Beretta.net

After the unfortunate event of my engine blowing up, it's time to upgrade! I'm gonna be putting a 3400 in from a 99 grand am. I plan to redo the timing, every gasket, water pump, front and rear main seals, and belt and tensioner. I figure if it's out, why not do it, and I should also just do it right the first time instead of skipping out and having bigger issues in the future.

The first step is to obviously get my engine out, and with great difficulty, I did just that.

Now that its out, I started to take a bunch of parts off that I need, and I plan to strip it completely tomorrow to get a nice close look at how it all works and get a bunch of cool things to use for decorations or whatnot haha.

The next step then will be to clean the years of grease and oil off my engine bay and trans. I will also fix any spots that are missing some paint just to make sure no rust occurs where it already isnt.

Im open to any other ideas or tips I should do or follow!

I'll update this as I make more progress. As it sits now, I'm getting the new engine on Saturday

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Things are well. Only issue is that the rear manifold from the 3400 is different. So that would need to be left as the stock beretta one, or an after market one. Otherwise, everything so far has been very easy. Just time consuming

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I ran my stock rear manifold for years so I didn't have to change the exhaust. If you keep the stock 3400 one, add some heat wrap around the steering gear bellows so they don't melt with the manifold being closer to the rack.

heavywoody wrote:I ran my stock rear manifold for years so I didn't have to change the exhaust. If you keep the stock 3400 one, add some heat wrap around the steering gear bellows so they don't melt with the manifold being closer to the rack.

I changed to the stock 3100 beretta one. Just easier for me as I didnt have the right down pipe for it.

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Overall, if anyone else ever wants to attempt this. It was surprisingly easy. The only difficulty was getting the engine and trans mounted together, with the trans still in the car. Other than that, everything went smoothly. Just some stuff took longer than it should have. But it's still done. The only issue I ran into was with the heater hoses, the 3400 one was different and when I tried to get it connected, I broke off the barb on the heater core, but as long as you dont pull it. You will be fine.

What I did for the heater part was use the 3400 pipe, then get the hose from the 3400 which had the quick disconnect, took the 3400 hose part off the adapter, connected a normal heater hose, and then you would have to run it down there and use a 90° 5/8 to 5/8 adapter to get them hooked up.

I tried to use a straight barb, but that's what ended up causing the break, use a 90° to avoid hoses bending at weird angles and having to force things.

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You can use the stock Beretta heater hose connection, you just have to thread the lower intake manifold to accept the fitting. I believe it was a 3/4" NPT.

heavywoody wrote:You can use the stock Beretta heater hose connection, you just have to thread the lower intake manifold to accept the fitting. I believe it was a 3/4" NPT.

Yeah I know I could, but that's more work and I didn't wanna risk damaging it or anything.

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When I did my first 3400 swap I actually the Beretta pipe and the 3400 pipe and coupled them with a piece of rubber heater hose. Ghetto but it worked fine until I redid the swap in the next car. Right now I actually have a brass barb in the intake and a molded 90 degree heater hose. I like that even better.

woody90gtz wrote:When I did my first 3400 swap I actually the Beretta pipe and the 3400 pipe and coupled them with a piece of rubber heater hose. Ghetto but it worked fine until I redid the swap in the next car. Right now I actually have a brass barb in the intake and a molded 90 degree heater hose. I like that even better.

I saw the barb mod you did. Definetly love that more than the original connection method. But that's how its gonna be for me. Ghetto hoses and barb connectors lol

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I had a pretty good write-up with pics back on the old bstuff site showing the 3400 intake I put on my 'old' Z's 3100. I also used a 3/4" NPT thread tap, and a brass hose-barb for simplicity -I haven't touched it since, now approaching ten years ago. I replaced the quick-leak, err, I mean, quick-connect fitting on the 'new' Z's 3.4 four-cam with a brass flare-type adapter, and used aluminum tubing from there, but I also have a 3-inch exhaust pipe sitting there, so I was avoiding rubber in that area. GM's only real reason for those quick connectors is for faster production assembly, and GM's only real reason for making them out of cheap-@$$ pot-metal is because they are cheap @$$es.

Rettax3 wrote:I had a pretty good write-up with pics back on the old bstuff site showing the 3400 intake I put on my 'old' Z's 3100. I also used a 3/4" NPT thread tap, and a brass hose-barb for simplicity -I haven't touched it since, now approaching ten years ago. I replaced the quick-leak, err, I mean, quick-connect fitting on the 'new' Z's 3.4 four-cam with a brass flare-type adapter, and used aluminum tubing from there, but I also have a 3-inch exhaust pipe sitting there, so I was avoiding rubber in that area. GM's only real reason for those quick connectors is for faster production assembly, and GM's only real reason for making them out of cheap-@$$ pot-metal is because they are cheap @$$es.

You are right. But that's just gm!

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Nice to see your upgrading! Keep it up!

DOHC_tuner wrote:Nice to see your upgrading! Keep it up!

Thanks! That's my goal now. To just upgrade to better things with more features or a nicer appearance

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I am gonna be attempting the same.swap for my 96 z26. Any other pointers for the swap.

Dixie land wrote:I am gonna be attempting the same.swap for my 96 z26. Any other pointers for the swap.

I would recommend taking the trans and engine out as one unit. I struggled to get the engine in and out, and getting it mated to the trans was also a big struggle. I would also recommend doing the timing and water pump and gaskets on the new engine before you put it in.

The only real difference, which I believe was mentioned, is the one heater core outlet is different. I would recommend tapping that hole and putting a barbed adapter in to connect the hose.

Also make sure to drain the new block, there are 2 little drain plugs on each side, and then refill using standard green coolant. The dexcool can gum things up, and if its already out, clean it out and use green coolant.

And just make sure you torque everything properly, especially with the timing and the more internal things. The last thing you want is a bolt coming loose and knocking everything apart.

And you will either have to use the downpipe from the 3400, or use the rear exhaust manifold from the 3100 to connect back to your exhaust. I used the front 3400 and rear 3100 and I have no issues.

And if nothing else, at least do the lower intake manifold gasket while its out. Replace it using a metal style, not plastic. Ive used the Dorman ones from Autozone.

I would love to see a thread of you doing the swap! Take some pics and post them!