Final Gear Racing 2012/2013

Damn. There goes my Birthday Weekend with FGR. Here's hoping you guys can get the GTP back up and running.

Pipe dream awesome thought: Why not put the stuporcharged V6 in the Crown vic?
 
Pipe dream awesome thought: Why not put the stuporcharged V6 in the Crown vic?

No, just... no. To put the 3800 in the Vic would require a shit load of custom fabrication work, we'd have to change the oiling system, get a totally different transmission, change the drive shaft, and then make GM and Ford electronics play nice with each other. That's not the kind of work that can be done in 7 weekends, especially when the new 3.8 is sitting at FGR HQ and the CVPI is a good 8 hours away. Furthermore, 4.6's are relatively easy to find and cheap while we spent almost a year searching for a new 3.8.
 
Blame a severe lack of sleep for that suggestion.
 
No, just... no. To put the 3800 in the Vic would require a shit load of custom fabrication work, we'd have to change the oiling system, get a totally different transmission, change the drive shaft, and then make GM and Ford electronics play nice with each other. That's not the kind of work that can be done in 7 weekends, especially when the new 3.8 is sitting at FGR HQ and the CVPI is a good 8 hours away. Furthermore, 4.6's are relatively easy to find and cheap while we spent almost a year searching for a new 3.8.

Nobody wants them :dunno:
 
I thought the mod motor had better success in LeMons than the small block chevy.
 
I thought the mod motor had better success in LeMons than the small block chevy.

It does, the 4.6 has a pretty solid record while the small block Ford and Chevy does not. That might change once LS1's start coming down to legit LeMons money.
 
No, just... no. To put the 3800 in the Vic would require a shit load of custom fabrication work, we'd have to change the oiling system, get a totally different transmission, change the drive shaft, and then make GM and Ford electronics play nice with each other. That's not the kind of work that can be done in 7 weekends, especially when the new 3.8 is sitting at FGR HQ and the CVPI is a good 8 hours away. Furthermore, 4.6's are relatively easy to find and cheap while we spent almost a year searching for a new 3.8.

Fun fact: I actually considered this plan. Machine an adapter plate for the bellhousing bolts and a spacer for the flexplate, drill a 3.8 flexplate for the 4R70W torque converter, work up a pushbutton shifter (simple enough, I think) and figure out how to do motor mounts.

We should consider this sort of madness for the future.
 
Fun fact: I actually considered this plan. Machine an adapter plate for the bellhousing bolts and a spacer for the flexplate, drill a 3.8 flexplate for the 4R70W torque converter, work up a pushbutton shifter (simple enough, I think) and figure out how to do motor mounts.

We should consider this sort of madness for the future.

First, that's assuming Quiky would let that happen after everything we went through to get the new engine. Second, don't we already have enough crazy ass ideas filed away for future use?
 
Fun fact: I actually considered this plan. Machine an adapter plate for the bellhousing bolts and a spacer for the flexplate, drill a 3.8 flexplate for the 4R70W torque converter, work up a pushbutton shifter (simple enough, I think) and figure out how to do motor mounts.

We should consider this sort of madness for the future.

Or put the whole engine+trans assembly from a 3800 in the rear of the vic. Extreme rear-engine/rear-wheel-drive car.. Handling scarier than a 911.
 
Or put the whole engine+trans assembly from a 3800 in the rear of the vic. Extreme rear-engine/rear-wheel-drive car.. Handling scarier than a 911.

This is a concept that we should explore at some point.
 
So we've run into our first (somewhat) expected issue on the engine swap. We knew going in that the new engine wouldn't simply just drop right into the GTP without some work. Because of the difference between the W-Body and G-Body platforms, the L67 has slightly different accessories and engine mounts while the engines themselves (far as I know) are identical. I was under the impression that the engine mounts on the blown engine should bolt directly onto the new one. But the word I'm getting from FGR HQ is that our original lower/bottom mounts don't want to fit onto the new engine. I don't know why this is a problem since GM used the same castings for ALL 3800 engines, if they did change something then it's something I was totally unaware of. So I've put the word out to people hopefully more knowledgeable about this subject than I am and we can clear this first hurdle.
 
It is not uncommon for GM to use the same engine acroos differnt models with different mounts. I know this is about the stupidist way to do it, but it is the way they did it. Somtimes, like this one, the changed them for a different platform, but I have seen where they drop the same 350 into the same chassis where one is an olds and the other a Pontiac, and for some reason, one of them can't just take the parts of the shelf. I figured most of that would have changed with FWD across the board, but apparently not.
 
According to the people I asked, the problem is probably our fancy aluminum oil pan, apparently the easiest way to fix this is to either switch to a steel pan or notch the mount to make it clear. There are no pictures so I've no idea just how bad the current fitment is or what won't go where, so I'm not ready to declare this is the solution to our problem. Hopefully it is but I won't hold my breath.
 
Fun fact: I actually considered this plan. Machine an adapter plate for the bellhousing bolts and a spacer for the flexplate, drill a 3.8 flexplate for the 4R70W torque converter, work up a pushbutton shifter (simple enough, I think) and figure out how to do motor mounts.

We should consider this sort of madness for the future.


Why not just use the GM 200r4 or even the manual from a 4th gen f-body? The manual swap eliminates issues with wiring the trans and its ecu. Use an OBD1 GM ecu and get the wire harness. Gauges could just be the stock GM gauges zip tied to the steering column. Shitty old buicks with 3.8's are all over the yards here, which still amazes me since I don't remember them being on the road in the first place in L.A. With RWD oil pans and oil pump pickups no less.

Hell we ran a damn 2jz-ge on 7m electronics in a MKIII supra for years.
 
Actually, I looked up the wiring for the 4R70W shortly after I mentioned it. I could rig pushbuttons for it in my sleep. One solenoid trigger for "shift up", one for "shift down", one for "lock the torque converter" (which, if you want to get fancy, could be wired to the speedo), and one for hydraulic pressure control (and who needs that?)

Regardless, there are some fun future projects that require the Vic to remain 4.6 equipped. Rest assured they're actually dumber than swapping in a 3800.
 
Ah, we have plenty of shitty old buicks with 3.8's everywhere too.

It's just that when you're actually looking for something, they all vanish, and we have substantially fewer junkyards to begin with.
 
Thus the difference between southern California and the East Coast.

I've been to the been to the east coast, I lived near you...plenty more out there than in the land of "we hate american cars since we are mostly asian and buy Honda's"

Ah, we have plenty of shitty old buicks with 3.8's everywhere too.

It's just that when you're actually looking for something, they all vanish, and we have substantially fewer junkyards to begin with.
This part is true. When I needed bypass parts from the gm sc cars I
had to go to 3 yards to find more than 1.
 
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