Due to the compression you want to avoid the supercharged blocks. Without the supercharge they will have less power. To the best of my knowledge all SII motors are the same and all SIII are the same. Any SIII block would do, I would look for lower miles and newer years.

If the motor is still in the car check out how well it was maintained if not ask if you can pull a valve cover. You are looking for clean sludge free motor. This is a 02 3800 with 48k on it. Not even a hint of sludge.

 

Thanks. I did find a 05 series 3 vin2 out of a Buick Lucerne. 65000 miles and 500$ shipped. Through eBay. Sucks because I can't inspect motor personally. But does come with 90 day. And the car its being pulled from is pretty nice. Also most of these luxury Buicks are owned by senior citizens in most cases. So hopefully a good find. I did read somewhere that I would need an adapter plate for the intake manifold? And from my readings would I be correct in saying I need to use my harmonic balancer and flywheel from my original motor.

 

you will need pretty much everything from your old engine except the block and heads.

 

Apologies if this has went off topic. Original plans changed. So no turbo for me!
Any suggestions on gasket kit. I have always heard good things bout fel pro. Seriously do not want a head gasket fail or intake. IMO probably caused original failure. I use to spray my small block head gaskets with a spray. Always had good success. Any other tips in transfering over all my old motor parts to new motor would be appreciated. New oil pump? New water pump? Timing chain? I'm buying a used motor but I do not want to rebuild everything! New rings? What would be a mechanics idea of your stupid if you don't do this? Valve job? Etc.....

 

You can not go wrong with Felpro everything as long as you are not planning and Nitrous or boost. I would follow the manufacturer instruction EXACTLY if you are doing head gaskets. You really need to be careful. What works with one system can screw up another. If you spray on something it could have a chemical reaction with the head gasket or the built in sealer in the head gaskets.I have done 100's of head gaskets with no come backs just by following the correct procedure.

You have the manual? Do you have a torque angle gage?

The only really weak point in the 3800 is the intake manifold. Head gaskets do fail but that is normally from a lack of maintenance or because the car overheated.

My opinion:
Rings: NO
Oil Pump: NO
Timing Chain: NO

Anything can fail but I would think there is almost as much a chance that you could get a defective part or you may make a mistake installing them as there is they will ever cause you a problem.

Head gaskets: Maybe, this one is a toss up. When I did my 3800 I ended up not doing them because the motor was so clean. I believe IF you do head gaskets you will need all new head bolts from GM. Manual should tell you.

Water pump: YES
Hoses: Yes
Pugs & wires: Yes
You also want to do seals on anything you remove. A 10 year old seal can work fine but fail once you start messing with it.

 

I own a torque wrench. Is a torque angle guage a necessity. I might not even remove heads. At a bit of a time crunch and budget at this point. I will purchase a manual for the whole build.
I planned on doing a port and polish myself but like I said I need to get this done and no time to play. I'll try to document and photograph everything. Maybe I'll post a thread with info such as you have helped me with so there is a full understanding of the procedure.

 

you can download a factory service/shop manual here, http://www.mediafire.com/?40mfgeoe4ctti click on 1999fb

 

Yes, You need it for the intake. Torque angle is much more accurate and the gages are cheap.
Welcome to bavauto.com | Tool - Torque Angle Gauge - Koch Tools

 

depending on how much power you will be making a used L26 will be sufficient. I think they will hold up to 400 hp, which is about what a low budget turbo kit will make. if you want to get an L67 engine, which is the series 2 supercharged block, a lot of people use those blocks unmodified and make upwards of 500 hp on moderate turbo builds. a used L67 block will run anywhere from 500 to 1500. Only reason I can see to get a series 3 engine is if it falls into your lap for an amazing price. the additional 20 hp comes from the supercharger and a bit more flow through the heads.

 

extra hp comes from better design. if all we got from a supercharger is 20hp nobody would ever do it.