I notice that theres alot of 3.4 yet which one is the best year to find?? I Heard that this engine is in the Chevy Lumina car/van... Are there any other vehicles their in? Is it better to find an engine in a van instead of a car for the so-called abuse factor? If you were looking for a DOHC 3.4-liter which year would you go for? Plus what are the prices now a days? thanks Ken

It wasn't available in the van.
You can find it in the Lumina Z34, Lumina Euro 3.4, Pontiac Grand Prix SE / GTP (is it GTP?), Oldsmobile Cutlass, Chevy Monte Carlo Z34, and maybe something else. They're all W-bodies. Look for X in the engine digit of the VIN #. The motor was available from 91-97.

91-93: OBD I, 1st generation intake manifold, batch fire fuel injection, manual and automatic transmissions
94-95: OBD1.5, 1st gen intake manifold, sequential fuel injection, automatic only, much better cam cogs to make cam timing easy, slightly revised cam oiling (reduces lifter tapping)
96: OBD II, 2nd gen intake manifolds and throttle body (much better), 2nd gen heads (better combustion chamber design..), new cams, not as good as the old cams, new cam cogs (different tooth count)
97: same as 96 except new cam and lifters.. the new cams are apparently slightly worse for performance

Some 96s may have the latest cam/lifters, not sure when that started.


Best combo would be a 96-97 with a set of cam carriers, cams, and lifters from a 94-95. Use the 94-95 cam cogs.

Keep in mind that the 96-7 motors don't respond to the 13 degree cam retard like the 91-5s do. I have heard they run like crap when you do that in fact. The 91-5 engines respond extremely well to the cam retard. That would be different if you used the 94-5 cams like Stephen suggested. I have a set of 94-5 cams, carriers, and cogs for sale by the way.
Also keep in mind that the 96-7 motors are the so called interference engines. There is some dispute as to whether this is true or not but it's something you should be aware of if you're looking at buying one.
97 has lighterweight lifters than the 96.
Also remember that you will most likely need the computer from either a 91-3 for OBD1 or a 94-5 for OBD 1.5. The 96-7 has OBD 2 which hasn't been hacked where as the others have by Darth Fiero here on the forum. Darth's very resonable on price and is really a great guy to work with as he takes the time to work with you and has great service. Id recomend him to anyone.
Another thing to consider is that you wont be able to have an EGR with the 96-7 intakes.
The 91-5 intakes can have an EGR if you wish but they, as Stephen already pointed out above, don't flow as well as the 96-7's do.
Just thought I'd mention a couple things like that but Stephen pretty much covered it all.

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[This message has been edited by Dave Gunsul (edited 05-16-2006).]

"interference engines" Meaning? That if say the TB breaks that your upper end is basically gone? Wouldnt mostally all motor be the same?
Ken.

quote Originally posted by KKell83: "interference engines" Meaning? That if say the TB breaks that your upper end is basically gone? Wouldnt mostally all motor be the same? Ken.

Correct. Not all motors are like this, though. The 91-95 DOHC, for example, is NOT an interference motor except possibly under some conditions at high RPM.

so couldnt you get a 91-95 engine but use the 96-97 intake??? Wouldnt that be better then using the 96 engine with the 91+ cams??? Or is that just the cams that make the motors interference??

Basically If I dont end up selling my car I was thinking about building a turbo car... And I know that any DOHC heads are awesome with some form of forced induction (once the bottom end is built)... I know the 3.8s are ready boosted , so your already have the built bottom end, but the cost of buying better cylinder heads/cam and rocks (to get better flow of the DOHC) well cost around the same price or more if I just built a 3.4-liter... At least thats what I'm going buy.. I could be thinking this whole thing wrong...
Ken.

If I could post pictures, I could show you how the 96-97 is an interference motor. I think the 96-97 is a really good setup for boost. The cams seem to have very little overlap stock, IIRC.

To address the issues of swappin it in just use a 91-93 harness and wire it up like it is a erlier model, then Darth will be able to help you tune it for turbo. I dont thik He can set the next gen up for turbo....If he can then I am gonna redo my setup.

Also, I just totally got rid of the egr system, and I was still able to pass emissiions squeeky clean. I would check to see if they do a visual in yo state before I loose the setup tho. You could leave it there and just block it off, It would be just one less thing to try to figure out.

Yeah they do the inspection in my state!!!!! One of the worst states for SMOG I heard.. But Oh well I dont care if it pass's smog, since its going to be turbo'd.. I have my hookups.. On the eariler years 3.4's what was different from the cams? Was it lift, duration? Or did the computer have something to do with it.
Ken.

Oh, well for that matter I think you are limited in what year you can use anyhow. I heard Cali wants to see the correct engine tranny combo, and if you go manual I dont think the dohc cam with one in tha later years.

Smog doesnt mean a thing, I could get around it... I wouldn't be driving the car all the time anyhow. It would be my weekend warrior. lol

If smog doesn't mean a thing, you're looking at the wrong motor.

I'd have a N* with a 5-speed right now if I wasn't going to deal with smog.. but instead I have a 3.4 DOHC.

-Steven

quote Originally posted by Steven Snyder: If smog doesn't mean a thing, you're looking at the wrong motor. -Steven

Matter of opinion there.

If you're going to use a different set of cams, don't forget that the 94-5 cams are the best choice as they're easier to deal with than the 91-3's. Basically, their retainers make it much easier to do the cam timing than the older ones do.
I was under the impression that pretty much all of Cali was tough on smog and, if you want to drive it on the street with valid license plates, you had to go through some fairly strict emission testing?
That's one of the reasons I mentioned the lack of EGR when using the 96-7 intake manifolds. If you do have to go through smog, then you're very limited in what you can do. If you have a manual car, you'd have to use one of the 91-3 engines as they were the only ones available with a manual trans. You would also need to use the 91-5 intake manifolds so you could have an EGR. You'd also have to adapt the vapor can and a cat.