Hey guys I have an 03 top swap l67 monte ss , every bolt on you can think of...adding cam and heads soon but mechanic wants me to send out my engine to beef up the lower end, bearings bushings rods etc... Only costing 1000$ from his machinist who builds race engines... According to zzerformance they say leave the engine alone... Once you rebuild the lower end it tends to fail... What do you guys think?

 

As far as i know the bottom ends on these engines are fine, i believe even some of zzp's high performance 3800's still have the stock bottom end.

 

Do not rebuild the engine. There's no need. Spend that money on more mods or a different trans.

 

FYI - I merged the two threads to get rid of the duplicate. Also, once of them was in the "MCF Problems" section. Since it is clearly note a site problem, I moved the merged thread to a more appropriate section.

 

I had the SLP larger cam & ect installed in 03 & I never touched the lower all is fine for the last 11 yrs

 

Don't need to do anything to the bottom end, leave it stock.

 

Time for a new mechanic, lol.

I agree 100% with the others, money spent on the bottom end is a waste unless yours is broken (then you just buy another stock short block). That 'only' $1000 could go towards something that will actually make the car go faster.

I really don't see you being able to do an 'upgraded' bottom end for $1000 anyways. Pistons are by far the #1 failure point in 3800s (not due to trying to put too much power through them, but usually from a tuning or fueling error). A set of coated JE or Diamond forged pistons alone is $800+. As for the rods they're wanting to upgrade, rod failures are rather uncommon on 3800s unless you've got an L26.

Just leave the bottom end stock, and put the $1000 in a retirement account or something...

 

Sounds good, I need to save money I'm broke now lol, thanks for the help guys I agree that well enough is left alone

 

So is it a top swap L36 or an L67?

I'd stick the money in a transmission. really depending on your goals with it