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98 Grand Prix GT Coupe: Bad Main Bearing Rebuild Project

jasonbernard said:
One more question, then I will go away...

If you had the opportunity to by a salvaged engine for $900, vs. a $900 engine rebuild from a _trusted_ machine shop, you would go with the salvaged engine?
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I wouldn't do either. Go to a different yard. Hell, go to www.car-part.com and look up 2000 Pontiac grand prix and search for engine. You can filter for distance/mileage/price to find the right one.

I just picked up my 99 L67 for $300 from a yard an hour from me that I had no idea existed. Food for thought.
 


craigslist part outs too, i see used engines running in the car still for sale a lot. best way to buy one is to see and hear it running.

theres a few cars to search for, like regal, gp's, bonnie, park ave 's, and then theres newer 3800 like the buick luceren, you would have to swap the upper intake cause its a l26 engine but thats no big deal really.
 
if you use car-part.com and put in 2000 Regal or GTP will pull every engine that's compatible with that year. ;)

I was looking at Cl but for a running L36 with 150k miles was going for $500 I said nope nope nope.
 
There's also bigger places like lkq they document the hell out of the car the parts are coming from. I was able to get a 15k L26 shipped to me.. Well work for $600. Some elbow grease, some paint and gaskets and I once I opening it up it was definitely a 15k mile motor.











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I got a 43k l26 shipped from ebay for 400 bucks....slapped my sc parts and go gast parts on it runs great...l26s will have lower miles usually than a l36 amd there are tons of them, ebay, cl, carparts.com

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look at all us bottom swapped guys coming out the wood work lol

wish i took more pics of the rockers. or at least pushed it in the sun lol

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timboku said:
I got a 43k l26 shipped from ebay for 400 bucks....slapped my sc parts and go gast parts on it runs great...l26s will have lower miles usually than a l36 amd there are tons of them, ebay, cl, carparts.com
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This... Exactly why I bought the l26 just couldn't find any L67/32 that didn't have 100k+ on them plus the prices are outrageous. Hell couldn't find any decent price l36 either.


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looks better then the turd that came out lol

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now this is to much yellow lol

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its not to much under the hood, sea of black around it lol

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Damn you guys and your finished swaps lol.

Scottys motor = pot of gold ports potty


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I wouldn't buy a reman 3800 unless it was a jasper....and even then, i wouldn't spend that kind've money, lol (hindsight you know)
 
Ok, I think you guys have convinced me, once I gave it more thought, it is starting to make sense.

This goes against what I thought was conventional wisdom that a engine reworked properly from a machine shop = 0 mileage engine.

I have a couple of guys in the neighborhood who race on dirt tracks (mostly old corvette engines) who suggested the machine shop route.
My daughter won't be racing this thing (at least she better not LOL).

I knew about car-part.com, but I didn't know about LKQ.

It's hard for me to find the deals you guys got, but I will keep looking.

Thanks for the wealth of knowledge that only this forum can provide.
 
I looked for a solid month. CL, Ebay, Car-part before I got the one that I got.

Stick around more. Just about everything you can think of about 3800's has been thought of before and posted in some way or another.
 
Found an 18,000 mile L26 on ebay for $750.

This will be way cheaper than the rebuild route, and now I have enough extra to buy a cherry picker, which I needed anyway.

Should I post pictures of the swap progression, or has this been beaten to death already?

Many thanks!
 


start a ride thread, update it as your work progress's.

i only took a few pics along the way, dirty hands stop the camera from coming out, and i work solo a lot. no spare hands.

and its a good to have your thread to ask for any help you might need.


nice find, good luck with the swap.
 
And check craigslist for a picker many times guys will go buy one from HF for whatever they need to swap use it once then post it for sale


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One suggestion that I will make, is that you keep the L26 parts. They are a small upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless.

And there are adapter plates available for the throttle body, to allow it to bolt to the later design intake manifold.

Just a thought
 
Cool - didn't know that adapter plate existed. I was wondering if I could keep it.

The L26 TB is aluminum, right? Does it have better flow also or is the benefit just metal vs. plastic?
 
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