2003 malibu 3100 in a 95 z26

[jeff540]

Is this guy offering a warranty? I doubt it..

Wait a minute.. hes going to charge YOU to pull the engine from the malibu? Uhhh.. ya, rip off bud.

All 2003 and newer engines have the "updated" intake gaskets - they are BETTER than the older design, but still not perfect. If the dealer replaced the intake gaskets on that 3100, they would have replaced them with the exact same ones that were in there from the factory. They should last a long time, a lot longer than the pre 2003 - but they are definately not perfect.

You should look for a 3400, its a direct swap (same as the newer 3100) but more power, and if you stick to a 2003+ then they have the better gaskets. Otherwise you can buy an older engine, and swap the gaskets yourself with the felpro metal ones, that will last forever. 3400's came in lots of cars - grand ams, aleros, venture van, equinox, etc. Look again on car-part. You will find what you need

P.s. you can't use that alternator from the malibu. Go do some reading at http://www.3400swap.com

So if he just had the gaskets done a year or so ago at the dealer your telling me that they used the old crappy designed ones,this is a 2003. what originally came in it? are all you guys basically saying is the 3400 from 2003+ got the better gaskets but not the 3100.

[jeff540]

[quote="3400beretta"]Is this guy offering a warranty? I doubt it..

Wait a minute.. hes going to charge YOU to pull the engine from the malibu? Uhhh.. ya, rip off bud.

No he said HE would pull the engine from the malibu plus my Z26,and install his 3100 for $1300.

[jeff540]

yea, you may hear it running, but then you won't know how much longer it will run. if you get one from the yard you can make sure it runs and that it will run for a long time by refreshing it. This is what I did with mine.

does anyone know how much longer there current car is going to run? If i get one from a yard how can i hear it run.been to a yard close to me the guy said give him a month or 2 to locate a good one.ballpark 100 bucks.30 day warranty.but that is for another 95 3100. 2003+ 3400 I am sure he is going to come back saying a grand or close to it. I'm seeing that now on car-parts.com.great site by the way.thanks

[3X00-Modified]

Depends on the yard... I got two motors both with 4k miles on them and both came with 90day warranties... one 3400 and one 3500... Both were only $400. The 3400 was an 05 and the 3500 was an 04

If your going to a pick and pull yard then ok yeah its hard to tell what your getting, but the one I went to had the engines on their rack pulled from a car that came in. They get total wrecks, strip them of all the stuff they can sell and put that in a storage building so the good stuff isn't sitting in the weather.

$1300 for the whole swap isn't a bad deal if the guy knows what he's doing and can figure out how to get a newer N-body 3100 into a Beretta. There was one swap done on here by a shop and they guy didn't have a clue. The car never ran right after it was done and it was due to all the sensor screw up's he did. It's not hard to understand using all the beretta sensors on the new motor, but apparently he just didn't get that, so he had stuff that was in the wrong spot and wasn't plugged in and so on.

Another thing to remember is you may have to swap timing chain covers, OR have the boss of the idler pulley that's on a N-body cover machined off. Otherwise your side motor mount will not fit. And also the oil pan spacing may be a little off like mine was and I just had to open up one of the holes on my AC compressor with a file so I could get the lower bolt on.

On top of all of this... 03+ gaskets YES are the ones that are better... They are still plastic, but they have metal tabs in them to prevent over tightening and cracking... Every one thinks that's only a little better and the felpro metals are a fix all, BUT I bought felpro metals for my 3500 and compared them to my stock GM 3500 ones and the port openings were smaller, so all my port work didn't match up anymore. Needless to say I'm using the GM ones still and they work fine.

Also a 3100 large port vs a 3400 large port will produce very close to the same power. You do NOT get a but load more power from the .3 displacement, it's the large port upper intakes that give the 3100 the boost in power. Hence the 3400 top end swap that used to be so popular. I pulled 150whp on a 180k mile 3100 block with a 3400 top end on it... And then ONLY pulled 146whp on another dyno a few years later with a full 3400 swap... SO if you ask me the 3100 block vs 3400 block isn't that much of a difference, I'm guessing the dyno's differed a little which could put the difference in simply a margin of error area... whats 4hp... could have been weather conditions too. Oh and for comparison I got 124whp with a full stock 3100 small port, and thats the same lower end that later did 150hp with the 3400 top end.

[Money pit Beretta]

Man that needs a sticky. For all of us that want to get a big port engine and drop it in. In other words I no longer have the money for a build, but would like to have a newer engine.

[3X00-Modified]

I have way too much of info like that floating around in my head... lol

[jeff540]

Depends on the yard... I got two motors both with 4k miles on them and both came with 90day warranties.

it does depend where you get your motor,I have been to many U-Pull it places that YOU have to pull for 100.vs. 400 and THEY pull and like you said,comes with warr.and is under roo

I know everyone on here is in favor of 3400.but I just want the easiest plug and play that will get my Z26 running,been sitting for 7 years,man that's a long time.I believe all my sensors are fine as I don't have any check engine light.650 for a 2003 3100 with 123,000 on it does sound like that is too much,compared to what you guys are paying for way lower milage engines.I'll keep looking.Thanks for all the replys guys.

[Money pit Beretta]

I have way too much of info like that floating around in my head... lol

Need a sticky for your head then. When can you put it up?

Cool Jeff, keep updating. I will be watching for sure.

[jeff540]

I have way too much of info like that floating around in my head... lol

Need a sticky for your head then. When can you put it up?

Cool Jeff, keep updating. I will be watching for sure.

