Gm 3.8 V6

I am the unfortuante owner of a 91 Buick park avenue. The engine is not the smartest choice for a 3800 pound car. But anyway, on to my questions. I am looking to mod my buick a bit so it wont be quite as sad in a straight line. I ould like to know the HP and Torque handlings of both the engine and the trans. i've heard that the most the trans can handle is the power that the supercharged V6's put out which I hope is wrong, but any information that you could tell me along those lines would be appreiacted. BTW, I am thinking of doing a whole new exhaust since the person who designed the exhaust for it orginally must have been on crack, doing an intake for the same reason as the exhaust, and since money is kinda limited, I dont want to supercharge it or turbocharge it so I was thinking of like a 50 shot of nitrous if the trans and engine can handle it. I was wondering about other people's opinion on this.

Well there are guys down here who get over 300hp out of them useing a 4 barrel Holly, some headers and a wild cam.

Apprently theres a cheap adaptor plate for the intake manifold thats makes it a very easy conversion.

The other option for real hp gains would have to be a S/C.

But certinaly doing a good custom exhaust is a great place to start, and then work on the intake side.
Any good exhaust shop should be able to build you a suitable system.

Yeah I know the supercharger would be the other best option for real gains, I cant afford like 3000 for a supercharger, computer etc., but I can afford like 3 or 400 for a nitrous kit adn for its installation. So I'm considering nitrous over a supercharger or turbocharger. Its not my first choice for how to add power, but for someone in my place, its the best option money wise and it would only be used when I wanted it.

I dont know exactly how much the trans can handle, but i do know that you dont want tot take the intake off and switch it to a carb system because you will loose fuel mileage you wont pass emissions and you can get more efficiency and power out of fuel injection if you know what you are doing to change a car from F I to a carb would be rediculous. if you want to shoot it with nitrous i wouldnt go over either a 50 or 75 shot wet. i wouldnt recommend a dry shot because it is harsher on the engine and is known to knock out a piston on higher mileage engines. i am currently in the process of putting a supercharger on my 2000 impala 3.8 and have fould you can get a rebuilt one with two year warranty for 499.99 and then go to the junk yard for and other parts for installation.

The 3.8 is a great engine. Might be a tad slow for you, but there are several things to consider.

The tranny is a 4T60 which will take just about anything that 3.8 can dish out. Its the same basic tranny that is used with Caddy's Northstar V8s.

Where you'll run into problems is the front suspension and axleshafts. They'll take a bit of abuse, but you can't expect 215mm rubber and FWD to take any really huge power. Nothing wrong with some upgrades, but you don't want to go off the deep end.

I suggest either finding a complete supercharged 3800 conversion, adding an aftermarket supercharger (if they still make them), or nitrous as someone else suggested.

You should also check into the standard tune-up things. The factory rating on those 3800s was 170 hp/220 tq. I would say the tranny is fine up through 300 lb-ft as it is (if its in good shape) but properly built could take as much as 450 or more. Its basically a Transverse 700r4/4L60.

You could also look for a later 3800... By 1997 they were rated at 205/230; mostly with cam and compression ratio. It was up from 8.5:1 (like yours) to 9.4:1

Wow, talk about raising the dead.

Haha... I didn't even notice.

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