I got a pretty good deal on some parts lately, so i'm thinking about doing an engine build for my STE to get rid of the 3.1 thats in it now. My roomates '98 GT got stolen and wrecked, so I bought the whole car back for $338. The problem is the car has 249k miles on it. The engine and tranny ran awesome however. I also just scored a complete 30k mile L67 for $450 with a spun bearing. I'm thinking I'll take the L36 bottom end from my roomates car and put the L67 topend on it for my STE. His car used no oil at all, ran like new, didn't make any noises or anything like that, got good mileage, etc.....

My question is, would you trust the 249k mile bottom end with boost. It would be a mild setup, just a basic topend swap with a ported blower, PEM'*, and 3" dp, and the regular intake, PCM, tstat, plugs... I know I wanna do it and I don't forsee any issues with it, but just wondering if anyone thinks I'm crazy for doing this.

Shawn

For the price you paid, I'd say take the chance.

I'd be more worried about the rest of the car ... suspension and such.

No need, hes putting it in his STE. I assume the suspension is good in the STE. BTW- saw the first STE in 3 years a couple days ago. Was pretty mint.

Go for it And I want pics.

JW, is it AWD?

If you're taking most of it apart, just get some new rings in there, and make sure the crank is within spec.

Could always machine it up, get some matching bearings, and go big..

MMM wasn't the STE an uncommon motor? That'* what makes the car worth what it is.. changing original kills the value.

Its a Grand Prix STE not a 6000 STE so it isn't AWD...I wish it was though.

Yes, it has the factory turbo/intercooled 3.1 in it that GM put in 8,475 GP'* between '89 and '90. They made 3725 coupes in '89 and 3750 in '90. The STE'* themselves are actually more rare than the coupes because they only made 1000, most of which were white, so mine is actually the rarest version of the Turbo GP'* since it is maroon.

However, currently these cars have basically no extra value due to their rarity (IMO because they are such piles of ****) and I don't see them getting one in the time I plan to own the car. FWIW, when the car was purchased in Oct of '03 with 69k miles on it, we paid $1800 for it. It now has ~84500 on it, three transmissions later. I also did 3100 heads and intakes on it and a cam and cut the cat out and did some stuff like that which basically killed off any value it may have had. I however do have all the original engine parts I pulled off and would be keeping this engine tranny so that if eventually they do become worth tons of money I can swap them back in and be all set. However, currently the car needs a new turbo since the seals are shot and also needs a front headgasket and probably the front head milled (I'd guess it warped which is why the gasket went).

The car would probably increase in value right now with the swap, IMO. It would probably be hard for me to get more than ~$2k for it, most L67 swapped ones go from $3-5k.

The reason I want to swap it is for drivability because this engine setup always had bad driveability problems and with my cam the car doesn't exactly have the best drivability, and with the turbo being worn out it smokes quite a bit at idle so its really annoying at stoplights when I'm making a smoke show for everyone.

The engine always ran awesome. It didn't use any noticable amount of oil between changes and was well taken care of for as long as him and previous owner owned it. Not sure about before that but it seemed to have been.

I wouldn't have a problem going through the bottom end before I put it in there, i mean really it would be pretty cheap since i have access to all the machining to do the crank grinding, honing, etc... myself. Except I've never heard of anyone really having good luck with a rebuild on one of these. Yeah I have heard of good track numbers out of them and whatnot but it seems like these same people are going through them every couple years too. But honestly its not too often you hear of a 3800 bottom end failing just because it was worn out. Maybe its just me though. If I had a bottom end issue I'd probably just throw another used L36 shortblock in it and go from there, so I'm not really worried about. However, when I pull the oil pan, if I see metal shavings or notice anything not looking 100% I'll probably go with a different bottom end.

Another thing I keep in mind is that I did the M90 swap on my GT at 212k. With 220k on the clock currently its still running and driving awesome with no bottom end issues and this car is making FAR more power than the STE build would be.

My bad. I forgot about those STEs. They made some rare ones like the Grand Prix sedan with the Twin Dual Cam