1995 Pontiac Transport( Bonnevan ) The Update

[Jrs3800]

Time to update on this van..

Some knew that I had decided to swap an L26 into the 95 Transport.. It was a bit of a Pain, but what swap is without pain in some manner when going from a series I 3800 to a series III bottom end..

Towards the end of the 3800 Series I Tuned Port Injection useful life I was running 20-50 to keep the oil pressure up and to mask the light knock that was present at hot idle.. I knew this engine would be short lived as it was getting tired.. I did have my fun with it... The ported parts and the 1.8 rockers do make a difference in the Tuned Port 3800 L27.. All worth it in my eyes.. I just wish the engine would have held up and stuck with me for another 100,000 miles.. It was a torquer from the word go..


So the next step was to locate a motor to replace the L27 with... All of them were high mileage and expensive for what I was willing to spend on an L27 3800... In our research we found the L26 motors to be in good supply and cheap.. We ended up with an L26 from the LKQ( not a U pull it LKQ )... The engine had 41,000 miles on it.. Price was $250

S we picked up the motor and got it back to Sandrocks house so that he could do soem wiring for me..
we pulled the upper and lower intake off only to find this to be a very clean motor..



After I got the engine back to the house I yanked the oil pan to make sure it was clean and to reseal.. Gave me a chance to get a looksy at the bottom end components... Low and behold, sure enough they are Powered Metal rods..




After cleaning out the oil pan I ran a bead of Grey RTV and sealed the pan to the block..

There was one big problem here.. I later found out that the Front motor mount bracket would not fit with the aluminum pan in place... I had to remove the oil pan and install the Series II stamped steel pan to get the front mount bracket to be able to fit.. The good part is that the 95 L27 used the series II oil pan.. So going from the series III aluminum pan to the series II stamped steel was not an issue for the mount..



Not sure if it will be visible in the Pic but I did some minor port entrance kissing to smooth or round off the edge of the port so that the air flow will not have a step for the air to slow down flow..


Next it was time to do some porting on the lower intake...Compare the 2 ports on the left with the one on the right..



Along the way I had the gaskets for the front timing cover and the oil pan was off.. So I ended up with a Comp Cam for NA applications... Its a performance cam that uses the stock stall, and is good with Intake Mods..
Operating range is 1000-5500.. Stock Cam on the right



Timing cover after removal.. Happy to see it that clean..



Not a great Picture, but here is the Lower intake bolted to the heads.. Notice there is no step between the head and the intake..


Installed LS6 Valve Springs and Comp cam retainers.. I used the stock rocker bolts for the time I was installing the springs.. There were replaced with reusable rocker arm bolts..




At this point it was time to yank the old engine and clean up the subframe..




Managed to get the engine set in place on the subframe.. Installed the PS pump, alternator, compressor.. Oil filter adapter( could not use the U body adapter due to the location of the PS Pump )... Installed the new Rack and pinion as well.. New water pump..



Delphi series Alternator..



Had to use the 97 Power steering line from a Pontiac Grand Prix... Beat the heat shield up to make it work on the rear mani..



I had to notch this ear off the block to make the block to trans bracket work... Bolt hole locations were identical to the series I block... Difference was the ear that was there... Also had to cut 1/4 " off the top bracket to tail shaft housing to make it work..




Where the oil filter actually sits in relation to the frame and balancer





Next I had to splice and run new fuel lines as the stock lines would not work with the new engine / fuel rail.. I bought a fuel line repair kit a while back as i knew I would need it for this swap.. It has come in handy several times and paid for its self.. LOL
The Splices




The Motor ready to go in complete with wiring harness

A Big Thanks to Sandrock for doing the wiring for me.. Couldn't have done it without you boss..


Motor in... I removed the upper intake and EGR for easier install..



Most of everything installed..



2nd start.. It was a bit pissy as it was running off the L27 tune..



After this video the VATS in the L36 95 chip was walked around to allow the L26 to start and run off the L36 Bin File.. Once we got the L36 bin file to run the van we noticed we still had the stall issue... Turned out I had some not so good injectors... I removed the Rochester injectors and installed a known good set of Bosch L36 injectors... So far the idle is good( Has a little lope to it )... Starts and idles.. Drives pretty decent..

Also as I was going to the cam I decided to dump the 2.97 gear ratio I was running in favor of a 3.33 ratio.. While I had the drivetrain out I yanked the side pan and valve body and changed the drive and driven to 35/35 to make it an overall 3.33 ratio..

As of current... The van still needs an alignment... I need to get it to an exhaust shop to have the 95-96 Bonneville Down pipe attached, and run 2.50 Pipe to the muffy... Also the windshield has a nasty crack now.. I need to get with the insurance on that...

Been a very long road with this van.. But still moving along.. Once all of that is dealt with i will pull the interior... Do some sound deadening, clean the carpet and redo the head liner.. Moving along slowly...lol

[repinS]

Great to see the van coming along, Don... it's gotta be one of my favourite builds I've seen on this board.

Can't wait to see it rip!

[J Wikoff]

Aren't there two aluminum pans? Maybe one would be a better match for your combo.

