I have an 84 gsl-se in which I have blown the engine. . How do I go about putting a v6 in her? What engine and tranny should I use? How much $$ am I looking at?

 

Chevy 4.3L V6 would be your cheapest engine combo.

 

ford SHO 3.0L 24v dohc with dual length intake would be a pretty cool swap, 210hp, 200ft/lb, but rwd trans options and computer wiring would need some attention.

they can be found cheap if you look around, like several hundred cheap

 

I would NEVER recommend that someone wanting to do something cheap EVERY consider anything SHO related.

I have had 3 very quick SHO's in my past. All 3 were over 300hp, and were a ton of fun. However, these things are not cheap to work with.

As far as transmission, you can use the Aerostar 3.0l transmission to use this engine for a front engine rear wheel drive combonation. You can pick up a bell housing from a manual transmission Aerostar and use a T-5 tranny.

Jesse

 

....300zx tt ?

 

The VG30TT would be a great engine combo. However, he would have to CUSTOM build an engine mount. Granny's offers this mount kit, but only for the 2nd gen. Also, that is not a very cheap engine to install, then you have to wire it all up, and deal with a TON of wires.

I would do a 4.6L V6, with a carb. Throw a 3 or 4 speed automatic behind it, and you have a reliable combonation that will runn pretty well also.

 

SHO engine would be amazing. Possibly the most astheticly pleasing engine i've ever seen. My mother and her husband both own one. If you go with the SHO engine grab one from an automatic. The auto's were 3.2 liters with 220hp and 220lbs of torque as aposed to the 5 speeds which had the 3.0 with less power. Amazing engines in my opinion, very good power per liter for a piston engine and more power can be made faily easliy. But as said before these are not cheap engines to maintain, would be nasty though.

 

To anyone considering the SHO swap, I'd recommend taking a close look at a SHO engine that is not surrounded by a Taurus. It is a severely oversize piece of machinery for its internal displacement, and the worst possible configuration for making a lightweight package: dual overhead cams, dual intake runners on an overhead mounted intake manifold, dual plenums, deep oil pan. The motor is extremely tall, bulky, and weighs 450+ pounds. That is about the same as a stock 5.0 V8, which, by the way, has many inexpensive aftermarket parts, some of which reduce its weight.

 

The price of the engine itself isn't that bad, judging from what's on ebay.

I'll agree though, cheap and easy would be the 4.3, or better yet, a V8.

 

Consider the Camaro/Firebird 3.8 from ~93-98.
I put one (w/matching 4 spd automatic) into a 1st gen with p/s & a/c.
Package fit nicely. My reading indicated the Series II 3.8 was somewhat better than the 4.3 chevy. Be careful not to use the 99 & newer Camaro/Firebird v6 engines since they have a revised intake manifold that places the throttle body in a higher orientation - it sticks out straight forward and level while the earlier ones are angled down towards the front. I used the later model in a 2nd gen and had to flip the throttle body upside down, shave off part of the housing and fab an adapter with egr passages.

Caution - I do not know how the 5-speed stick will fit as far as gear shifter location. For example, I put a 99 Mustang 3.8 w/5-speed stick) into a second gen and had to modify the tranny hump and fab a shifter arm to get the shifter to the stock RX7 location (a bit over 2 inches rearward from stock Mustang location. Also had to use a short shifter to avoid hitting the shifter arm on the bottom of the ashtray structure in 1st , 3rd & 5th.

Regarding cost: The first swap I did was an LT1 w/matching 4L60E? electronic automatic. I kept track of receipts (including $1 thousand in labor to fix a mistake with the firewall and subframe!) - and spent $10k including the car.

While I kept less accurate records on succeeding swaps I estimate I had $5,500 in the 1st gen swap mentioned above including $600 for the non-running car.
Three other swaps also cost around $5k+ including $1k-$1.5k cars.

I have a MIG welder & all necessary hand tools, manual hack saw, chop saw, drill press & vice. These were sufficient for all the swaps. I paid $1k for welding/sheet metal fabrication on my first swap since I did not yet trust my welding skills. Since then I have done all work myself except front end alignments and charging a/c.