GM 3.5 liter V6

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pbm

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I was looking at a used Olds Intrigue with this motor and I was wondering if anybody here has any experience with it. I know that it replaced the 3.8 pushrod motor but I don't recall any other GM product using it. Does anybody know why its no longer around?
 
Too expensive to manufacture... its that good of an engine... its a Northstar V8 minus 2 cylinders. I'm not a big fan of the General but thats a good engine.
 
i think it was only available in the intrigue. it has a cartidge filter on it. it didnt replace the 3.8, it was the optional engine to the 3.8 in the intrigue i believe.
 
Sorry for hi-jacking (partly) but this reminds me of a confusing question, at least to me since I've heard two different things. Is the 3.5L Shortstar, the subject of this thread, a predecessor (or otherwise related to) of the current production 3.6L DOHC V-6 that's appearing in cars such as the top-of-the-line Buick LaCrosse?
 
My wifes 2005 Malibu Maxx uses the 3.5L. I really like that engine, heck of a lot more pep than the 05 Camry we test drove. Last week end we drove from Jackson to Biloxi and home again. That car gets amazing fuel mileage, we averaged almost 35.5 miles per gallon with a V6!!!! My next door nieghbors liked our Maxx so much they traded their Camry in for a Malibu Maxx.
 
I don't think so. The new "high feature" engines are proper 60 degree designs. The old 3.5, being a Northstar V8 with 2 cylinders sliced off, would have been a 90 degree.

jeff
 
Just to make sure everybody knows what engine he's talking about....

The 3.5L V6 from the Olds Intrigue is a OHC engine, not a pushrod. It has no relationship to the current OHV 3.5 that GM uses in the Malibu, G6, Impala, etc.
 
Mshu is correct. The Intrigue's Shortstar 3.5L was a DOHC engine, and a 90 degree "V" design as well. It is totally unrelated to the 60 degree pushrod family of V-6s, now seen in 3.5 and 3.9L sizes (and to which norseman is referring).

Green, I do believe you're right, and if I'd thought about it (which I didn't...), I'd have recalled the 60/90 degree difference. It is odd, though, that they went to the bother of creating the Shortstar, only to kill it, and then develop a new DOHC "high feature" V-6 of almost the same displacement. Maybe the wider V of the Shortstar just made it too much of a packaging problem?
 
My wife has an '01 Intrigue GLS with this engine. To reiterate, yes, it's basically a Northstar -2 cyl. It's an aluminum 90° V6 with chain driven DOHC and is not related to the current 3.5 or 3.6 V6s. It has balance shafts to cancel out the inherent harmonics associated with a 90° V6.

It's a nice engine, mated to the 4T65E transmission. The trans seems to be troublesome for some owners including us, ours would intermittently shift very HARD. Replacement of the faulty PCM (under warranty) cured the problem, otherwise our car has been troublefree for 56K miles now. I use M1 ATF in the trans.

So far the engine seems to be "bulletproof", the UOAs show very good numbers. Due to its design, a lot of owners report high oil consumption with 'Stars. I've reduced it to practically nil by recently running an Auto-Rx cleaning and using GC (with an Auto-Rx maintenance dose); the engine apparently didn't care for M1.

That's my experience. Good luck.
 
Blokey, Do all you can do to keep the 4T65E happy as it's a real frail tranny. Add a large cooler and keep on runnning synthetic.

My Mother's 98 died at 107K miles and while I was talking to the tranny rebuilder, he said their normal lifespan is 60-90K. He congratulated me on reaching 107K miles. This guy was very smart and we talked for quite awhile. He said GM cut alot of costs when making this tranny compared to the 4L60E line in the V8 model cars.
 
I'm a diehard GM fan, but you can definitely question some (ok, a lot...haha) of their moves.

However, look at how many vehicles they are building between each of their brands. Unlike Nissan who seems to only have like three engines between two brands (2.4 I4, 3.5 V6, 4.x V8), I don't think GM could pull that off. I just don't see that working for a manufacturer that has so many different types of cars/brands.

If you think about it, GM doesn't really have all THAT MANY different types of engines. The 2.8, 3.1, 3.3 (i think), 3.4, & one of the 3.5 V6's were based off the same 60* pushrod engine.

