I have a '96 Grand Prix with a bad head gasket or perhaps cracked head that I'll be working on getting running this spring. Have combustion gases in coolant, coolant burps out forcefully with radiator cap off and engine running (even cold engine). Lots of coolant getting into cyl 1 (even hydrolocked on me once preventing starter from turning engine over), I have wet plug spark plugs on at least two cylinders and coolant in oil. All these seem to indicate head gasket, not just intake gaskets as is usually the case with these. Oddly it passes a compression test and I get about 170 PSI in each cylinder.
I don't mind replacing the head gasket but for the amount of work it requires, my mind keeps wandering to engine swap. I'm not exactly thrilled with the 165hp the 3100 makes, so a 3400 or even 3800 upgrade makes sense depending on how complicated a swap gets.
GM 3.4L engines are plentiful, running examples can be had for less than $500 and should be a near direct swap (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I'm afraid a 3800 would be a much tougher time, I'm not even sure GM put the 3800 in these early 1.5 gen W-bodies, and not sure if they were put in front of a 4T60E tranny. In any event the 3800 would be more complicated than a 3400, and complication is something I'm trying to minimize!
Anyone have any experience with these cars or how similar a 3.4L and 3.1L might be? Assume wiring harness would need to be switched over, am I right? The 3400 was used with the 4T65E I think, compatibility with my 4T60E is a big unknown. Any information at all regarding this type of engine swap would be helpful.
I don't mind replacing the head gasket but for the amount of work it requires, my mind keeps wandering to engine swap. I'm not exactly thrilled with the 165hp the 3100 makes, so a 3400 or even 3800 upgrade makes sense depending on how complicated a swap gets.
GM 3.4L engines are plentiful, running examples can be had for less than $500 and should be a near direct swap (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I'm afraid a 3800 would be a much tougher time, I'm not even sure GM put the 3800 in these early 1.5 gen W-bodies, and not sure if they were put in front of a 4T60E tranny. In any event the 3800 would be more complicated than a 3400, and complication is something I'm trying to minimize!
Anyone have any experience with these cars or how similar a 3.4L and 3.1L might be? Assume wiring harness would need to be switched over, am I right? The 3400 was used with the 4T65E I think, compatibility with my 4T60E is a big unknown. Any information at all regarding this type of engine swap would be helpful.
