bspeed wrote:Differential was out of a SRX....rest of the drive train is Catera Touring Sedan certified!!!!!! Judge Phil said not to give out the mix of components to protect the trade secret! I can say that it includes 2 different vintages of CTS (Catera), 1 Cadillac SRX, I chevy equinox, 1 99 miata, ford halfshafts and a Dell computer server. We figured it paid enough homage to the Catera to justify the theme.... I mean we even made a duck tail for god sake. The easy button would have been to just run the Miata with spares, but that would have been kinda lame.
Fair enough, it is an improvement.
bspeed wrote:Eric....we actually got a legit 54deg 3.0l lined up on Ebay....but it cost MORE than the 3.6l.
It's just one of those engines that's weird enough we don't care about driveline budget at all, though I understand building on your own budget. If you can't find a Cadillac Catera, find yourself a Saturn L300 and you can run Class C all day.
bspeed wrote:(mostly because GM put them in EVERYTHING for 2 decades.....they can be had all day for a few hundred $, where a good 1.8L miata and 5 speed go for $2500 these days.) Honestly if folks are looking for a Lemons friendly swap this engine is far better than a SBF or SBC.
Yeah, the GM V6 swap is the worst-kept secret in the crapcan world.
- The 3800 works just as well as most V8s. From 1947 Plymouths to FC RX-7s, they're kind of the gold standard. They make enough torque and burn a reasonable amount of fuel. They're also pretty tough if you don't beat on them. Weak point seems usually to be the transmission.
- The LZ9 (3.9L) is the ultimate form of the 60-degree V6. 240/240 on the power numbers and requires only some minor modifications to drop into the holes meant for the anemic old 2.8L from the same block family.
- The LX9 (3.5L) is the "famous" "Uplander swap" that I've seen a couple of teams upgrade from the 2.8L or 3.1L, most notably the Buick Century that runs in the South and is absolutely crushing it.
Those are of course all purveyors of the GM SOUND OF POWER and also were put into millions of throwaway appliance-grade vehicles and therefore are tailor-made for Lemons.
The LFX is the modern generation and while they're not especially hard to find, I'd expect them to just get tossed into Class A unless they're in a FWD Impala or an SRX or something like that.
The oddballs are the Opel 54-degree V6—only had one that I know of—and the Oldsmobile Shortstar, which we've never had. CLASS C LOOPHOLES RIGHT HERE.
Useless Trivia:
At various times, GM sold V6s from at least four different families that displaced 2.8L, 3.0L, 3.1L, 3.2L, 3.3L , 3.4L, 3.5L, 3.6L, 3.7L, 3.8L, 3.9L, 4.1L, and 4.3L. There might be a 4.0L somewhere in that history, too. Most of those displacements have multiple engine families and generations for them.
Eric Rood
Everything Bagel, 24 Hours of Lemons
eric@24hoursoflemons.com