With the search down I was hoping somebody could hook me up with some info on this swap. I can get a 95 3800 to replace the fading 2.8. What is involved in the swap physically? Does the T-5 mate up to this engine? Got los of help with engine technically but from someone who puts them in Fieros, not F-bodies! Thanks, Tim

 

its a farly easy swap.. If U use the 2.8 intakes and all the 2.8 sensors its basicly a direct drop in.. U will need to use the 3.4 oilpan and timing cover and water pump and the injectors.... but every thing else U keep from the 2.8 and.. it will be really easy..

 

any other opinions on this i heard it was a bitch to swap in a 3.8?

 

The 3800 is usually a front wheel drive, transverse mount engine and won't work in a rear wheel drive vehicle without a lot of custom fabrication to make it line up with a rear wheel drive tranny. The reason it works for Fiero's is the engine in those cars is transverse mounted in the back.

 

Is the 3800 from an F-Body, or is it from a FWD car? If its from a FWD car you are in for TONS of work. If its from a 96 up F-Body then its a RWD setup, and its still quite a bit of work (as much if not more then a V8 swap). If your looking to replace a tired 2.8 and gain some power then I would recomend swapping in a 3.4 from a 93-95 FBody. There is tons of info on that swap and its fairly straight forward.

 

.. WTH.. The 3.8 from a 94 and up f-body will fit with out a problen at all.. And the 2.8 in a Fiero is a RWD version. not a FWD version.. I have done the feiro swap a few times and the FWD block is diffrent from the feiros block.. And the real diffrence from the FWD and the RWD block id the Bosses for the mounts need to be drilled out and the starter bosses the same..

 

there are differences between fieros and camaros . . . since fieros use a transverse setup they can use FWD motors with just a little modification. since they are RWD they can use RWD motors just fine. with a camaro or firebird your kinda limited to RWD. FWD can work, but it isnt worth it(because all the V8s are RWD anyway, why bother with a FWD v6). Project 85 on here got most of the way through a 3800 swap and then ditched it for an L03 because it was too much of a pain in the ***.

 

no, I ditched it because the wiring pwn3d me. I had it running one day, even moved it around open manifold to do different things (pissing off the neighbors w/no exhaust) then I deploy, come back & it wouldn't start. I think it was passkey related. Of course a few months after I do the "mighty" 305 swap, I could afford/find a 97 pcm that could be programmed to do w/o passkey & other things and thus be done w/it.

FWD & RWD L36 (3800 n/a) use the same long blocks, and thus are interchangable. The tranny bolt pattern is 60*

The wiring should be cake w/a full VSS gauge ( i had to rewire in an 88 unit), get 97 pcm for programability (remove speed limiter, program in your rear gears, get rid of rear o2 sensor codes (who needs 4 o2 sensors anyway?). Motor mounts are easier than you think, and it's best to stick w/the stock exhaust logs unless you want to notch the rear a-arm support a little. Engine bay cleans up fantastically w/it in. See my cardomain for some pics, best site w/pics is down for upgrading (sound familiar).

The Holy Book Haynes is pretty straight forward in it's wiring diagrams (suprisingly) for the pcm, so wire tracing/pin outs is straight forward. Aftermarket is there too, and replacement parts are a plenty due to the fwd aspect.

I'm here all night, or at least 30 more days before getting stateside again


o yeah, F_bod 3800's are from 95.5~2002. In 99 they went from angled tb/manifold to straight. I do not beleive that the straight manifold engines will clear a firebird hood, but the angled do. Not sure if all straight manifold tb's are throttle by wire though, need to look into it.

 

The 3800 didn't come out until '97 IIRC, replacing the 3.4 in the engine options. There is a HUGE difference between the 660 and 3.8/3800.

There is not enough info in the OP to anser the question with any sort of accuracy. Since I believe there was not a 3.8/3800 available in RWD trim in '95, just FWD. So we really need to find out what this engine is. Is it a FWD 3800 or a mistaken identy and being a 3.4 from an F-body?

BTW, the Fiero block is 99% like an early FWD block. Not very much like the RWD block.

 

You couldn't mistake a 3800 from the3.4 because on the Intake(unless the intake is gone) the of 95+ say 3800 and in 95 was the last year a 3.4 was aviable in a f-body... 3.8 swap would be a little more difficult to do... A 3.4 swap would be much easier,because the engine mounts would be the same, but I would listen to Project85 2.8 bird he would have the most experiance in doin either of those swaps !!

 

yeah, I don't know how I even skipped the 3.1. I must've been kicked in teh head that day &

 

Are you sure the 3800 has a 60° V6 bolt pattern?

 

Positive

starter location is a different issue though

 

Thanks guys, still deciding what to do. I am stuck at the research stage. The car is not mint so...

 

the 3800 is a 90* block, why would it have a 60* trany mount?

 

so it could bolt to FWD trans that are usually only made in the 60* flavor.

 

lots of room in that bay w/that engine

 

So because a N* is a 90* It automatically won't have a 60* pattern, or the 2.2L OHV I4s because they are I4 they automatically won't have a 60* pattern? Well they both do. The N* has a bump at the top of the bellhousing to clear the starter snout, however. BTW, it's called a "GM small corporate bolt pattern".

 

Nope, the 3.8 was available midway through the '95 F-body model year, '96 was the first year it was the only V6 option.

'99+ have throttle by wire and would be a PITA to hook up reguardless of the intake clearance issues.

If you're bothering to do a swap to a 3.8 you might as well toss in a nice cam for the thing, I installed a .512/.507 "VS" Cam from zzperformance.com when I owned my '97 RS, it dyno'd around 210 to the rear wheels with a timing bump by 4*, full exhaust/headers, K&N and poly tranny mount (manual)... pretty quick for a V6 and it still got me 30 MPG on the highway.

The T-5 in third gens was virtually the same manual tranny available on the V6 fourth Gens.