Thread: Thinking of buying a spare. motor to build

Originally Posted by Sven The Baldman

Yeah, that was the series 2/series 3 changeover. However the only thing different still was the rods...they went from cast to powdered metal. Cranks remained the same for gen 2 and 3 though.

Yeah that is correct as well, I had to look everything back up when I saw your reply to my post, I then realized I had not specified the correct generation. I was there to assemble and measure tolerances, that car was a blast though so many unsuspecting victims.

Maybe I should've been a little more clear I'm buying the spare basically to regasket and put a cam,heads ect on

Engines are a lot more precision these days than in days past. A lot of material is removed to save weight, so I could see it being an issue for joe shade tree. Any engine that makes more HP than displacement needs proper machining and checking. I check a minimum of 4-6 points per journal. Have the big end resized and line bored if needed. Bores are checked in a minimum of 6 places. Building an engine for a car like this should be part of the fun. If this is your daily driver the. Drop a short block in it and drive on. I just wanted the discussion to go farther than "it's not possible, you'll blow it up.

Jeff

To me, it sounds a LOT cheaper to rebuild your motor correctly than to:
1) Buy a used engine for $500
2) After installing it, find out that it has a rod knock
3) Getting another engine for $500
4) Having it break down after 10k miles
5) Getting fired because you are always missing work because of car problems
6) Getting divorced because you spend all of your weekends away from your family in the garage, missing time with your kids, and constantly whining about how much bad luck you always have with the car
etc...

If checking the rod big ends and align boring are all that's "tricky" or "difficult" about rebuilding a 3800, then for me it's a no brainer - I'm spending the $2k on rebuilding!

Originally Posted by bobc455

To me, it sounds a LOT cheaper to rebuild your motor correctly than to:
1) Buy a used engine for $500
2) After installing it, find out that it has a rod knock
3) Getting another engine for $500
4) Having it break down after 10k miles
5) Getting fired because you are always missing work because of car problems
6) Getting divorced because you spend all of your weekends away from your family in the garage, missing time with your kids, and constantly whining about how much bad luck you always have with the car
etc...

If checking the rod big ends and align boring are all that's "tricky" or "difficult" about rebuilding a 3800, then for me it's a no brainer - I'm spending the $2k on rebuilding!

Let me know how well that $2k holds up against a $500 used engine. Because chances are, unless you've done it a bunch of times (or whoever is doing the machine work,) it's gonna be a short lived rebuild. I have tons of engine machining experience, had a full machine shop, and still went with a used block vs rebuild. Why? Because L36 and L67 blocks have been known to go well over 300k when properly maintained. I've done the $500 (or less) engine swap on a lot of cars...not just 3800 powered. I've had worse luck with used 98-03 Honda/Isuzu 3.2L V6 than 3800.

That is good stuff, if it ain't properly machined it is wrong.

Or is it?

Originally Posted by ls1adam84

That is good stuff, if it ain't properly machined it is wrong.

That's quite correct, and just because you have someone machine your parts doesn't mean they did it correctly, that's where verifying everything after you get the parts back and inventory them. If they ain't right you have it done again if possible or you make them replace the part corrected to your specs they were given. If you don't have the tools to check this and ensure you are getting what you need to balance and blueprint the engine then don't touch it. But for those of us that do don't tell us you can't rebuild an engine without giving a reason, we will think that you don't know what you are talking about. Taking an engine apart and putting it back together isn't rebuilding an engine at best it's an inspection, at worst it's a disaster.

Jeff