I found another 3100 out of a 94 Pontiac Grand Prix,guy wants 400 I was able to hear it run,sounds good,only thing is 180,000 miles on car,said it was going to scrap next week.he also said 400 bucks up front he'll pull the engine,NO WARRANTY.I said how much for the whole car? he told me he couldn't sell the whole car because he don't have a license or something to sell cars outright.HUH.anyone know what this guy is talking about.I was leaving his place and his employee came outside and said to me if i was interested in buying the whole car HE would buy it from his boss and then i could buy it from him.He wants me to come monday to take the car out and drive it.Only thing wrong i could see and hear was they cut the CAT Converter off and it was kind of loud.but whole car is there and they say runs strong.engine was also very clean,even the oil looked good.he said either it was well maintained or redone.

This PLACE is also a Tranny shop,with junk cars for parts out back behind his building.
Should I still go monday to drive or do you think he is going to want 1000 bucks for the whole car.

What should I be looking for when I go monday.

How much are whole cars going for scrap these days? I junked a 88 Buick regal in 2006 and i got 185.00.and then when i told the girl i wanted my brand new battery,she said oh wish you would have told me that before i weighed it,that will drop the price down 5 bucks,I told her, so be it.I was taking my new battery.my buick also ran and drove,I drove it in with a knocking engine.

[Cliff8928]

The VIN M 3100 is weaksauce. You're better off with a "J" (2000+, large port intakes)

[3X00-Modified]

Any Pre 2000 3100 will be the same small port engine that came in the beretta, as Cliff so well put it... weaksauce

[Money pit Beretta]

3rd that! Any pre 2000 is worthless.
Jeff quit screwing around with high mile engines. There is just no point. Did you check http://www.car-part.com/ ?
Hey man I just don't want to hear that you put an engine in and that it has problems. Then say that you are giving up and selling the car. You have a butt ton of support here.

[jeff540]

[quote="Money pit Beretta"]3rd that! Any pre 2000 is worthless.
Jeff quit screwing around with high mile engines. There is just no point. Did you check http://www.car-part.com/ ?
Hey man I just don't want to hear that you put an engine in and that it has problems. Then say that you are giving up and selling the car. You have a butt ton of support here.


Giving up and selling the car????? Dude! I am so there.I just want something turn key.My Z26 was the worst car purchase i have ever made.I mean granted it was only 500 bucks,but it has been down for 7 years.I really would like to have it running before it starts getting to cold to work on it. I am in Tennessee so the weather stays nice until about november,then by middle of february it is getting warmer all over again.going up to 95 degrees again today.

99,975 original miles, didn't even get over the 100,000 mile hump,shame on you GM.My 92 jeep cherokee has 252,000 on it and still runs good.i paid 1800.00 10 years ago.and it is 4X4 and still works well.
89 Honda accord 222,000 miles have it 4 years and paid 500.00 wife took it to work this morning.runs extremly well.
As you can see High Miles don't scare me.You can usually tell if a vehicle is kept up on regular maintenance just by poping the hood and having a GOOD look and taking the car for a long test drive and watching those gauges.

money Pit Beretta? That should be my name,WELL not yet,have not thrown that much into it since i bought it.
Thanks for the Butt ton of support. and YES I have tried car-part.com not impressed with there prices,plus you cannot hear it run before you buy.That's alot of work to find out they sold you a bad engine.It happens everyday.

[3X00-Modified]

Hearing an engine run does not mean its good. As noted I bought two motors that were already pulled off of car-part... the bottom end of one is still 100% fully intact on my car and taking the abuse of a nitrous shot when I got to the strip. I never heard it run, I just took their word for it and they offered a guarantee.

And you can't say shame on GM... I got 215k on my lower end before I had any ring seal issues and I never had any bearing problems. I also got 175k on a stock 4t60e and I was NOT easy on it... so really it comes down to poor maintenance as you also described. That's what killed your motor in your car. The previous owner didn't give a crap so it failed well before it should have.

also I would have to say, you really should have initially stated your intentions... such as your just trying to get a car running, you care nothing about it. Then you probably never would have heard some mention 3400's or large port 3100's or 3500's since your OBVIOUSLY not out to gain any performance.

[jeff540]

Hearing an engine run does not mean its good. As noted I bought two motors that were already pulled off of car-part... the bottom end of one is still 100% fully intact on my car and taking the abuse of a nitrous shot when I got to the strip. I never heard it run, I just took their word for it and they offered a guarantee.

And you can't say shame on GM... I got 215k on my lower end before I had any ring seal issues and I never had any bearing problems. I also got 175k on a stock 4t60e and I was NOT easy on it... so really it comes down to poor maintenance as you also described. That's what killed your motor in your car. The previous owner didn't give a crap so it failed well before it should have.

also I would have to say, you really should have initially stated your intentions... such as your just trying to get a car running, you care nothing about it. Then you probably never would have heard some mention 3400's or large port 3100's or 3500's since your OBVIOUSLY not out to gain any performance.

Can't say shame on GM? Google 3100,3400 LIMG and you will see ALL who have had a problem with a GM vehicle,Fords too.
My Honda as far as I know (purchased from friend of friend talks to him daily at work) The engine never needed anything major besides regular maintenance.

You are so right regarding previous owner not taking care of my Z26.when I bought it and did a oil change the oil overflowed my drain pan.either it was antifreeze and oil mixed or the previous owner told me he didn't know how to do an oil change he thought you just add NEW oil to your old and that was your oil change.LOL.

I do care about this car though,if I didn't,I would have left it in Pa.and not towed it 700 miles.plus I stored it for 7 years.

What I need is a brand new SHORT block.but there 1600 bucks.

No,I am not out looking for performance,just looking to get the car running again,Sooo I can start enjoying it. But you are so WRONG my friend,I DO care about this car,still have the original window sticker from the dealer when it was purchased by my wife's sister.
she told me she wanted it back,she would give me a 2001 ford escape for the Z26 IF I got it running and my wife said NO,were keeping the beretta.