I'm thinking of buying a 97 Monte with 90,000 miles on it. It has a lot of new parts but it has either a blown head gasket or a cracked head. I'm looking at my options to get a new engine put in, since the 3.1 has a lot of problems I'm wondering if there's a different engine I could look at. Should I get another 3.1 or maybe get a 3.4 or a 350?

 

correct me if im wrong but i dont think a 350 would work in a fwd car

 

I doubt it would, I was joking about the 350.... I'm more interested in the options that are realistic

 

I know that alot of people will scream L67, but i have a 3.1 and it serves me well.

I'd keep the 3.1

 

First, IMO if you do buy it- figure out what is actually wrong with the engine. If it only has 90k on it, you should be able to at least get another 50k out of it- maybe even another 100k if you treat it right. No reason to scrap an engine for something like one bad head (they're a dime a dozen in a junkyard), or a popped head gasket.

If you get it, and something is critically wrong with the bottom end, and it needs replaced- then you really need to be honest with us and yourself as far as:

-how much you want to spend
-what you're looking to get out of it mod wise (in HP)
-what you plan to do with the car (building a drag car, a beater DD for work, etc)


Here is my opinion on your two best options:
A) If you just want a cheap beater DD, and the engine you have is toast- find a used short block for cheap/free and drop it in. Used 3100s are a dime a dozen, and are pretty reliable engines if you don't want to make any serious power. Heck, I couldn't even give away my 3100/4t60e (~90k, both in pretty good shape) for free when I did my L67 swap- thats how little they are sought after. Just get the car running and drive it til the wheels fall off.

B) You want to make serious power, and plan to use the car as either a weekend fun car, or for some sort of fun racing (ie weekend drags, street racing, something along those lines)- then dump your current powertrain, and do an L67 (3800 supercharged) / 4t65hd swap. It can be done under $1500 for a stock setup, and allows you acess to a lot more go fast goodies (current records are about 400whp with a stock supercharger, 525 with an aftermarket supercharger, or 725+ whp with a turbo setup)