i know i would get yelled at this cause every1 and there mother would yell swap a 350, lt1 or ls1, but i was wondering if working a 3800 to the *****, or close to it..... what would the hp be and all that g0od stuff.... i know it would not be worth but can i get more than 300 ponys?!!

 

nowhere close to 300hp...you'll be lucky if you score 200@ the wheels without any form of power adders.

 

Thats a lame reply but. It depends on which 3.8 you use.
and how much money you want to spend.

The right 3.8 can put out 750+ HP

 

the swaps already been done, talk to project 85, who swapped in a 3800. The engines produce 200 horsepower in factory form. If you're looking to get into the 300 range, or even the 300 at the wheels, don't look at those later 3800s, find urself a buick grand nat engine, t-type motor, or TTA engine and do that swap, build the engine to hand as much boost and the turbo can put out, and run it till it blow up. You'll have a nice 10 second car right there.

 

I totally agree with 85f-bird...the only 3.8 that can pull that off is gotta be out of GN(86-87). when he says 300hp, i'm asumming with an NA 3.8 from somewhere in the GM family...NO.

 

i was thinking of getting 1 of those motors but they are to expensive to buy and parts are even more money.... plus the chances of buy a virgin motor are very slim... thatz y i was thinking of useing another 3800.. i dont care if its supercharged or turbo but i would not use spray....

 

how about the long forgoten 3.4 dohc? are there parts for those? trying to go away from the 8cyl... im not lo0king to get major performance but atleast 300hp..... any other ideas?!

 

did someone mention my name?

for the f-body,get a gtp short block,L36 heads, and a 95.5~97 intake to clear the firebird hood. you can now run a s/c or turbo and not have toworry about the eaton in your firewall. 300hp is realistic,at crank or rear wheels no mater gnx or gtp, just depends on how you go about it.

fwiw after market for the 3.4 dohc, well it's pretty much non-existant.

 

hey Project: 85 2.8 bird.... how much u pushing?
wat am i lo0king into?!?! how much truble am i starting by doing something like this every1 i know says not to do it cause its not worth it.....

 

all depends on how much time/money you have. My never ending project has been a few yrs in the making, & remaking but it's been fun (except for fire) and I've enjoyed it.

THe new L32's (the 04+ GTPs) are already pushing 260hp w/no intercooler so your goal is highly acheivable. TO save $$$ go w/the L67 goods. Already set up for forced induction. The main difference between teh L36 & L67 heads are where the fuel injectors go, teh head or the intake.
The main fab job I needed for this swap was motor to mount brackets, everything else jsut fits right in.

Oh yeah, all stock for now. First go, then go faster

 

good luck if you do go through with it

 

A stock L67 from a GTP is rated at 240hp. It doesn't take a whole lot to get some power from them. I say go for it!

 

now me next question is........ umm. any1 have a 3.8 they dont need!?!?!?

 

Yeah, I do. It's a complete 3800 out of a 97 GTP including wiring harness and ecm. I don't know what you are looking to spend but I thought I would mention it. The engine is listed on my Ebay store.

And Nate, your parts were shipped.

 

thanx man but right now im in the planning stages or more at the thought process.... i should have deff answer by jan the latest......

but does any1 have an idea how much this might cost with out the s/c or turbo?!?!

 

If your going to SC or turbo it, get an engine that already has the SC or turbo stuff, whichever you decide to go with. If you go SC and you get a 'normal' 3800 you're going to have to swap heads/intake to bring the compression ratio down and to mount the SC...it will be much easier to get it 'pre-assembled' so to speak. If you decide to turbo, I know that (I think it is) Intense makes a turbo kit that uses the SC housing, but I have no idea what the difference in cost would be between that route and doing only the turbo route, either way you're looking at a sum of money for the turbo job. I think I'd stick with the SC, there is plenty of room for growth there and lots of aftermarket support.

If you just want the 3800 n/a, I don't think the swap would be worth it unless you have specific reasons why you want that engine in your car. Although the 3800 is no slug (210hp I believe, n/a) I just don't see the benefits of having one in a car that portrays the image of muscle -- go v8 if this is the case.

Sorry, I could not really tell from your post whether you want to know the cost before the supercharger/turbo costs are added in, or just plain without either one.

 

the cost before the supercharger/turbo

 

DOn't run a turbo/super charger on an N/A engine??????

okay, now that that's taken care of, yes you can. RK SPort has a pricey kit for it, powerdyne has one and there is at least one turbo kit out there. Two if doward get's to play w/your car for pipes.

I got lucky & got my set up for $200, but the tranny died ( i have new one ready to go in). Brackets cost me $80 to get made.
So far, that's about $560 inparts which includes the pcm & harness.

AS far as the 3800 (or any six cylinder engine from what I'm reading) not being "muscle", I guess a low 12 sec 3800 Firebird doesn't count.

 

as far as the subject for the turbo 3800 goes, I wanna know if the 700r4 in the 92 bird would be able to handle all that power. I highly doubt it in which case i would prob need a new tranny to suport that power. any one got any ideas for a good tranny to back that motor

 

a 700r4 can handle it. the GNs/TT/A got the 200-r4s, so just get the right parts. ALso, I gonna pm you something interesting. I think you'll be very interested

 

Not to be rude here but I don't think you read what I said...
I said if you want it n/a, I wouldn't do it, I don't think it's worth it...and no one is running low 12 second quarters with an n/a 3800 engine in their f-body. I know you mean with your setup, I'm just saying that that isn't what I said. I know the potential of these engines, but I didn't understand what he meant by his post so I posted my opinion on both cases, n/a and forced.

edit: And you're right, any forced induction v6 pushing our cars into times like that does demonstrate muscle, but like I said...210hp (the stock n/a 3800 rating) doesn't exactly portray that image.

 

yup, I reread what you typed, so disregard. however (you knew it was coming) evo's don't have the image of muscle. moore like atrophy, but they can spank the majority of what's on the road.


The sbc is not the end all of engines.

200 hp (for the f-bodies, 205 in the bonniville cars for some reason) is a whole lot more muscle than the stock v6's our cars came with. Also the 77 T/A I had was rated at 180hp.

 

Amen, brother.

I've had enough 3rd gens apart to know that swapping a 400 sbc isn't that much easier than putting in a Buick. Or a 350 sbc for that matter. Not alot of room in those critical areas.

 

Ok I'm not trying to argue with you, you are right about the small blocks not being the end all, I think you're trying to make an argument in which I'm not arguing otherwise. Haha. Ok we agree, done. If you go back up towards the beginning somewhere, you'll see that I am supportive of this swap.

 

The GN TTA Ttype 200r4 is a beefier then the standard 200r4. But you can build a standard one up.

Most big power Buick 455 guys run the 200r4 over the 700 and prefer starting with a GN TTA Ttype 200r4.

If you had bucks to spend. [First I start with a brand new all aluminum TA performance 3.8 racing block.]
I get a switch pitch adapted to it.
With a flip of a switch. You can launch at 3500 n then shift at 2800 or what ever numbers you chose. You are using a Buick motor so the SP option is already out there if you spend the loot.

 

Being a Buick guy, I prefer the 2004r because it bolts up to the b-o-p engines with no adapter. 700r4 has a lower first gear and is more advantageous if you're running a smaller displacement engine. I've never seen the switch pitch available for overdrive trannys, only th400 and st300. 2004r from gn/tta are better from the factory, but once you put a performance rebuild on it, those special parts don't mean much.