How long did your 3800 swap take? Story time. (Page 1/1)
ragoldsmith DEC 18, 10:29 AM
I know these answers will vary wildly. I’m here for the stories! Did you get it done in a week? 6 years? What were your moments of pride? Or failure? Things you expected to be hard but went smoothly? Stupid little things that were more frustrating than they should have been? And, of course, I would love to hear about ANY builds. Not just 3800s.

I’m planning my 3800 swap for next winter. I am constantly reading and researching and thinking about the process. I started to get curious about everyone else’s stories. I know there are plenty of build threads, but they are long and crammed full of detailed information (which I’m super grateful for!!). I thought it would be interesting to read about the builds in a different perspective. Anyway, if you want to share your build story here, I’m all ears (um...eyes).
Steel DEC 18, 12:13 PM
My first swap was extremely slow and took nearly 10 months to finish, waiting for parts was the main problem. I redid that swap almost entirely a few yrs later and also did another turbo 3800 swap on my other '88 and it went very quickly, less than a month and a lot of custom in house fab work.

I've since done swaps for others locally and they've all been very basic mainly OEM swaps, where harness and exhaust work took most of the time. Less than a week to finish one on evenings and the weekend. If I didn't have dedicated shop space with welders, tools, presses, lifts, multiple jacks, room for many vehicles etc.. it would definitely take much longer and not be nearly as enjoyable.

But simply learning and pushing myself to make my own parts, modifications, troubleshooting with common sense and not relying on others really stepped my game up and sped the entire process up.
pmbrunelle DEC 18, 01:13 PM
Took me about three years to rebuild the stock V6 souped-up with a refreshed transmission, working maybe 10 hours every weekend.

Tools were a factor in the time, for instance cutting exhaust pipes with a 4.5 inch angle grinder I had to cut the long way all around, vs just having an abrasive chop saw with a large enough disc to cut the pipe in one go.

Also I had to buy tools (crimpers, rod bender, shim selector for transmission, etc), and read up on things to know how things are done. I tried a lot of new-to-me things.

On the actual car, I spent a lot of time staring and pondering how I wanted to package something. I would run different alternatives through my mind, before doing any permanent modifications to the car. Once I had chosen an alternative, I would wait a week before doing anything, to make sure that I didn't change my mind.

Sandblasting + deburring + painting took a lot of time. I would sandblast and paint even brand-new parts. Paint applied over mill scale isn't good (some new parts are like this). I generally insisted on waiting for the paint to mostly cure (2 days for urethane, 2 weeks for enamel) before handling/installation, to reduce the risk of scratches.

I always had something to do. By anticipating where I would be a month into the future, two-week part leadtimes weren't problematic. Parts usually arrived before I needed them.

I imagine that once you have a set plan and don't need to think anymore, it goes fast like Steel said... you're basically in serial production mode.

Unless you know what you're doing, the build doesn't stop when you fire up the car. Instead, that's when you discover problems with your work, so those problems take time to iron out.

[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 12-18-2020).]

Dennis LaGrua DEC 18, 04:15 PM
My 3800SC swap took about 100 hours of work over a three month period. We did use WCF transmission and motor mounts but everything else was fabricated. Later on the intercooler was added and Fierorog's tensioner bracket;an upgrade to the aluminum braze welded bracket that we had originally made was bolted in. It was a labor intensive job.
Just for reference the second and third swaps took about 3 -4 days. The last swap that was a 4.9L took about a week.

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, P-log Manifold, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, Champion Radiator, S10 Brake Booster, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

[This message has been edited by Dennis LaGrua (edited 12-24-2020).]

ragoldsmith DEC 18, 08:35 PM
I'll be able to pretty much focus all my time on the swap once I start. I think 6 months should be plenty of time. But realistically, there isn't a date when the swap HAS to be done. I would just like to have it drivable again by spring time. On the subject of hours invested in a swap...has anyone done their own port and polishing on their 3800s? I've been watching a lot of videos on the subject. It seems doable. But I was thinking of going to a junk yard and grabbing some heads to practice on. Pretty much everyone I watched said practicing was super important. But they also said port and polish is something you can do at home with lots of time and patience (and not doing an aggressive port).
olejoedad DEC 19, 02:52 PM
Organization - a plan - parts on hand - space - tools - time

Have it all planned out and everything on hand - it can go fairly smoothly and quickly.
ragoldsmith DEC 20, 12:09 PM

quote
Originally posted by olejoedad:

Organization - a plan - parts on hand - space - tools - time

Have it all planned out and everything on hand - it can go fairly smoothly and quickly.



Definitely! This is why I’m not going to attempt the swap until next winter. More time for research, planning, organization, and purchasing parts.
olejoedad DEC 21, 10:04 AM
We did our first 3800 SC swap in a week.
Due to an electrical problem with a purchased harness, it took two more weeks to get it running.
Since then I've made my own harnesses.
longjonsilver DEC 21, 11:48 AM

quote
Originally posted by olejoedad:
We did our first 3800 SC swap in a week.



WOW! i started pulling my motor in February, and i am still working on it. Hopefully by this spring.....

jon

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Astronomy says we will find a coded signal from outer space. Then we'll KNOW that life exists there, for coded signals aren't by chance.

Biology says there are coded genetic signals in every cell, but we KNOW that no intelligence created life.

I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

ragoldsmith DEC 21, 07:19 PM

quote
Originally posted by olejoedad:

We did our first 3800 SC swap in a week.
Due to an electrical problem with a purchased harness, it took two more weeks to get it running.
Since then I've made my own harnesses.



Ha! I wouldn't even dream of being able to do it anywhere near this quickly. But that's awesome! I hope my harness doesn't give me any issues. I really don't know anything about it, I got it with the engine.