My 3400 build!

[19Cutlass94]

Well I guess its about time I show everybody what Ive been doing lately. Ive posted this on other forums and I was thinking why the fuck didnt I post this here!

Heres the engine from a 2004 pontiac grand am... with 8,000miles!


Started tearing into it, and look at how clean this thing is! The timing chain looked good as well!









And heres the intakes I got back from Ben!





Heres a comparison between the small port 3100 engine and the p&p'ed large port




Got the heads off and heres the block:




Heads... new enough that the paint is still there


Heads stock cam and timing chain and sproket


stock cam


1211 grind




LS6 springs and comp camps retainers




My whole goal for this project was to wake up this 3400 a little bit, but still have it run good/decent on the OBD1.5. Ive done alot of research about cams on OBD1.5... and according to the general sensus, a good performance cam that would work good was around 206 duration and 472 lift... this cam is very close with 205.2/205.4 duration and 478/480 lift.

And currently, the intakes and other odds and ends are at powdercoating. Im getting the intakes in silver, 3400SFI in body color, and a few brackets in silver and black.

Also as your reading this, I dropped off the heads to have the springs and retainers installed so i should have them back later today when i go into work.

[IsaacHayes]

Cool. Defiantly let us know how that cam behaves on OBD1.5. Probably take 3-4 days of driving before it's running decent. At least that's how mine is even when it was stock. I guess the speed density is a slow learner.

[19Cutlass94]

yeah Im not sure when Ill be getting around to putting it in. Hopefully itll run pretty good though. Ive got a good scan tool Im going to hook up for the first time starting it up to see whats going on and what everything looks like. But Ive got everything pretty much figured out and dont expect anything tooo far out of the normal. But well see what happens right?!

So today I brought everything to the machine shop to get the springs and retainers installed, only to realize I didnt have the LS6 spring seats So we decided to ruin a stock seat/seal to see how car you could grind it down on a lathe, and well it didnt last too long But hopefully early next week Ill be starting to put the engine together!

[ForcedFirebird]

Looks good! That was a clean engine. My 3500 heads had the same paint on them from the factory, but not that bright.

Funny you mention the difference between the small and large port intakes. I was at the JY and had never seen a small port intake before, but as soon as I pulled the UIM it was obvious even after not looking at a large port casting that had been sitting in thr garage for weeks untouched

[19Cutlass94]

yeah they werent kidding when they named it small port engine

[IsaacHayes]

My 3400/3500 intake combo seems to make a lot of power midrange and even low end too. It seems to have less wheel spinning torq but moves faster according to the speedometer. The top end is a little better but I'm pretty sure the 2" exhaust and 1.625" downpipe are holding it back. I guess going to the large ports didn't loose too much velocity, that or the plenum helps out the low end like everyone says. I really need to get on the ball and get exhaust done to see what it's capable of. I'd love to have headers though... man I'd love that. These logs suck but I'm not getting rid of them unless something really good is available. Lil Jon needs to send his modified set to S&S so they can make em for us hehehe. That would rock. 2 3500 fronts would work too but that would have some creative routing and I don't have time for my DD to be down that long.

The 3400 should run well enough with your/our obd1.5 but the cam is what I'm wondering about. Brad had a cam on his old 3100 with large intake swap and said IIRC that it would want to stall sometimes at lights. If it comes down to it you could move the throttle blade stop out farther to keep the rpms up, or open up the air bleed hole in the plate bigger.. Speaking of which, my current 3400 TB doesn't have an air bleed hole at all in it... Odd.. my 3100 did.

[19Cutlass94]

From hearing what some people said about their cammed 60*'s Ive heard that you gotta help them run/idle when its cold out. But when they warm up they are fine. Thats what Ive heard. And Ill just have to sit a listen to it warm up for a few minutes longer I havent heard of any like random stalling or anything like that...

I cant remember if my 3400TB has that air bleed hole in it or not. I know its has the throttle stop screw, but I think if it came down to it, you really would only need the smallest amount though. Cause you cant open them up too awful much at all.

[IsaacHayes]

Nope, unless you put a longer screw in there. But if it's just on start up holding your foot on the pedal is better than having a high idle all the time. Some 3400 TB's have the hole some don't. My car I have to hold the pedal down when it starts up now because my battery sags too much after the starter turns over. It drops down to like 10v and will die out if I don't rev it to get the alt spinning then it jumps up to 14v I need a new battery but this one is still hanging in barely for now hahah.

[Superdave]

Now, in this case.. being that it's OBD1.5. Couldn't you just use an adjustable FPR and a wideband to get the WOT fueling right?


w/o that it's going to run lean in the upper RPM's or it'll be pig rich depending on what injectors you end up using.



FWIW, my cammed '660 idles better in open loop when cold then it does when it's warmed up.. LOL

[19Cutlass94]

I dont see why I couldnt use an AFPR if needed. Ive got both the L82 injectors and the Multec 2 LA1 injectors. Ive got an OTC scan tool at home thatll show me the a/f ratio, and a bunch of other stuff, but I believe thats based on what the ECM is reading from the O2. I thought the store here had an AFPR, but I cant seem to find it anymore.

[IsaacHayes]

You'll need to stick with stock injectors so you don't flood at idle/cruise. How does an AFPR work exactly? Is it adjustable for both vacuum and WOT conditions or just one or both are affected by adjustment?

[19Cutlass94]

Well I think I just need to stick with the Multec 1 injectors. All of them operate at 43.5psi. Mine are 19# and if I go next step up, it would be the DOHC injectors which would be 21#, and are still Multec 1's and operate at 43.5psi.

Its that compared to the Multec 2's which are basically completely different. More psi and larger #

[sharkey]

an adjustable fuel pressure regulator is set by removing the vacume line (so you have static fuel pressure) and adjusting it to whatever you want it. then you hook the vacume line back up and the fuel pressure will drop down. you cannot independently adjust idle and wot.

[IsaacHayes]

Ah. Hmm so that won't help much to add extra at WOT while not having too much pressure at idle/cruise... darn.

[ForcedFirebird]

You can use a RRFPR (FMU), it's not ideal, but an alternative for OBD1.5.