What’s up guys. I have an 04 SS non super charged and I wanted to know if It is possible to put a supercharged 3800 engine in it and if so where could I find a new crate engine or a low mileage one?

Also, what mods could I do to the supercharged engine to add HP…like the best performance chips, cold air intake, headers, best tires for the car etc?

I live near Chicago, IL so if there are any Monte Carlo enthusiast and mechanics in Illinois or the surrounding area Who could work on this project with me I would love to get together.

I love my 04 MC so all help would be appreciated on this. Thanks.

 

You would probably be safe just getting the SC engine from a junkyard. I think I remember this correctly, you need the (from the l67) wire harness, passenger side axle, PCM, and top engine mounts. Youll have the downgraded diff because you wont have the "HD" trans.

If you want to add a supercharger to your existing engine, look up "3800 top swap". Theres some good writeups here on the forum. Dont buy a top swap kit from ZZP or something. Look into the parts you need and get them from a junkyard yourself.

Theres no performance chips for these cars. What you do is either have a tuner tune the vehicle (on a dyno) or buy a programmed PCM. You list your mods, they send a safe, "better than stock" tuned PCM to take advantage of whatever mods you list. They also change some trans parameters for quicker shifts and whatnot.

CAI is best DIY. Cheap intake pipe and couplers from autozone or something will do just fine. Route it into the fenderwell or front bumper.

Smaller diameter supercharger pulley will give and increase in boost but you also have to fight KR.

Headers, IDK... I lost a bit of power after adding mine and I think im putting in about 10-11psi of boost so I personally wouldnt mess with those until you up the boost quite a bit and even then I would say an intercooler would be a better choice.

Higher ratio roller rockers are something that can reduce KR and add a bit of power. Theres aftermarket cams, turbos, the list goes one. All depends on your skill, budget, and goals.

Where at do you live? Im in Morris.

 

Thank you for all of the advice! Sorry for the late response. It will all be taken into consideration. I’m in Hazel Crest, IL. We are only about 50 minutes from each other.

 

Yes, the 3800 NA and 3800 SC are virtually identical as long as you stick within series (ie your L36 to a L67). Going to a series 3 L32 has a few minor additional compliactions. Assuming you got a complete L67, the issues you'd have are:
-Need a pcm tune as several things are different. Its easier to just get a canned tune on your pcm that try to hope the donor car pcm plays nice with your exact car.
-Wire harness. You keep your harness and search for a 'L67 swap harness'. Its 2 simple plugs - relocate the MAP plug and run a BBV solenoid wire, and is like $25.
-Flexplate / converter. Your converter won't mate to a L67 flex as the bolt pattern is different. The cheapest option is to just swap the L67 cars converter in too (although it is a slightly lower stall, but not enough to matter IMO).
-Fuel line connections may need relocated a bit.

Thats all I can think of- its as easy as swaps get since theyre almost identical engines.

A crate is probably impossible to find now. TBH you wouldnt want one anyways as IIRC they were $4k+ when discontinued, so i can't imagine the cost now. Plus getting one from a donor car is easier so you can make sure you've got all the misc brackets and bolts and such.

Finding a low mileage one is getting tougher as theyve been discontinued so long. You can do those junkyard search pages, eBay, the various forums. Id probably shoot for 75k-100k miles to have hope of finding one in a reasonable amount of time. Just be careful you don't overpay. Some JYs think supercharger = big bucks, and that's not the case on 3800s with the enormous volume made. Before used car prices went nuts, you could buy whole running driving GTPs for a couple grand and a totalled one with a good powertrain under a grand.

We'd need way more info to answer that. What are the power goals, budget, etc. Without that you're just going to get a bunch of random responses that may not fit your ultimate plan / budget.

IMO best bang for the buck today for a reasonable amount of power is either E85 or meth on your current L36 + a used turbo kit (as some go for not much over $1k).

 

Thats one thing thats really changed over the recent years in the 3800 market. The more people have messed with headers, the less and less they get reccomended. Their impact seems heavily tied to other mods (ie making a good bit more power than stock) and the miserable quality / leaks sure put them in a bad light. I still think they're worthwhile on high end SC builds, but I can't reccomend them anymore for mild / moderate setups as so many people have proven you can take stock manifolds (or even plogs) so far on a SC setup.

IMO everyone assumed they'd be super useful on 3800s as they are on other platforms, but theres several issues with this platform:
-You cant have true long tube headers as there's no space
-The stock head ports don't flow that well to take advantage of significantly larger tubes mates to them
-They dont do anything to help the awful 3800 sound as you need a setup like the ZZP equalizer or to cross tubes between banks to fix the odd 3800 sound.

IMO with the engine out a cam is the way to go when talking about playing with valve lift. No better time than the engine laying on the garage floor to do a cam swap.