alright, so i bought my first car, a 96 cavalier 2.2 five speed. as of today it has 109000 miles on it. ive been toying around with it a little bit, basically just got a k&n filter and a cherry bomb glasspack. and i am about to buy some coilovers, but i want to save up to get some more serious mods and i was wondering which is cheaper, and which is money better spent, going with a turbo or swapping a v6. thanks
A 3400 swap has easier power potential. But I'll let the LN2 owners say their peace.
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"Youth in Asia"...I don't see anything wrong with that.
for your application, 3400 would be mechanically easier due to limitations on the 96 2.2 fuel delivery system.
but if he is able to get the parts required, more power is to be gained then from a stock 3400. I must say though that US is lucky for having the 96 with OBDII cause it didn't start up here till 97 IIRC. I just got inside the OBDII stage where my friends 96 is still OBDI.
Quote:
but if he is able to get the parts required
for the injectors, he would need to do a top feed conversion since there are no other side feed injectors for the 95-97 2.2l engines.
The fuel pump flows plenty for the 3400.
You also have to take into account the wiring if i'm not mistaken.That is what always made me not want to do a v6 swap.
I don't have the pate nice to do that or the know how really.Feared that i would mess something up and blow the motor.
You could always send the wiring to painless wiring i believe,but i think they want your first born child for their price.
Rememeber kids... spell check is your friend
hense the reason I said mechanically and not electronically.
Once I get things wired up the way I want, I plan on sending my hack-n-slice to Painless (if they can do it).
I looked into one day.Not extensively though... i assumed they would want something over 2k for a wiring job of the sort.
Rememeber kids... spell check is your friend
why not an eco swap?
http://www.jbodytuner.com
^^ The real jbody store and forums!!!!!
Brad McLean wrote:but if he is able to get the parts required, more power is to be gained then from a stock 3400. I must say though that US is lucky for having the 96 with OBDII cause it didn't start up here till 97 IIRC. I just got inside the OBDII stage where my friends 96 is still OBDI.
Wrong, your friends 96 is OBD2. Its just a screwed up year for the J's in terms of the PCM, thats why HPT cant flash that year.
^^^ I thought the 95' auto quad4 was the only engine in a cav to have OBD 1.5.
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"Youth in Asia"...I don't see anything wrong with that.
If I were him, I'd go with V6 swap as well. It's probably cheaper, and almost, if not all of the parts, can be bought at junkyards. Also, if he wants even more power down the road, he still has a stock V6 in it, which can make very nice numbers naturally aspirated.
v6. the 2.2 puts out little power and the amount of money you have to spend to get the power and done correctly, your better of with the v6
what would the ballpark cost of a v6 swap be? if anyone has done a 3400 swap how much did you spend total?
I am not a prime example for cheap and easy junkyard v6 swap. I have over 3 grand in mine, easy.
depends on what all your going to do with it really, i also had the getrag swapped in at the same time.
i got everything for my car at once, spent between 5,000 and 6,000 on it all,
fidanza aluminum flywheel,
spec stg 3 clutch,
urethane upper and lower engine mounts
tranny mounts and urethane tranny bushings
urethane control arm bushings,
kyb agx's
eibach prokit,
engine,
getrag tranny,
shifter linkage and assembly(in the car),
exhaust,
wiring harness(thanks to raven and doubleZ),
fluids.
temp, tach, and volt gauge
plus labour if you don't plan on doing it yourself.
im probably missing something but thats probably pretty close. whether you go all out and take care of everything or just do as little as it takes to get it in there and drivable. make sure you have some spare cash put away because there will be bugs.
things ive had to deal with is i had a rad fan stop working and overheated.
blew a couple heater hoses
broke a boss on the oil pan from a lower mount bolt coming lose.(thread lock them)
blew tranny (fixing this in the spring, so thats as far as ive got.
there is a v6 progress thread in this section that has plenty of information i suggest you read it before you tackle the swap.
good luck on whichever way you decide to go
My 3400 Swap Page
thanks for all the input and advice
Mine:
Engine - 1200
Harness 1 @ 50, 1 @ 75
PCM: 2 @ 100 (first was not working right)
BCM: 40
Gauges: 500 or so
Mount: 40
plus a bunch of extra stuff (belt drive acc, new bushings, etc)... total about $3k
No offense and I know the OP has a 2.2 but $3k into a Eco or Ld9>V-6 swap anyday

15.2@89mph 2.171 60ft. 9.830 1/8 R.I.P. "LULU"
Brad McLean wrote:but if he is able to get the parts required, more power is to be gained then from a stock 3400. I must say though that US is lucky for having the 96 with OBDII cause it didn't start up here till 97 IIRC. I just got inside the OBDII stage where my friends 96 is still OBDI.
I don't know about us guys with 3rd gens, I especially know that i've not hit the dyno. But I do know that guys with 2nd Gen cars and 3400's can easily hit 190+whp. I challenge you to build a 96 2.2 car to reliably put down that much power without destroying itself on the stock bottom end. Note with history that very rarely or ever will a 2.2OHV put down that much power without taking a big chunk out of a piston above the top ring land.
Kardain wrote:Quote:
but if he is able to get the parts required
for the injectors, he would need to do a top feed conversion since there are no other side feed injectors for the 95-97 2.2l engines.
The fuel pump flows plenty for the 3400.
I know how that can be as I've been looking myself, found one set but the asking price was insanely rediculous.
Sorry, I can't seem to spell when I'm tired, lol.