money, and theres more 3.1's out there 3.4's and on a plus side the 3.1 make a whole 5 more hp then the old 3.4
you guys talking about the dohc 3.4. if not, then i hear that the ohv 3.4 was the same block as the 3.1.
I think the 92's had 20 more HP than the 90's model 3.1. Not sure on that one though.
....mmkay, it looks like we need a quick 101 on the 60° V6 motors.
3.1 (LHO) = '88 - '94; 135hp/180tq '88/'89 (only in the 124 Pontiac 6000 STEs with AWD option in '88, all 1376 STEs and a handful of late production w-bodies in '89), 140hp/185tq '90 - '94.
3100 = '94 (some late '93 models as well) - '05; 160hp/185tq through '99 (L82), 170-175hp/190-195tq '00 - '05 (LG8).
3400 (LA1) = '96 - '05; 170-185hp/205tq depending on year/car.
3.4 DOHC (LQ1) = '91 - '97; 200hp (210hp on 5-speeds)/215tq through '95, 215hp/220tq '96/'97.
The '96 & up SPFI 3400 was virtually the same motor as the '94 & up 3100 (not to be confused with the MPFI 3.1 LHO motor), just slightly bored out (with the same stroke), and 1.76" intake valves. All 3100s also got the same 1.76" intake valves from '00 on up, so only the bore was different between them at that point, making the 5-10hp/tq difference. This is why a lot of early 3100 owners swap over to either 3400 or '00 & up 3100 top ends. It will gain you another 10 - 15hp/tq. No, it's not huge, but for what you can pick up those motors for these days...
True that. My roommate insists that its the best engine in the world, even better than the 3800.
Your roommate, needs his head checked out.. lol. There was NO aftermarket for them and i had a 92 SE loaded minus leather. had the tdc in it.. 32k miles spun a rod bearing. Fahck LQ1
It is neither the best engine in the world, nor is it "the biggest piece". Like any motor, it has its good and bad. And considering it is based on the bulletproof work horse 3.1L LHO, spinning a rod at ANY mileage on an LQ1 is not exactly common unless you do something drastic to it, e.g. starve it for oil for a period of time, so I'm not sure what the deal was with your car, but you can't use your one anecdote to judge the lot. Otherwise, Euro on here spun a bearing on his 3800 L36 at just 6x,xxx. Does that make the 3800 a direct competitor with the LQ1 as "the biggest piece"? There's plenty of people on a bunch of Gen I w-body related websites who have 150k miles and well over on their LQ1s. Gus is now just shy of 300k miles on his, and is still on the original moving parts in it. Not bad for such a piece of crap.
As to comparing them to the 3800, they both have their pros and cons. There's no question that, like most DOHC motors, the LQ1 is temperamental, and some of the repairs are a pain in the ass, but if maintained properly (e.g. don't wait for the timing belt to BREAK before replacing it, which is the most frequent cause of death for these motors), there is nothing wrong with them. And people have been using shortcuts to those "really hard" repairs for quite a few years now to DRAMATICALLY cut down on the 4-5 hour dealer procedures.
I also don't see why you'd bring aftermarket into the equation. Aftermarket has nothing to do with how good a motor is. Not everyone wants to tamper with their cars, regardless of whether they're a car fanatic, or not. But if you want to go down that road, remember, if the 3800 hadn't been available with a factory supercharger, NO ONE would give a damn about it's 200 - 210hp n/a ass today. It would be just like how most of you view the 3100 today. Just another "low tech, powerless POS American motor". But it just so happens that GM elected to go the route of forced induction to be competitive with an otherwise typical underpowered motor, and so today, we have thousands of L67 fan boys who think the 3800 is the greatest motor ever built.
While it's convenient to have "off the shelf" aftermarket performance parts easily available, it often leads to a ricer following for that car/motor, because anyone and their mother can suddenly make a "racecar". On the other hand, it takes a serious gear head with some real passion to be willing to put in the time, research and development to create something different from the cookie cutter blueprint norm. For example, n/a vs. n/a, if I had the time and place to mess with it, I'd throw a turbo at an LQ1 before a 3800 in a heartbeat, as they respond better to boost. If you look on 60degreeV6.com, you'll see that there are some people that are throwing down impressive numbers after modding EVEN ON N/A! Adding boost just makes the motor that much more lethal. There's a reason an LQ1 swap is very common in Fieros. Here are some videos/numbers to show you what I mean.
N/A
221whp/218wtq w/custom intake manifold, CAI, balanced and blueprinted engine & Spintech muffler
257whp/230wtq w/primarily head work and tune; still stock intake and cams w/o CAI.
Turbo
417whp/427wtq on 8.7 psi
From someone's sig on 60°: 325 whp 350 lb-ft (1995 Z34 - T04E "60" trim, 42.5 lb/hr injectors, AEM WBO2, FFP UD&DB, 3" exhaust)
And you get the picture. That's just a few examples I came up with really quick through a search. These motors actually had quite a bit of potential for power in them. It's a shame there wasn't more interest in them, because if a handful of people who are doing all the R&D themselves can come up with results like this, you can imagine what companies with a much bigger budget could have come up with.
Anyhow, my point is not to call one motor better than another. I'm just pointing out that there are a lot of misconceptions about the LQ1 out there, and that a little research can go a long way in clearing that up.
BTW, tquarter, where did you find the moron that installed this motor for you? I'm not positive on the dipsticks being different, but IIRC, the j-bodies didn't have those front dog bone mounts, period. Either the dipstick story is true, making him a moron for not just swapping them out, or he didn't realize there were 2 on the w-bodies till he put them on (then tried to cover it up with the pathetic dipstick excuse), making him a mor---you get the picture.
