Engine swappability? GM 3800.

Seems that the GM 3800 has a few fans on here. I was wondering if these, or similar, can drop into a Sunfire or similar. Could be interesting.

If it's an early 2.2 that's not the "eco" motor, the 3800 has the same bolt pattern for the transmission. Whether or not it will physically fit, is up to you, to find out.

Take your angle ginger or plasma cutter and remove the trunk, rear firewall and rear suspension. Remove entire front sub frame assembly from doner of choice. Graft front end assembly to rear of j body. Ad box flares for the win.

It's been done before. I don't know how big a sledgehammer and how many Sawzall blades it took.

In reply to cwh: A friend put a 3800, I believe it was supercharged from a GTP, in the back of a Fiero. He said it was almost a bolt-in. He autocrossed it and the thing was a rocket.

I would still love a 3800SC fastback Fiero.

MadScientistMatt wrote: It's been done before. I don't know how big a sledgehammer and how many Sawzall blades it took.

A Series II should fit in THAT chassis, because that is more or less the same as a contemporary N-body, and you could get those with the 3.3l, which was a short deck Buick just like the Series II.

Now, whether the engine could fit in a J-body worth the hassle ('95-up) is another story. Maybe, probably not. The 3.4 would be a tight squeeze (but still less tight than the 3.8) and IMO is a better engine.

To continue, now that I have a few more moments to type:

The old J-bodies were warmed-over Americanized Opel Kadetts (sold here in more pure form as the Pontiac LeMans, rebadged Daewoo license Kadett). Firewall mounted steering. GM V6s until very recently always ran the exhaust crossover over the transmission and the exhaust outlet was the middle of the rear head's manifold, dumping over the transmission (GM transmissions wrap around behind the engine!)

So that chassis, having natively taken the V6 in the form of 2.8l V6-60 as well as 3.0 and 3.3l Buick, has plenty of room at the firewall for the exhaust to route over the transmission and under the rack.

Now the "American" J-bodies, the '95-up models that would be Sunfires as opposed to Sunbirds, were only ever available as 4 cylinder engines. 2.2l or Quad 4 or Ecotec. Now, the exhaust on the Quad 4 exits in a similar way as the V6s, but the firewall is a lot closer to the engine than the older cars, and the rack is mounted on the subframe. So maybe there is enough room to route the exhaust through, but it would be really tight, and you may have to do some cutting and splicing of the rear manifold. The V6-60 is a lot narrower than the Buick mill, is lighter, and the newer models have a lot more horsepower potential. The heads on '01-up models flow crazy-good. There's a reason why they dumped the Buick engine.

That Z24 is awesome. I also bet that the motor went in fairly easy.

Visit www.jbody.org - there have been several n/a 3800 and s/c 3800 V6's swapped into Sunfires and Cavaliers.

I recall a 3800(sc?) swapped j body convertable once. Looked insane.