Which V6?

[Hillfarmer]

Greeting to all, I am new to this forum and am excited to have found it. I have a new project I am just in the infant stages with. I have a 1959 Hillman Husky and wish to waste the old four-banger and drop in a V6. This car weighs in at just over 2000lbs so a stock V6 would be a big kick in the pants! The Hillman is a decendent og the Sunbeams and they had a model which had a 260 ford V8. Myself being a GM man wanted a more familure to me motor and with gass prices will choose a V6. I realize the 3.8 Buick has a front mounted destributer which appeals to me as far as any clearence issues and to show my ignorance of sixes in general I woder if they all are so mounted? My main question is this...what would be my best GM V6 to look for and why? Also which ones to steer clear of and why?
Doug
PS: I am not soley responsible for bad grammer and misspelled words.

[Guest]

"Best" is an extremly subjective term, especially on this forum.

For overall power potential, with the ability to be somewhat easily swapped into a different chassis, I would go with the 3500 from a 2004+ Malibu/G6. This would be an involved swap, including an ECM that would probably be best pirated from a late '80s to early '90s 2.8 or 3.1 genII (FWD) donor vehicle, and then tuned.

For ease of swapping into a chassis not designed for the 660 and for someone that may want to keep the electronics simple and RWD 2.8 or 3.1 would be easiest, even the RWD 3.4 can be used pretty easily, just takes some parts swapping to use either a carb or TBI EFI. These can be found in S-10/2-15s (2.8L only), F-bodies (2.8 from 1984 [IIRC] to 1989 3.1 from 1990 to 1992, and 3.4 from 1993 to 1995). All F-body 660s were MPFI injected, or SFI (3.4), all S-series 2.8s were TBI injected.

3400 is another very nice 660 to start with, but again will require a lack of fear of swapping an ECM into the car.

I'm interested in seeing some pics of this car. I'm trying to find a light chassis myself to put a beast of a 660 into.

[sharkey]

if you are not afraid to get your hands dirty with EFI, you can make a heck of a lot more power and keep the fuel economy. as stated, you can use a rwd 60* motor (2.8, 3.1 or 3.4l) and use a carbrated intake and 2 barrel carb, hei distributor, and it will work. i wouldnt plan on making anything more than around 180hp and keep it street friendly, its just not very possible.

now if you go with efi, you open a lot of doors. you could start off with a common 3400, some custom pistons for higher compression, ported heads, cam, ect, and you can get upwards of 200hp and keep it very streetable, fires up on the first try. you would need to adapt a stock computer, or go with something like a megasquirt stand alone (www.megasquirt.com). with the megasquirt it makes it very simple to do on the fly tuning, and its fairly straight forward to get set up. if your not scared of doing some wiring, efi is the way to go.

carb or efi, id stick with a gm 60* v6. this includes the 2.8, 3.1, 3.4, 3100, 3400, 3.4l dohc, 3500 and 3900. id stay away from the 90 v6 engines (3.0, 3300 and 3800). they are a wider motor, as well as quite a bit heavier, wich could realy upset the weight distributiion of you light little car.

[geoffinbc]

Plus to my knowledge every other Chev V6 only comes with iron heads. If you go with a 60 degree V6 with aluminum heads your ready to run weight will be under 400LBS. 60 degree V6's will also fit better where a 4 banger once was because it is much narrower than a 90* V6. Also a 60* V6 is very smooth it does not require a balance shaft for smoothness. And the last point is that Chevrolet is no longer developing any of their other V6's. They will be history soon. The 60* V6 is the only one continuing to evolve. Obviously for a reason

[SappySE107]

Probably wont be going the DOHC route. Im not familiar with your engine bay or vehicle but if any V6 is going to fit, its going to be a pushrod 60V6. Hopefully you will still have room to run some headers without too much modification. After seeing a 3400 in a 76 and 77 MGB (not sure on models or if that is it or what), I am sold on the compact design.

I own W bodies (grand prix, cutlass supreme) so engine bay area hasn't been an issue. If you can, get some pictures up so we can see what you have to play with.

Mounts and other custom parts to put a FWD 60V6 motor into a RWD vehicle are available as well. Check out killerbv6.com for an idea of what you can do.