I ma going to get a camaro witha 3.8l in it and i have seen some for cheap with blown head gaskets. how hard is it to replace them? do i have to take the motor out? any other information would be nice.

 

i suggest replacing the engine the 3800 is EVERYWHERE they were put in so many cars and you can probably pick up a 100k mile series II for about 250-500 or a nicer 50k mile series III for 500-800 depending on the local junkyard. the issue is coolant has a tendency to destroy the bearings which will cause catastrophic failure in the engine, it could last 5 days or 5 years you never know

 

oh ok thanks for the info

 

yup but if the cars in good shape and the price is right a 500$ engine would be well worth it. that is if you can install it, if you do decide to get the car and make the swap send me a private message i have lots of pictures of me pulling the engine in my camaro theyll help a lot... actually in my opinion the camaro was one of the easiest engines ive ever pulled and re installed

 

did you go through the top or drop it through the bottom. After looking around it is a bit on the higher price side in my opinion. its a 98 with 171265 miles on it for 1800

 

If antifreeze did not get into the oil these motors are repairable. You should be able to replace the headgaskets in a weekend. Plan on $300 on gaskets cleaners and the Machineshop head inspection.

But, most of the cars I have seen already have high miles on them and the 3800 motors are cheap. Swapping the motor is a lot more work but if you do it right when your done you have a very dependable car. I did my 96 almost 3 years and 50,000 miles ago and she is as dependable as can be. As I get closer to 200K I am noticing the T5 is getting tuff to get into gear cold. Guess I can't complain. You can click on the link in my sig Project 96 to get an idea what your in for if you want to do the swap.