UPDATE: 3800 sunfire swap

[IsaacCarlson]

I just got back from Minnesota with my new engine hoist. Mileage was not good as it was blowing snow hard enough to make road signs shake like they were going to break off.

The hoist works great. I would be pulling the motor as we speak, but I am tired from the drive and my wife is making lunch, so I will get to it after a nice nap.

more to come....

[MetroMPG]

Interesting...

From your garage:

This will be my new daily driver. It originally had a 2200 OHV in it, but that motor was having some problems and I want something that gets better mileage and had better power.

I'm curious how you figure the 3.8 v6 will get better mileage than a 2.2 four cylinder.

Going to gear it down to near idle in top gear at highway speeds and take advantage of the additional torque and low RPM?

EDIT: or are you talking "relative" mileage improvement (ie. going from a problematic 4-cyl to a v6 that is running well)?

[IsaacCarlson]

I was able to touch 42 mpg with the 3800 in the olds, and the sunfire will be a good 800 lbs lighter. The gearing is almost identical. The sunfire would always downshift on hills and the 3800 hardly ever downshifted.

[oil pan 4]

Sounds like you can stay in top gear all the time while at speed even if that speed is 85mph.
I bet it will be fairly quick and get very good milage.

[MetroMPG]

Well, it'll be interesting to see the MPG results, that's for sure.

[IsaacCarlson]

The olds is going in the shed today. I am planning on pulling the 2.2 today and getting the 3800 prepped for removal. There are a lot of wires on these things and it takes time to label everything and make sure it either stays or goes.

[IsaacCarlson]

The motor is out!

There was only 1/8" of clearance to get it out too. The hoist works perfectly. The guy I got it from had the legs on the wrong sides so it wouldn't roll. I think that is why he sold it. I swapped the lags and it rolled just fine. I am going to try to get the 3800 out tomorrow and then I can get to work putting new gaskets in it and checking it over. I will check the compression and adjust the valves. I will lap the valves if they need it, but the motor is very strong so I will check the compression and go from there.

I am excited to be this far already. My brother came over to help me make some more room around the car so I can set thew two engines next to each other. I still need to pull the dash out of both cars and scavenge the necessary wires. The control arms need new bushings and the ball joints need to be replaced.

The 3800 should be easy to pull since it is more self contained and there is more room around it. I should be able to separate it from the transmission before pulling it and save some work. Here are some pics.

OH...both exhaust systems will get pulled too. The olds system will be reworked to fit under the sunfire.

[02ws6]

Good deal.. Im a fan of chevrolet and the 3800 V6 has more than proved itself over the years...

I dig what you are doing. Kinda reminds me of guys in corvettes getting awesome MPG because of the T56 6speed..

Definately want more pics.

[rmay635703]

I would recommend using an F40 6sp with the final drive geared up a bit with a 3800, get the holden ECU for lean burn and Voila!

[IsaacCarlson]

I didn't get to work on the cars today. The weather was getting bad so I brought a truck load of wood in the house. My brothers came over and I found out one of them no longer has a job.

The 4T40 already has a higher final drive than the f40 and I don't have the funds to rework everything. I am happy with a good auto and my wife does not like to drive a manual. I just need a car to get me to work and for my wife to get places.

Can you tell me more about this holden ecu?