Wouldnt a 2001 SE be a G-body, or at least based off a G-body making both the 3.5 Shortstar and 4.0 V8 from the Aurora an option? You would almost certainly need an entirely different transmission though to run the 4.0 in an SE though.

Im not sure how easily either one could be done, but I think its feasible. BUT while both of those engines are excellent, they arent without there own problems. To top it off, neither of them have much, if any, of an aftermarket, so if thats an issue, I advise against it.


I will support the notion that the 3800 is an excellent engine. They have some common problems, but so does every car. If you are concerned about intake gasket issues, they can be fixed for good for less than 200 dollars easily. Thats not a bad pricetag at all.

Along that note, Im not sure if the L26 which is the most recent NAed 3800, has intake issues or not, I know it has an aluminum upper, and im sure they used the aluminum framed gaskets on it. That would be an option.

All in all, for the price you are going to pay to buy any other engine and get it to work in your car, whether it be 3.5, 4.0, or the L26, is going to be much, much higher than just fixing what few problems the existing engine has. Not too mention you would gain little too nothing from doing so.

If you swapped in a 3.5, you would lose the nice flat torque curve that the 3800 has. you would instead have an engine that needs to achieve high rpms in order to move the car at anything resembling fast. I will be the first to tell you that the 3.5 does not have the power down low that the 3800 has, and keep in mind this is in a W-body car that weighs 3500 lbs or so. I cant imagine how much worse it would be in a 00+ newer Bonneville with another 4-500 pounds if not more added on to that.

The 4.0 would be a nice change, ill give it that, but you would need to not only get an engine, but a transmission, because it uses a different one than the Bonneville, and even if you could rig it up to your 4T65-E, the extra power of the 4.0 would make quick work of a stock transmission.

One last thing, to go along with the above, if you think parts to fix a 3800 are expensive, start shopping around for parts for the 3.5 and 4.0. I cant speak for the 4.0 but I know that almost every single part for the 3.5 is more expensive than the 3800, some of them considerably more.

For the money you would use in swapping in anything else, you can build a solid performing 3800 that will be almost bulletproof.

problems I had...which aren't due to me, possible the old owner but...New overdrive, rebuilt engine (pontiac dealerships fault) tranny been worked on, i forget the other things but some were not as big as those I listed but there were some other that were rediculous....I spent so far on the car about 3-4g'* on fixing it..

yea I get the old owner was abusive to it, I don't know who the old owner was so I don't know anything really...but right when I got it about a month later needed the new overdrive, and then like I said I broght it to a Pontiac dealership for them to fix something and they instead made me blow my motor basicually so they had to rebuild it for free, and then tranny had to get worked on...

yea tell me about it i went through 4 trans rebuilds in a row in my jeep they tried to blame it on me having a 408 stroker with all the other stuff but i threatned to take them to the better business beureau and court they happily gave me a 5 year warranty on the rebuild

The biggest problem isn't the physical size of the motor, or even getting mounts fabricated. There'* enough room in there to drop in an LS7, if you have the money.
The biggest problem is the electronics and other supporting systems for the motor. Putting in a motor other than the 3800 would require massive, if not total, re-wiring of the car. Even switching from an L36 to an L67 requires a bit of work on the wiring. Also, a different motor might affect handling, as weight differences would throw off the suspension response. If the new motor doesn't work with the old trans, you'll also have to think about driveline geometry, which is crucial to FWD cars in ways that RWD guys can't even comprehend.
If your friend really has problems with the idea of running the 3800, then he shouldn't buy the Bonnie. If he can get past that, there are plenty of options for better performance/reliability for the L36.


EDIT: BTW, Buickman, the Park Ave was a C-body until 96, in 97 it became a G-body.

My fault i geth them confused at times h body was the previous gen GM FWD platform

would a GTP engine/tranny be able to work?