What's up guys? I have a few questions and need some advice. But first things first, the story. I bought my 02 Monte Carlo SS (NA) February last year. I love it. It is my first car and I couldn't have asked for a better one, except maybe a '69 Camaro RS/SS, but each of us have our own dreams. Anyway, being only the third car I've ever driven and the first V6 (the other were two four bangers) I thought it was fast. That is until i got destroyed by a little beamer taking off from a stop light. Since then I've been looking at what kind of things i could do to make her faster. Now to the main reason for this post.
What I want in the end is about 300 hp using the M90 S/C (gen 3 or 5 I don't care) and to not kill my drivability/gas mileage. I have about 4,000 to play with but would like to do it for less if at all possible. First question, should I do the top swap or a full engine swap to the L67? Basically what are the pros and cons of each option? Difficulty of the swap, power gain, expense, etc? I found one at a junkyard in a 95 Riviera that the owner wrecked on the freeway. It has about 65,000 miles on it (mine has over 125,000). They want 1,600 for the whole engine, computer, and harness. The reason I ask about difficulty is because the most complicated thing I've done is put in a Wizaired CAI. I've read a lot, mostly on here, but not done much. The only other performance mod done is a little exhaust work. Second question, will my current transmission handle the power boost? It has made a grinding sound shifting into 4th at high rpm's twice but I got a flush and haven't a problem since so maybe that fixed it. My final question for now (I'm sure there will be many more later ) are the headers from the W-Body store worth it and would they be easy to do right now? Here is a link:

http://www.wbodystore.com/grandprix/...1.html?id=312#

Thanks for any help/advice you guys can give.

 

You have TONS of questions that have all been answered plenty plenty of times. Searching around ANY w-body / 3800 engine forum

Top-swap will be the cheapest and easiest way to boost your car, can be done for $500-1000 after all the hard work.

You will have higher compression which means you'll use boost more efficiently. Your transmission will go eventually, this will only make the process go faster. Some people are lucky some aren't (myself included) But when it goes you rebuild it stronger. SSAC headers are good.

I would stay away from that old engine. You can find top-swaps selling on clubgp.com/newforum or 3800pro.com etc.

There's so much research that you will need to just sit down and do. Read every forum you can and just start making lists.

 

Don't neglect the transmission. You'll build up all that engine and there 4T65-E will not be able to handle 300 hp for a long period of time. You'll also want the transmission if you do a full engine swap. The supercharged 3800 had a 4T65-E-HD (or something like that) and it had a different final driver ratio (it ran lower rpm's at highway speeds). If you are capable enough of doing all of the work yourself, you can probably do a top end swap for the said $500-1000. To get to 300 hp though, I'd look at a moderate cam from ZZPerformance and a smaller pulley than the stock on the L67.

Happy tunning!

www.zzperformance.com

 

Also I see you live close to www.tripleedgeperformance.com

 

300 crank horsepower is VERY easy to get for $4000, I would say you should be able to do it for half, maybe a pinch more depending how cheap you get the parts.

The cheapest route IMO would be to do a search on "top swap", get a list of all the parts you need and do a top swap with a gen 3 (since they're dirt cheap compared to the gen 5's); then do the basic bolt ons for an L67- 1.9 modded stock rockers, PLOG/DP or headers, a smaller SC pulley, tuned pcm, 104 plugs, 180* tstat, etc etc. Most of the parts you can get used off the forums like clubgp's classifieds for pretty cheap (plus the top swap parts too).

A full L67 swap is typically more expensive since you're buying a lot more parts. I would say labor is about the same, although a top swap doesn't require a cherry picker or lift- both are a good deal of work. Also, the nice thing about a top swap is 95% of your engine is the same as before- so you know how badly you've abused your car up to this point. If you're raped the heck out of it and never changed the oil- then maybe a complete L67 swap would be better. If you've taken care of it, I think you're better off putting as few junkyard parts in as possible.

95 scares me in that it may not be obd2 (wasn't required until 96)- plus that is way high for that old of an engine. Complete, running 97, 98 grand prix gtp's with about 100k miles sell for $3k-4k depending on condition, so figuring half of that price for just the engine alone is really not worth it. They're not rare engines, but junkyards think they're gold because of the supercharger. If $1600 was the cheapest engine you could find, I'd rather double the money and just pick up a complete car.

Yes, too much more power and I'd start getting worried- but 300 hp is what the newer grand prix GXP's put out on a stock 4t65HD which is very similar to your transmission. Many GTP's have daily driver 300 crank hp for years (including my old 99 until I sold it), its really common and nothing to worry about.

Those headers are way huge for an NA car, they're going to kill your power until you go boosted- and even then, they won't be optimal. Get some SSAC's of ebay for the same or less money, and they'll be a better suited pipe size for when you get to 300 hp.

 

Yikes, new motor, new transmission, headers, exhaust, PCM/tuning .....and it's your daily driver. Maybe I'm just lazy, (well, yes I am lazy) but here's the easy way to 300 hp.... sell the 02 Monte and use that money plus the $4,000 you were gonna spend anyway to buy a faster car, even a faster Monte. Unless of course you're really fond of the Monte you have!

 

I haven't checked the price on a good '06-07 SS with the 5.3L V8 but I doubt you could trade up to that Monte.... and some are just fond of the 00-05 Monte Carlo (I being one of them.) It's all about those personal preferences!

 

alrighty your questions have been answered but i have a few for you. what exhaust work have you had done? and how comfortable are you with doing this yourself? its not a very difficult thing to do if you have the tools, knowledge and a little experience working on cars but it is very time consuming and there are alot of steps that you have to go through

 

Yea, I'm thinking along the same lines as Kweef. If you have the tools, equipment,knowledge and time to swap motors/trannys/etc. and if you can afford to have the car out of commision for however long it takes to complete these upgrades, then go for it. Otherwise, a little tinkering with the tranny to firm up the shifts, new (louder exhaust) and your car will feel and sound faster. That Nissan will still blow your doors off, but try to be happy anyway.

 

Could always do a mild NA build with some basic bolt-ons that never take longer than 2 hours