Grand Am GT build.... yup! A Grand Am lol

[Jomamma]

I'll admit, theres a lot of work into getting the 3800 and getrag 284 swap all together ( i have never done it ). The 284 will probably hold more power than you'll ever be able to pull out of that engine.

I had a 3100. It was so terrible. In the 3800 community we view those 60*'s as garbage. They sound amazing!!! Way better than any 90*.

Anyways keep up the good work man! Looking forward to seeing another bagged pontiac.

[_HeC_]

ayy drop it a little lower imo. clean build

thanks and going lower is in the winter plans no company makes coilovers for my car so going to attempt to make some with some ground control coilovers with 4 front koni yellow inserts from a J-body or debating on buying KYB AGXs for the N-body and modding to fit some GC coils

koni yellow VS agx opinions? The AGXs are roughly $4-500 cheaper

I'll admit, theres a lot of work into getting the 3800 and getrag 284 swap all together ( i have never done it ). The 284 will probably hold more power than you'll ever be able to pull out of that engine.

I had a 3100. It was so terrible. In the 3800 community we view those 60*'s as garbage. They sound amazing!!! Way better than any 90*.

Anyways keep up the good work man! Looking forward to seeing another bagged pontiac.

I'm really not to worried about the trans but the axles concern me, especially the passenger being 1 long shaft with no 2pc jack shaft setup. might look into swapping in a pre 94 v6/5spd jackshaft from a cav/beretta etc for the passenger side, I know they all share the same splines on shafts

the 60*vs90* battle is something that will never die I feel like lol I've had tons of 60's over the years with no issues besides general stuff, I know some are bad for LIM gaskets but the revised gasket set fixes the issues(never personally had a issue with gaskets)

nothing against the 90*, great engine and last forever but to make some decent power out of them I feel like most people ditch the SC and go turbo route so I just don't see a point in all the extra effort to wire it up for a extra .3Ls and more weight with the iron heads when the LX9 is basically a direct swap minus some very minor wiring and can handle some boost in stock form.... If I went with a more difficult engine swap I would still go 60* with the 3900(LZ9) which I have been looking into a bit lol

and thanks man can't wait to get started on the next few projects but don't want to rip into it yet as I'm hoping for some decent weather still, of course it started snowing last night highly doubt bags will ever see this car but you never know haha

[benz88]

I'll admit, theres a lot of work into getting the 3800 and getrag 284 swap all together ( i have never done it ). The 284 will probably hold more power than you'll ever be able to pull out of that engine.

I had a 3100. It was so terrible. In the 3800 community we view those 60*'s as garbage. They sound amazing!!! Way better than any 90*.

Anyways keep up the good work man! Looking forward to seeing another bagged pontiac.

you can make 450whp out of a 3500 with 10psi. Goodluck making that with a 3800@ 10psi lol

[_HeC_]

have a few hundred kms on the swap and only issue is from driving over top of a stick on the road lol bent my heatshield for the exhaust so a little rattle now sometimes

quick vid from 2nd to 3rd


slightly lower then stock... needs more low still

and with my truck

[_HeC_]

was time to say goodbye to the green, hopefully the new color will make it easier to sell these concrete blocks

turbo plans in the future...


and now to get this thing lower... Plan is BC Racing coils for a Cavalier/Sunfire, I'm pretty sure everything should bolt in except for rear lower strut mounts but since the BC mounts unscrew from the strut I should be able to weld something up for that


Grand Am rear lower strut mounts are "removable" with some effort so that's the route I might try



only thing holding me back from ordering is spring rates, any suggestions? BC ships the Cavalier coilovers with 6/4K springs and I've seen some J-body owners running 7/5k so was thinking 8/6K at a minimum with the V6 and overall extra weight but guess my 5spd swap saved me some weight up front as well

cavalier weighs in around 2800lbs and 4dr grand am around 3100lbs I believe
9/7K = 504/392lbs
8/6K = 448/336lbs
7/5k = 392/280lbs
6/4K = 336/224lbs

[DER E30]

cavalier weighs in around 2800lbs and 4dr grand am around 3100lbs I believe
9/7K = 504/392lbs
8/6K = 448/336lbs
7/5k = 392/280lbs
6/4K = 336/224lbs

Take into account the motion ratio of the suspension might not be the same as teh Cav.

[_HeC_]

I'll be honest I'm a newb to the world of coilovers, never owned I car that had them available lol

But think they should be pretty similar, Cavalier and Grand Am's used the same Koni inserts before they discontinued them and Cavalier owners are swapping in complete Grand Am IRS out back... Very slim pickings for us N-body guys, best strut available right now is the KYB GR2 lol

Cav guys are even taking our front aluminum control arms, knuckles/wheel bearings and bigger brakes... GM doesn't change much if they don't have too lol example Camaro rear lateral arms and Corvette front brakes BOLTING onto my car lol

[_HeC_]

couple pics with the rims on the car




also grabbed a bunch more parts for this thing... SC/T front and rear lips with 1 of 6 SC/T CF spoilers, dual post mirrors and aluminum control arms only found on 99 models

decided to polish the arms, won't be seen all that often but its the little details lol J-body poly bushings will be going in them as well before install

and the main pieces for my brake upgrade, C5 calipers for all 4 corners

[dharker]

Glad to see this is still going. Cant wait to see it lower with nicer wheels.

[evertoconquer]

Pretty cool build man, like when people do something out of the norm.

[Tony Soprano]

my first car was a 93 grand am with the 3.3 v6. hacked the muffler off, made and intake out of pvc pipe(it was the late 90s). it was a decently quick car for its era, many a civic i hammered with it.

ill tell you what, for what i did to that car it was tough as hell.

[cosmo135]

Dude you oughta paint those rims gold... it looks really nice contrasting with the black.. on my car atleast

But I like where this is going. Nice work!

[_HeC_]

thanks guys, still haven't pulled the trigger on the Cavalier coilovers but I think I'll take the risk soon lol bought a 99 parts car a few weeks back so going to hack at the rear struts from it to get the lower strut mount off to weld up to the BC coils when I order them... parts anyone?


had some cracks to fix on the front lip


quick plastic weld to hold it together while I worked the backside

once the back was good I grinded the front cracks out farther and deeper and applied a proper plastic sandable epoxy

finally got it into primer and found a couple spots that need a little attention still, but hopefully have it and my mirrors on by next weekend

rear lip should be a interesting fix

Cosmo135 I thought about a gold/bronze color but I really don't want these rims and picked a color I thought would sell easier, 30lbs for a 18x8 rim is just terrible might grab a set of crown vic/marquis 16x7s for a temp wheel. Reading mixed things on offsets though, some people say +0, or +4.6 but I think I can get either to work

[MercTastic]

The SC/T parts and the dual post mirrors will be winrrraar. Focus on those, I think the current rollers look not bad

[cosmo135]

Yeah they are pretty heavy, and black rims sell really quick. Mine are just plasti dipped for that exact reason until i get some expensive ones... maybe Rotiform BLQ's