Thanks for the answers and all the advice. And yes JaxJim I am quite attached to my Monte. It's a great car. The exhaust work done was new Magnaflow mufflers, and i cut out the resonator. I was going to do the u-bend delete but the mechanic reminded me how bad the roads in town are. I didn't want to chance hitting a pothole or bump and getting my O2 sensor ripped off along with whatever else it was attached to. Now that I am moving I'm probably going to get a high flow cat and the u-bend delete. Instead of getting the downpipe as well I want to get new headers (what are SSAC's, a brand?) when I do the swap. If understand what I've read that will provide enough airflow for what I want to do. As far as sticking NA and just doing some bolt-ons, I'm set on the S/C, at least eventually. Then if I decide I want more power down the line (not entirely unlikely) I'm good to go. I know that the top swap would be easier/cheaper but i'm kinda iffy about putting boost on a bottom end with 125,000 miles on it. I've read what everybody says about how strong our bottom ends are but still it makes me nervous. As far as time goes I have nothing but time till March 4th. Then all time goes away. I'm in the Navy and I just started a month of leave after finishing the 1.5 year nuclear school they have. I have to report to my sub on the 4th. Until then I got nothing to do. I could do the work myself with a little bit of added expertise (all the how to's on here and other sites) assuming I had the space and tools, which I don't. That is the hard part about all this.

 

Well, If you can learn how to keep a nuclear sub functioning, then working on that Monte Carlo should be easy! There are a lot of experts on this web site, so you'll get good advice. Most of the work done on my cars is simply to keep them running - just routine maintenance and repair. I've got a '99 Z34 that I bought 3 months ago. I also have a 96 Lumina that I've owned since new. The Lumina is identical in every way to the Monte, except for the number of doors (and motor - 3.1 vs 3.8) and I've probably fixed about everything that could go wrong with it over the last 14 years.

 

I've never understood why mechanics and exhaust shops are so against this mod. They like to push people into doing catbacks and such, but IMO there is no point in increasing flow after such a major restriction. As far as road conditions go- do you frequently scrape the underbody of your car on the ground/rocks? (I'm talking the actual floor pan of the car, not the plastic scrape shield up front) You've got a lot of stuff on the car that hangs down drastically lower than an O2 sensor from a ubend delete would.

Yes. Basically there are 4 types of headers for the 3800 that I know of:

-TOGs (have always been the most expensive)
-SLP's and knockoffs (like the SSAC's)
-Pacesetters and knockoffs (like the other ebay companies)
-S&S (the small ones for the NA guys)

The SLP and Pacesetters are the most popular- mostly because both have been copied by a couple of different companies and are the cheapest.

Good call- thats the bad thing about modding NA, the prices start going up dramatically and the horsepower gains get smaller and smaller. If you look at the records for highest power NA cars, almost 1/3 of the list of NA records are putting out less than a bone stock gen 3 SC car- and some of those guys have a cam and a couple thousand in other mods.

It's your call, if you think your current bottom end is beat up, then definitely use this opportunity to swap it out. I wouldn't be so worried about the bottom end itself going bad necessarily- the only real parts to go bad are the bearings and piston rings; obviously both will be worn, but I wouldn't seriously worry about either until you start getting closer to 200k. What I'd be more thinking about with that kind of mileage is all of the sensors and such, since those seem to be more hit or miss. As your engine gets older and older, more of those sensors (ie crank position sensor, ICM, etc) will go out. However, thats not to say that dropping in a 75k mile engine won't have a sensor die immediately either, its just less likely.

If you're going to do a complete engine swap, you really should look around the find the best price. Years ago when I did my swap, I paid $1500 for a complete, totalled 98 GTP (I want to say I bought it in 04 or 05), and at that time complete powertrains with wiring were selling for about the same- so I came out a little ahead by being able to part the good pieces off the car out; keep some for upgrading my monte (like the HUD and DIC); and still know that I had every last piece to make the engine run.

That leads me to my other point- if you're worried about your bottom end at 125k and want to do an L67 swap- you may as well get a complete L67 and 4t65HD altogether. Your trans isn't going to die from the extra power, but IMO there is no sense in dropping in a low mileage engine on a older trans- these transmissions seem to fail much more frequently the more you get over 100k just from general part failure, solenoid failure, etc.

So that way, if you find a whole setup with 50k, 60k, whatever on it- then you know that everything under the hood- all the accessories, trans, etc will all be newer. The downside is, you're going to pay a good bit more to go this route than just picking up a few pieces for a top swap.

 

After looking at some of the prices people want for a full top swap I think I'm gonna go that route. Average price is probably like 350 = shipping. I still can't find the SSAC headers. Maybe a link? Do all header kits make the downpipes from ZZP or the W-Body store pointless? If so, why? Do they include one?

 

Most headers include a downpipe (although they are generally catless also).

Here are the SSAC headers:

http://www.ssautochrome.com/level.itml/icOid/1886

They're sold on ebay under various names too:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/97-98...Q5fAccessories

 

How does a full top swap minus belt and gaskets out of a '99 GTP with 85k miles sound? $375 shipped to my door. Then all I would need is to get my PCM tuned right? And thanks for the links. The other one I'm looking at is mostly off of a '98 Riviera, some from a '00 GTP with 130K miles. It also includes 1.9:1 rockers and 90# springs that have about 50K on them. He wants $500 shipped. Are the rockers and springs worth the extra $125? And would you recommend getting a new or used transmission? What is a transmission swap like?

 

That sounds like an amazing price, assuming it includes everything- you're not going to get much cheaper than that.

Yep, contact ZZP and have them do a pcm for your car with a top swap- its pretty straight forward. Or if you know someone local with a tuner, they can do it for you as well.

Depends on what rockers they are- but even for modded stock rockers, those tend to go for about $200 shipped. Personally, I'd get the first setup since its all from the same car, and lower mileage- and get rockers elsewhere if you want them. I'm personally not crazy about changing to higher valvesprings if you don't have to either (ie stock shift points with 1.9 modded stock rockers can use stock springs > less wear on the chain and chain tensioner).

I forget- did you say your trans was in bad shape? If not, then I'd leave it as is and just do the top swap and rock it like that. If you really want the "HD upgrade"- then just buy those parts, its just the diff cover, differential, and passenger side axle. Plus, your final drive is currently 3.29 compared to the HD transmission's 2.93 (slower off the line)- and you have the higher stall, lighter weight torque converter already in your non-HD transmission. So unless your trans is bad- I'd plan to stick with that unless you're planning on making much over 300 crank HP.

 

So I Paypal is in the process of transferring the money to the guy and then he is going to ship the top swap. I went with the '00 GTP. Less miles. Anyway, any suggestions as to where I can pick up the necessary gaskets and belt? Is that something I can get at the local Autozone or do I have to order them from ZZP? Which gaskets do I need? Is there anything else?

 

GM, parts store, ZZP- its up to you. I'd look at one of the places that sells a top swap kit to see what is listed in their gasket kit- then you can either buy the gasket kit from them, or go to the parts store with your list.