Originally Posted by candoo49

My son wanted me to try blue devil head gasket repair but i found a good 01 impala with a blown tranny and was thinking on puting the olds tranny in the impala and at least i'd have a car running.

Originally Posted by radomirthegreat

Time to clear up some stuff!

First things first, the Intrigue came out in 1998 with the 3800. Year 99 was its last model year with the 3800, and during that year the 3.5 came out. By 2000, the 3.5 was the standard engine on all models.

The Shortstar is the 3.5L V6 based on the Northstar. The Northstar is either the 4.0L or the 4.6L, but they are not interchangeable. There are many differences, and setting up a 4.6 with the PCM of a 4.0 would be pretty awful. However, back to V6 talk!

Since your Shortstar is an aluminum engine, it needs strong threads in its aluminum block to hold head studs for its aluminum heads. The issue with this is that GM used the same nylon material as they did for 3800/3.5/LS intake manifolds to make threads for their head gaskets. Over time, as this crappy material weakened, heads started leaking. The proper fix is to tear down the engine and use metal thread inserts.

A friend of mine has an Aurora with the 3.5, and he had head gasket issues, too. The engine was under warranty at his dealership, so he got a replacement engine. It'* apparently less costly, even to a dealership, to outright replace the 3.5 with another 3.5 than to fix it up.

That said, the 3800 should bolt straight up to the transmission, but you'd need a W-body wiring harness and maybe some fiddling around with dash wiring. I suggest strongly that you get an L67 so you can go to a 240 hp engine and get some fun out of your engine swap, should you choose to do it. Otherwise, keep in mind to spit on and throw away the nylon thread inserts as you're replacing head gaskets, and then you actually shouldn't have any more problems with your 3.5.