hey all, my 3.4 is getting alot of miles on it and still runs okay, but i want to either tune it up and put on some hop up mods on it. is it worth doint the mods to a tuned up 3.4 or just save up more cash and get a fresh 3.4 from jasper or whereever and do the hops ups to it. i really want to stick with the 3.4 i know alot of people have told me the swap to a 3.8 is simple. im just stubborn i guess. its the original size the car came out with and i like the gas mileage. any help would be appreciated. thanks.

 

It really depends on what you want from the car. Adding a bunch of power to a high miles motor is not a good idea.

Your getting some bad info from "alot of people ". The 3.8 swap would be a huge project, infact it would be more work then swaping in a LT1 V8 from a 93. Also the 3.8's do get better mileage then 3.4's. I get 30+ MPG on the highway.

 

How many miles on your 3.4? Mine had 130k when the head gasket on the RH side blew but that was due mostly to owner ignorance and lack of maintenance. I routinely see 3.4s in junkyard Camaros showing between 160k and 200k miles on thier odometers. The thing that seems to kill the 3.4 is the cooling system. Maintenance is key.
How much do you want to spend on fixing your 93? A Jasper 3.4 will cost you $2500 minimum and the labor to do the swap is huge. The GM service manual says that you should drop the whole front suspension cradle with engine and transmission as a unit (I did this) and that takes almost 8 hours. Then there's the transfer of parts like the intake/exhaust manifolds, oil pan, etc. That take a few hours and then there's installation. If a shop does the work for you the swap will be expensive.
You can pull the motor from the top but that involves partial disassembly (upper intake at least) and reinstalling that during installation is tricky.
I don't want to discourage you from breathing new life into your car but you should know what you're up against.