exactly what we're talking about here:

The 3.8 sucks.

The turbo is cool.

Too bad the only GM division that did turbo R&D was Buick, and that they were stuck with the 6-cylinder platform for some reason.

The reason the car is fast isn't because it's a 3.8; it's because it has a turbo.

The reason everybody wants one is because it's a whole lot easier and safer to just buy the factory's R&D which was released to the public at below cost for promotional reasons, than it is to go through the school of hard knocks (rod knocks?) on your own turbo setup.

 

Are you sure about the NASCAR thing? I thought some of the lower tier series actually run V6's? I don;t follow the sport much, but i could swear i once read an article on how they were getting 600hp out of V6s with 390cfm carbs in one of the feeder series.


As for 650hp being the most you heard of, i'm assuming you mean today. Or maybe you meant stock appearing. After all, there are plenty of 10 second and beyond turbo regals that for all intents and purposes look stock with say an intercooler and a half and a bored / modifed turbo. Thats to say nothing of the 6 second duttweiler and stage motor cars. Pretty sure they make a shade over 650hp to get there..

 

They used to run them in Busch; that's what the turbo V6 was promoting, when Buick also still ran in NASCAR. You got to run either a 6-cyl and something like 3200 lbs, or a V8 and 3400 lbs. Most teams took the weight and put up with the lesser power.

The few serious go-fast parts for the Chevy V8 (the 90° one, not the 60° ones) date from the same period. In fact, the Chevrolet Power Manual (now called Performance Parts Catalog) in about 83 or so had a 4.3 on the cover, with some like 2" Stahl-style headers and a huge tall single-plane intake.