GM currently has two different 3.5L V6's. The first one (G6, Malibu - 200hp) is the "older" V6 that is basically just a bored out 3.4L V6. The "new" 3.5L V6 is a new design (2006 Impala - 211hp) based off the new 3.9L V6. Both are 60*. The old 3.8L V6 was a 90*

So yeah, GM is somewhat confusing when it comes to the V6 lineup, but if you step back and look at it, they just have tweaked a lot of things that make it look like they have tons of different engines.

*For those that are familiar with GM and their engines, feel free to correct me if I am wrong in anything I wrote.
 
I also believe the 3800 was based off the 305 with 2 cylinders cut off. The 3800 has been evoling to its current type over the last 40 years. also the 4.3 was a 350 with 2 cylinders gone.The four cylinder 2.8 spawn off to the 3.1 3.3 3.4 and 3.5 I believe. So basically this whole time gm was basically making two diffrent types of eninges in varing displacments.(not sure what the 2.2 was)

So basically gm has been running on the same engine design for a long time. We have had the new gen v8s for 6 years now. We have had the new gen of the 4 cylinder for a few years now. we have had the new i6 truck eninge for a few years. Which spawned the 2.8 4 cylinder and 3.5 5 cylinder. Well now we are starting to see the new gen v6 enigines for cars.
 
The 3800 was a 90* OHV engine so that sounds right wapacz.

The other V6's (3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5) are all 60* OHV engines.
 
Yet with all of the V6 engines mentioned, GM still buys 3.5L V6 engines from Honda for the Saturn Vue...

I think the imports are better at using the fewest number of engines in the most different types of vehicles. OK except VW - though they seem to be paring down the engines lineups as well.

Many imports have a full lineup of vehicles and they have fewer engines than, say, GM. Take a look at Toyota. Even the 4.7L V8 wass just derived from the Lexus 4.3L V8.
 
3800 is a Buick engine. 305 is a small block Chevy, completely different machines. The 3800 might be similar to the small block Buick V8.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I know that the GM 3.3 used in early 90's Grand Ams, Achievas etc..was a 90* V6 (smaller version of the 3.8)
The others are versions of the 60* Chevy design.
Also, the 4T65E A/T is a very good A/T with many at over 200K with no problems and little maintenance. The fact that the Shortstar is a version of the Northstar is not a good thing IMO. The Northstars made good power but are known to be oil burners and I've yet to see one with over 200K. The old OHV 90* 3.8 was/is a great engine and I wish the car that I was looking at had that motor. Anyway thanks again and Merry Christmas to all.
 
quote:

3800 is a Buick engine. 305 is a small block Chevy, completely different machines. The 3800 might be similar to the small block Buick V8.

The 3.8L is one of the longest-lived engine designs ever. It has, during it's GM tenure, appeared mostly as a 3.8L (231 cid), but has been made in both the 3.3 and 3.0 shorter-stroke versions. During the late 60s, early 70s, GM had actually sold the tooling to Jeep/AMC (I think it was them...), but later bought it back. It first appeared in production as a V-6, 198 cid version in 1961, 44 years ago (easy for me, since I first appeared in 1961!). But the supreme irony of this engine is that it was developed from, of all things, an experimental all-aluminum V-8 that GM was toying with during the 1950s, hence the 90 deg design. To get to market with a V-6 fast, they chopped this engine, made it from the easier iron, and the rest is history. As a result of the 90 deg bank angle, it suffered through being a Harley-like uneven firing interval engine for several years until they fitted it with a split crank pin crankshaft. Turned out to be a pretty good engine, but you'd hope it was good with 40+ years of development.
 
quote:

ROBBOBSTER: Yet with all of the V6 engines mentioned, GM still buys 3.5L V6 engines from Honda for the Saturn Vue...

You forgot the other half of the story sir. It was a two way deal between Honda & GM. I don't know the details, but GM received the Honda 3.5L V6 for the Vue and Honda received a number of diesel motors from GM.

Like I said, I don't have the details, but I'm sure somebody else around here could chime in with some.
 
Didn't forget, just pointing out that, with all of the V6 engines in their lineup, GM went to Honda for yet another one.

GM: tons of V6 engines in the US
Honda: lacked diesels in Europe

So GM gets yet another V6 for the US...while helping a competitor.

Maybe it's just me, but that seems very odd...the world's largest carmaker can't make a "competitive" V6 so they help a competitor out in order to get one...?
 
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