Of everything that's wrong and right with my 1977 Chevrolet Corvette, perhaps the one thing that I'm not concerned with is its engine. Born with the standard "L48", 350 cubic-inch, 180-horsepower V-8, I'm not sure but would swear that sometime over the last 46-years, the engine has been rebuilt. Perhaps stroked. I've had the car 11-years now and have done nothing to the engine beyond tuning it up. While its standard cast-iron intake is (still) fed with "Four-Barrels of Freedom" (Rochester "Quadra-Jet"), with its gentle tremor at idle, it must have a mild cam. God bless Ohio, there's no catalytic converter either, just two straight pipes all the way to two Magnaflow mufflers tucked under the rear quarters. She sounds mean but not too mean and the whole things goes pretty good. I have no trouble keeping up with traffic on the highway although, in a C3, 50-mph feels like 75 and 75 feels like 200. I don't want for power, but it was cheaply available, I might just be tempted.
If I wasn't to hot-rod what I already have, there's no shortage of options available to me on Facebook Marketplace from General Motors alone to drop in it. Doesn't mean I have to go with GM, though. A honkin' Ford "Powerstroke" diesel or V-10 might be just what I'm looking for although I'd probably have great difficulty shoehorning either one in and then there's fabricating engine mounts, what to do with the transmission, then drive shaft etc. Chrysler HEMI? Toyota 1GR-FE (rear-wheel-drive 3.5-liter) V-6? I know I stand a better chance of finding kits and "how-to" guides for a swap if I stay within the GM family. High compression Oldsmobile 455 anyone? Cadillac 500? How about this 3.8-liter, turbocharged V-6 that came out of a 1985 Buick Grand National?
I can't think of another engine swap from within the GM corral that would be any cooler than stuffing this sixer in my car - even if a six-cylinder engine in a Corvette is blasphemous. Most anything else that wasn't a "Chevy" might be cringe worthy or worse yet, make my car harder to sell if and when I choose to unload it. I'm not liking the sound of having to explain, for instance, why I dropped a 300+ horsepower V-6 from a late model Ford Mustang into it; especially when, again, there are so many GM options available to me. Not to mention a gaggle of L98, LS and LT1 GM V-8 engines out there. This blown Buick V-6, though, this would be cool. Although, I have to wonder if it would make my car faster? For certain it might help handling as it's a good hundred pounds lighter all in than the SBC in my '77. C3's need all the help they can get in the handling deportment.
Numbers don't lie, though. Even though by 1985 Buick had managed to ring out 200-horsepower and 300-foot pounds of torque out of their venerable, "231", compared to what I have now, again, would it make a difference? Worse yet, would I be going "backwards"? Contemporary road tests of an '85 Grand National peg it zero-to-sixty in 7.5 seconds, the quarter mile in 15.7 at 87 mile-per-hour. While I was unable to find any data online regarding the acceleration numbers for a 1977 Corvette with the L48 engine, Road & Track tested a four-speed, 210-horsepower, "L82" 1977 Corvette doing zero-to-sixty in 6.8 seconds, the quarter mile in 15.5-seconds at 92-mph. I've hillbilly timed my car zero-to-sixty in seven-seconds; and that's with a good amount of tread melting tire spin too. Like I said, my car ain't slow.
Have to hand it to General Motors and Buick for what they were able to do with their turbo V-6 engine in a very short amount of time, though. Well, short amount of time with regards to developing the turbo version of it. The Buick 231 cubic-inch V-6 has DNA all the way back to 1962 but they first bolted a turbo to it in 1976 for use in a Buick Century that paced the 1976 Indianapolis 500. That engine had its boost dialed up to 22-psi (whoa!) helping the engine to make some 300-horsepower, but the general public never saw anything close to that engine in a production car.
Buick's first use of a turbo V-6 in a passenger car was in 1978 and that version of "the turbo", four-barrel carburetor and all, made 165-horsepower. Problem was, the go-fast pressure took forever to spool up and once expensed, was gone until it built up again. Fun while it lasted but made for a rather unusual if not tedious driving experience. Especially if someone checked the turbo option box for its performance potential.
Things didn't get really interesting, however, until the advent of sequential port-fuel-injection (SFI), distributor-less, "wasted spark" ignition, mass airflow, crank and camshaft sensors and a computer that could really manage all this stuff come 1984. All that techy stuff helped the little engine that could crank out the 200-horses my Facebook Marketplace engine here could be making if were running. Apparently, it's not, hence, it's $450 asking price. $750 if I want the 700R4 transmission it was born with. Decisions, decisions. Allegedly, it needs a crank sensor, that's a $400 part on ebay. If that's all this engine needs this could be a bargain. Especially if you can get the tranny thrown in for close to the asking price for just the engine.
Now, if this was the 3.8 turbo from a 1986 or 1987 Grand National\GNX that was intercooled and came with an updated turbocharger, it might be a whole different ball game. That engine purportedly made 276-horsepower, but most wonks believe GM grossly underrated that engine and claim it made north of 300. If one of those was listed for just $450 and simply needed a crank sensor, I might be filler busting the wife to approve the purchase order. A 1987 Buick GNX could roar from zero-to-sixty in 4.9-seconds, the quarter in 13.9-seconds and 98-mph. That's pretty good even by today's standards.
BTW, a 1985 Corvette with the game changing, 230-horsepower, "L98", reportedly, could do zero-to-sixty in 5.7-seconds, the quarter mile in 14.4 at 97-mph. So, guess what I'm seriously trolling FB Marketplace for these days. That engine, that's also bulletproof reliable, would really make a difference in my '77, especially later versions that cranked out 245-hp and 330 foot-pounds. This turbo V-6? Gosh, who knows. Still, would make for an interesting chatter and fodder at car shows. That sort of thing doesn't row my boat, but I know it does for a lot of people.
Chevrolet experimented with turbocharging a 1978 L82 Corvette, but it burst into flames and was destroyed during testing.
1985 grand national 3.8 engine complete with harness, computer, turbo, radiator and accessories shown $450 believe to need a crank sensor car had no spark so I've never heard it run can include trans for an extra $300
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