Originally Posted by UJustGotSarged5 (Post 713446)

I know the L36 is at pull a part I've seen a couple but I don't really know how good a shape they are in.

Originally Posted by bumpin96monte (Post 713449)

That's going to be any engine you buy like that really. Best you can do is your due diligence - check the mileage on the odo if possible, check the oil, check compression if possible, see how the car was treated in general. You certainly run the risk that it was beat on its whole life and won't last a year, but luckily they're a dime a dozen (at least the L36) so you can just swap it again if it does blow up.



Please don't spend $2k on a 3800, that's absurd. Maybe that price made a little sense 10 years ago, but $2k or so nowadays will buy you just about every L36 grand prix or monte carlo on Craigslist, and most of the L67 grand prix. You could buy the whole car and just mod that, or part it out and just keep what you need.



To put this in perspective, you're talking about doing a complete powertrain swap here. Installing a turbo kit is a cakewalk in comparison.

If level of difficulty is a big factor, just spray your current engine.

Originally Posted by UJustGotSarged5 (Post 713458)

I'm starting to lean towards the L36 + Turbo someone will definitely have to do it for me because there's no way I can do it myself

Originally Posted by bumpin96monte (Post 713471)

If that's the case, I'd start shopping around for labor estimates on it. Custom labor rates vary quite a bit, but it could certainly be substantial on a project like this. Just need to make sure the total project cost will fit in your mod budget for this car.

Originally Posted by bumpin96monte (Post 713449)

That's going to be any engine you buy like that really. Best you can do is your due diligence - check the mileage on the odo if possible, check the oil, check compression if possible, see how the car was treated in general. You certainly run the risk that it was beat on its whole life and won't last a year, but luckily they're a dime a dozen (at least the L36) so you can just swap it again if it does blow up.



Please don't spend $2k on a 3800, that's absurd. Maybe that price made a little sense 10 years ago, but $2k or so nowadays will buy you just about every L36 grand prix or monte carlo on Craigslist, and most of the L67 grand prix. You could buy the whole car and just mod that, or part it out and just keep what you need.



To put this in perspective, you're talking about doing a complete powertrain swap here. Installing a turbo kit is a cakewalk in comparison.

If level of difficulty is a big factor, just spray your current engine.

Originally Posted by bumpin96monte (Post 713449)

That's going to be any engine you buy like that really. Best you can do is your due diligence - check the mileage on the odo if possible, check the oil, check compression if possible, see how the car was treated in general. You certainly run the risk that it was beat on its whole life and won't last a year, but luckily they're a dime a dozen (at least the L36) so you can just swap it again if it does blow up.



Please don't spend $2k on a 3800, that's absurd. Maybe that price made a little sense 10 years ago, but $2k or so nowadays will buy you just about every L36 grand prix or monte carlo on Craigslist, and most of the L67 grand prix. You could buy the whole car and just mod that, or part it out and just keep what you need.



To put this in perspective, you're talking about doing a complete powertrain swap here. Installing a turbo kit is a cakewalk in comparison.

If level of difficulty is a big factor, just spray your current engine.

Originally Posted by UJustGotSarged5 (Post 713509)

I've come across a 3800 series 3 supercharged for 800$ 110k miles on it. I'm interested but would it fit?

Originally Posted by bumpin96monte (Post 713515)

As far as fitment goes, it's the same size as any other 3800. The upsides are that its 20 more HP stock than an L67 and has the better gen 5 blower. The downside is that it'll take more work to swap. a few big ones I can think of:
-L32 had returnless fuel lines, so the rail only has 1 port whereas your car has 2 - a feed and a return with a regulator on the rail.
-the L32 is drive by wire (no cable going to the throttle body)

Depending what harness you plan to run, you could have connector differences, the fuel injectors being one I can think of. As L67s were always plentiful around here, I've never done an L32 swap so there may be other pitfalls I'm not thinking of.

Originally Posted by ChibiBlackSheep (Post 713521)

I wouldn't bother with a series 3, I would continue to look for a series 2. Like Bumpin' mentioned, it will require more for the swap, and there could be some random unknowns. I like to work with combinations that were offered from the factory, especially when getting into tuning your new set up.