I have found a supercharger stock out of a buick regal 3.8, its the supercharger & heads for 300$... seems cheap and wondering if installed in my 2001 monte carlo ss would cause any problems? ive heard that the tranny would have to be upgraded.

thanks, cam

 

This is commonly called a top swap. You can find a lot of information about the swap on various forums. Try searching around, you'll want as much info on it as possible before you attempt the install if you're not familiar with doing a top swap.

Also, what year regal are the blower and heads from?

 

I'm not a master with top swaps but read bits and pieces, there is more into it then people take into consideration. I have not had an interest to top swap mine, but things I've seen mentioned in other forums are:
- Different fuel rails
- L67 (S/C 3800) has different pistons then the L36 (as a result a different compression ratio)
- Different computer tuning
- Different Throttle Body
- I think that transmissions are the same (again, don't quote me)

Bottom line, it's a LOT to look into. But, people have done it (heck I think ZZP sells a complete top-swap kit).

Some sites in addition to this one that may help are:
www.naioa.com
www.clubgp.com
www.grandprixforums.net
www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com

 

Both ZZP and W-body store sell top-swap kits. You can go that route, but you're going to pay a premium price for having them source the parts for you. If you already have some of the parts, you'd be better off getting the rest of the parts you need the same way (pull them off of the donor car you got the heads/blower from). The vendor sites are however, a good resource to use as a checklist reference when acquiring parts.

The L67 (supercharged 3800) and L36 (normally aspirated 3800) do indeed use different fuel rails. You'd just pull the fuel rails off of the L67 car and use those, as they will hook up to the quick disconnects on the L36 fuel lines. Same deal with the throttlebody. Just use the one from the L67 car, as your throttle cable will link right up to it.

The computer will need to be retuned for the blown motor. I believe all of the vendors will sell you a canned PCM with a top-swap tune on it, but it's generally better to have a custom tune done locally (the canned tunes tend to have issues on top-swapped montes....there are a few threads on here dealing with that).

The only real difference between the pistons is that the L36 uses a higher compression piston (9.4:1 versus 8.5:1 on the L67). This isn't a bad thing. You can make much more power with the higher compression bottom end, but at the same time you won't want to run as much boost as an L67 bottom end would with the same mods (you don't need as much boost to make the same power, but you'll also get detonation at lower boost levels). The L36 also uses slightly different rods and wrist pins, but considering that a lot of the top horsepower 3800's are using stock L36 bottom ends, I honestly wouldn't worry about that.

Transmissions are very similar internally. All of the internal hard parts are the same, except the gear ratios are slightly different (2.93:1 for the L67 cars, 3.29:1 for the L36).
The L67 cars get a hardened differential and differential case, a shorter passenger side axle, and use a bigger torque converter. Some people prefer to switch tot he HD diff, but it's not necessary. That particular part isn't known to fail often (unless you're auto-crossing or doing 1-wheel burnouts). The smaller torque converter and taller gearing from the L36 cars are generally preferred for drag racing.

Hope that helps,
-Riggs.

 

That is an AWESOME point! I'm surprised I did not think of that myself! With a checklist, you could probably source everything yourself with ease!

I know the coils on an L67 are different (I'm running L67 coils on my L36, they give a tad more throttle response, for my use, not worth spending more then $30 total on and I got mine for $15). I am not sure how much difference they serve on a SuperCharged engine.

 

the coils are all the same.... 3100, 3400, L36, L67....they all use the exact same coils. even the series III motors...

 

x2

There might be a slight variance because of the condition of the coils, but otherwise, they're all the same. Aside from that all of the main points have been pointed out. Just do some research on "top swap" and you will find everything that you need to know.

 

Actually, they don't

There are different GM part numbers for the Impala/Monte SS (L67) coils versus the Base/LS (LA1/L36)

I am not sure what the actual difference is, but they are different coils

Also, there are a bunch of things that need to be changed for a Top Swap... off the top of my head:
L67 Heads
L67 LIM
M90 Blower
L67 Throttle Body
L67 Fuel Rails
L67 Injectors
L67 Coil Pack Bracket
L67 Tensioner(s)
L67 Crank Pulley
Tuned PCM

As mentioned, do some searching as this been discussed at length on many forums

BBEngineer

EDIT: Here are the Part Numbers
00-05 Impala/Monte 3.4L (LA1) / 3.8L (L36): 10472401
04-05 Impala/Monte 3.8LSC (L67): 10477602

 

I don't know how much of a difference the coils actually make, but the L67 coils are definitely different then the L36. The L36 coils are the same as the ones on my 3100 Grand Am and 3400 Impala (down to the part number). But the L67 coils offer a slightly better throttle response and are different down to the part number.

Again, it's splitting hairs about how different they are (I swapped my L36 coils on my Monte and my '94 Grand Am with :67 coils, there is a slight gain, but nothing huge).

Sorry, I know this is more of a tangent then it is an answer to the OP's question.

 

Will changing the coils make more spark and actually hurt your piston or do you need a tune to actually use those coils to NOT hurt your motor any .. IS IT SAFE to change them over cause I have a set for my soon to come top swap but if I can add them now and get better throttle response I will changed them now for a quick mod.