Engine Strength

[97 30th RS]

Nice ****in website you dumb piece of **** Stock**** camaro

[StockV6Cam]

Wow, what a troll. :rolleyes:

[Shirl]

97 30th, please watch your mouth or you will be banned from the site. This is your warning.

[1998silverbird]

I spun a rod bearing with 68,000 miles on my motor with just a intake and cat back.. I thought these motors were strong too but I guess my motor was a weak one.. Now I am on my second motor and the car only has 80,000 miles on it..

[Tiago]

I have a T04 on the car [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[Camarorulz]

Is the Powerdyne SC good? It seems like its the only supercharger available for the 3.8. How much boost should I be able to run with it with stock internals?

[Morgan]

I ran over 12 psi of non-intercooled boost on my wife's '99 Regal GS using a 3.25" pulley plus a few other mods. On track days I would drain the fuel tank and put in 10 gallons of 100 octane unleaded for engine longevity's sake.

The issue with the 3800 piston is the ring spacing-- it is tight, but also close to the piston crown. This makes the piston susceptible to broken rings and ring lands if subjected to too much detonation. The 3800s ancestor is much more forgiving; I regularly run 28 psi in the black car on good gas, and even ran 33 psi through it on one occasion due to a wastegate malfunction with no engine damage or blown headgaskets. Watching the needle on a VDO 0-30 psi boost gauge whip way past "30" and stay there for an 1/8th mile is a real attention getter.

[ March 14, 2003: Message edited by: Morgan ]</p>

[pvtschultz]

Alright, I think that I am going to try to put an end to this non-sense.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> 3.8's in gm hi tech perf and they say that the 3.8 II block is very strong and reliable <hr></blockquote>

Yes, the block was totally redesigned from the Series I to enhance the relibility (they messed up on the rear main seals, or at least the first ones).

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> I think that some of you guys are underestimating the amount of boost our motors can take. <hr></blockquote>

Not neccessarily. Most people stop at around 9 psig because that is where the high end for a STOCK fuel system has been experimentally determined by the pioneers of this board and others like it. The injectors start to run out of flow rate, the fuel pump starts to run out, and at a relatively high compression ratio of 9.3:1, you are nearly doubling the cylinder pressures.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> The 3800s ancestor is much more forgiving; I regularly run 28 psi in the black car on good gas, and even ran 33 psi through it on one occasion due to a wastegate malfunction with no engine damage or blown headgaskets. <hr></blockquote>

The moral of this story is if you want to run lots of boost, you are going to need to lower the compression ratio. The 3.8 Series I has a very low compression ratio in the GN, I think around 8:1 because the technology and engine management weren't available. Get the rods and pistons out of a GTP, and start your turbo/supercharged motor from there.

[lord_gufi]

another reason most people stop at 9 is because we get hellish blow by, not that the engine cant take it, because the Engine can take it we just need better fuel pistons and rods and after we Really get into it harden the crank &gt;=)

if you want to get the most out of a turbo charger you should get as for now the SSM head pack with a Comp cam instead of the cam that comes with it, my self i dont know what cam ill go with but it will probably be something simalar to what a GN guy would go with

as for boost till i go with better pistons ill be stoping at 9 because the pistons in our car just flat suck in the aspect of how they were designed, the ring lands are pretty thin compared to most pistons ive ever seen, in which i am going with iether ROSS or LE ( i think thats the brand ?? ) pistons with some heavy dudy piston rings my friends dad uses in his ymca modified, and after i get it all put back together im going to give it " the test " just as his mechanic does

full rev for 1 minit let it idle for 30 secs turn it off

full rev for 30 secs let it idle for a minit

if its going to break it will have broke by now

Yes its a hellish way to break it in but every thing this guys ever done has lasted over 20 runs on a dirt track ( circle ) and if it works for him it will work for me

[Darknight]

"Yes, the block was totally redesigned from the Series I to enhance the relibility (they messed up on the rear main seals, or at least the first ones)."

I own a Series I with 316,000 hard miles on it,
with no serious problems to date. Pretty reliable.

"The 3.8 Series I has a very low compression ratio in the GN, I think around 8:1 because the technology and engine management weren't available."

3.8 Series I? There's a 3.8, and a 3800 Series I, but no 3.8 Series I. The GNs had a plain 3.8, with turbo and a few other minor extras.

DK

P.S. I also have to say that around here I've never seen a Series I in a junkyard with less than 120,000 miles, and most of them have many more than that. The ones I've seen are all in full size family sedans also, so they pull a lot of weight for their whole lifetime. Add to that the hilly, curvy WV terrain, along with the fact that southern WV "good ole boys" are anything but easy on vehicles, and you have yourself some pretty good evidence of a reliable motor. Everyone I've talked to that has owned one has had almost no complaints with either its dependability, perfomance or its fuel efficiency.

In fact, you can't find the used motors here either, because there's never a demand for them. The ones on the road simply never need replacing. Change the oil, use premium gas, know how to drive and you'll be fine with a Series I for years.

[ March 17, 2003: Message edited by: Darknight ]</p>