I'm seriously thinking of buying a well maintained Camaro from a friend who stated he was planning to do a %26quot;3.4/3400 top-end swap.%26quot; He stated he was planning to install 3400 cylinder heads, lower intake manifold, fuel rails and injectors. Is this ONLY for speed? Does it effect fuel efficiency? I know the car runs well now. If these items are not replaced like he was planning on doing, what issues would I have? I'm not planning to show or race the car, only use it to get back and forth places.
On a Camaro, why would a person change cylinder heads, manifold, fuel rails/injectors if it was running great?
well first off. you can build up a 6 cylinder to be fast. i have a 98 3.8 V6 camaro and its running better times in the quarter than the V8 and ive spent a total of $1500 in parts. and its all motor. but anyway. the 3.4 liter motor had very restricted heads and intake. And honestly on this motor it would be very.hard to do upgrades because they dont have many performance parts available for the GM 3400 V6's. And as for the injectors and fuel rail. there should be no reason to swap these components out unless he is planning on adding quite a bit of horsepower where the bigger injectors or rails will flow better. And in this motor its not necessary. It doesn't change your fuel MPG because the same amount of fuel is entering the engine because the regulator only lets through what the computer tells it too. If i were you I would get the car like it is. The only problems ive ever seen in these cars is that the head gasket fails quite a bit and is highly prone to cracking. Just play it safe and dont let the car ever get above 235 degrees. if it does pull over and wait till it cools off then take it to get the coolant system looked at. something a simple as a bad thermostat can cause a head gasket to blow. Well I hope this helps. Good Luck :)
On a Camaro, why would a person change cylinder heads, manifold, fuel rails/injectors if it was running great?
anyone trying to hop up a 6 cylinder is a fool,, buy it before he wreckes it...but be careful,,those engines are well known for intake vacuum leaks...i would not buy it without a compression test,,,and NEVER buy a car with check engine lite on...ever
That's funny about foolish people trying to mod a V6, considering you can make a good amount of additional power with top end swaps on practically the entire 60 degree engine family, including the 3.1, 3.4 and the 3400. Maybe I should totally reconsider modifying the 2.0 LNF in my Cobalt SS/TC because its even smaller. Hmmmm. Not. Sometimes you just have to hot rod what you have, and sometimes its just to see what you can do, even with the %26quot;small%26quot; stuff.
The reason you would do the swap on a good engine is that you can bump the horsepower/torque up, resulting in a increase in your fun-to-drive ratio. Accelerating onto a highway is equally important - its always good to have a little extra under the hood for the non-racing times you need it! A reasonable improvement in power does not necessarily harm your gas mileage if its done correctly, and a top end swap on your car won't necessarily kill the mpg's.
If he doesn't do the swap, you shouldn't have issues, provided the engine is well maintained now. It'll run and drive completely stock. 3.4's have their known problems, but if it hasn't caused any by now, you should be good to go so long as you keep the car well maintained as well.
