3500/3400 Questions

[Jordan]

Well i am building a rock buggy for offroad use and have been lurking around here at these engines. I was set on the 3500 or 3.5 from a malibu but a friend has a 3.4 from a camaro cheap. I was wondering your opinion on which one would be better? Looking at weight and stock hp. I would do minimal mods, just the normal bolt on with maybe a cam, etc...

What is stock hp of each? which is easier to set up? better torque down low and take off? I wont have ac or any of that just enough to make it run. thanks in advance from a newbie.

[Superdave]

The 3500 is a much better engine to start with. GM rated them at 201 Crank HP but i've seen them put that to the wheels with a 5 speed. With a good exhaust it'll make 220 easy and 220-230 TQ.


A moderate cam will really wake it up. Right now i'm getting about 320 HP and 300 TQ from mine.


The Camaro 3.4 makes about 160 HP and 180 TQ, it weighs about 50 or 60 more lbs more than the 3500 because of the iron heads.


Both engines are capable of running on an old OBD1 computer, the 3500 needs a couple extra parts but really makes up for it with the added power.

[SappySE107]

The 3500 is a much better setup than an iron head 3.4. With the right cam, bottom end power is excellent. Something where idle to 4k is the powerband, correct?

[Jordan]

wow thanks for the quick response, EXACTLY what i needed to know. Are there certain years of the 3.5 that i need to look for when hunting?

[IsaacHayes]

LX9 is the 3500 you want. there is another 3500 that is variable cam you do not want that one.

[Jordan]

are all the 3500 malibu engines lx9 ?

[3400-95-Modified]

04-05 those are the 3x00 style that will work as described above.

[Jordan]

damn ur car sounds awsome with that cam in there, LOVE it for a v6

[IsaacHayes]

Two o fakin d00 4.flv ... lol what a name for a video file.

I think the LX9 was in some 06 vehicles, but I can't recall which.

[3400-95-Modified]

LOL, I named that folder/cam import that way because it was pics of both cars side by side... I never noticed it.

Thanks Jordan... All I have are those videos right now... I haven't heard it since Nov IIRC, Somewhat saddening.

[Jordan]

what all do you have done to it that makes it sound like that? from my computer it sounds like a v8

[3400-95-Modified]

Everythings listed in my sig.. Its the duration and the overlap of my cam that makes it sound like that. Its a Boost orientated cam since I run nitrous.

Its just S&S Headers and a Edelbrock SDT muffler for exhaust.

[IsaacHayes]

Cam is what makes it sound like that. And a loud exhaust.
Damn, I got ninja'ed.

[Jordan]

are the headers originally for the 3.4, i couldn't find them anywhere online

[3400-95-Modified]

Yes, I'm the first one who cut up a set of S&S's to put in our cars... One person before me did a set of TOG's but I never heard anything of that car after seeing it on CarDomain.