What are you doing with those 1.8's?

[1fatcat]

WOW! Great job man, that is a big job.

[SLEighride03]

WOW is right!

[Jrs3800]

Aren't there two aluminum pans? Maybe one would be a better match for your combo.

What are you doing with those 1.8's?

Neither oil pan could clear the mount... Its something I should have measured for before I installed the oil pan.. There is next to nothing for room to clear the bracket... No choice but to use the stamped steel in this application...LOL

However... The L26 pan will fit the 95 Bonneville IIRC...


My plans for the 1.8 rockers are to rebuild the L27, possibly a tad more compression and park it in the 91 LE once I get it back to life...

[swampthing]

Awesome work dude been watching this build with much interest


Question what year was your l26 I'm thinking of top swapping one if my motor goes and I want powdered connecting rods

[00Beast]

L26 is series III N/A, L32 is Series III S/C, FYI Swampthing. Find an L32 if your motor goes, and swap on a N* TB and different MAF (LQ4??) and you'll have a nice motor.


Looks Good Don!!

[swampthing]

yeah I know all that, it's the price that makes the difference, there's an 06 l26 at LKQ gainsville for about what jrs3800 paid for his, and a top swapped l26 would run better then an l67, I would just have to get a tune done

[00Beast]

Are you afraid that your motor is going to go anytime soon? Honestly, most 3800's run well over 200k, even lightly modded L67's.

[Sadden]

Sounds really nice when it runs smooth. How are you going to fix the programming?
Going to watch this one thats for sure.

[Jrs3800]

yeah I know all that, it's the price that makes the difference, there's an 06 l26 at LKQ gainsville for about what jrs3800 paid for his, and a top swapped l26 would run better then an l67, I would just have to get a tune done

Here is the deal my L26 is an 06 and did come from the factory with aluminum gaskets as well.. I have seen some L36's as early as 04 that had the Powered metal rods as opposed to cast..( The reason I know this is that I have worked on a few of the 04 3800's... Some had the PM rods other didn't.. I think it may have been an early vs late production.. All 05's should have the PM rods.. I took the cheapest L26 they had at the time.. The other motor only had a couple tho less on it and was $400... I took the $250 L26..

I have been digging on the rod info, but have come up without much of anything if at all... The only statements I can find are that the 3800 NA and 3800 SC now use Powered metal bla bla bla... You can find L32 rods all day long, but I have yet to see an L26 rod.. I would love to see an L32 and L26 rod side by side..

If I wanted to I could top swap the L26 and get away with it.. But as feasible as I think top swapping the L26 is, I'd rather use an L32..


Keep in mind the L36/L26 Bottom end is said to be reliable up to the 300 Hp area.. I personally feel that 270-280 Hp would be pushing the boundaries.. If I could get my L26 motor to make 250 Hp I would be a very happy person..

[Jrs3800]

Sounds really nice when it runs smooth. How are you going to fix the programming?
Going to watch this one thats for sure.

I have a Vid of it idling much much better( Just haven't edited it yet ).. Almost sounds like it doesn't have a cam with the cool engine idle... When it hot idles at say 650-700 Rpms you can tell it has a little something..

The Programing is almost right with the L36 Bin File.. Some fueling will most likely need to be changed slightly... As well as TCC lock and shift points.. Later on once everything is right we'll play with the timing a bit to get the most driveability out of the cam..

[Jrs3800]

Here is the Vid... It has a good idle... Close to normal as long as its idling at 750ish.. 650 sems to cause it to lope a bit.. I still need to get the alignment reset and then have the exhaust done.. At leat with the Alignment set I'll be able to drive it...lol

The other odd ball noises you may here due to my camera are the exhaust leaks LMAO

[Jrs3800]

Time for another Update.... While I was on Vacation up home, Sandrock took the liberty of wiring up the Van for the 1997 OBD2 PCM so that we could gain easier tuneability..

So far we are using a 1997 Olds PCM that was Flashed with the Bonneville tune... From there we had issues with the tranny tables and decided we needed to start with a tune that would work for the 3.33 gear ratio I had chosen, but it needed to be a 3800 II with a 4T60-E... We found that the 1997 GP GT with the 3800 used the 3.29 gear ratio and he installed those tables.. This has worked quite well thus far in terms of shifts and TCC Apply... Fueling is not that bad but was fattened a hair, and was set for E10.. We added a couple of degrees with 0 Kr on 87 Pump gas.. But we are going to go back later and do some fuel tuning before we tinker with the timing any more.. So far the van runs good, sounds pretty good... Gets around town pretty well.. Does pretty decent for mileage and has no issues doing 80 on the interstate, doesn't struggle at all..

My only problem is that I am in the mindset that the 3.33 gears may be a little much for the van.. 3.06 may have served my purpose better.. With the 3.06 I could have easily set up a 1-2 49 Mph shift and an 89 Mph 2-3 with no issues... I think the cam has gained enough in all around driveability to twist 3.06 gears with no issues and still be fun..

Remember its not completely tuned, and is still a mostly stock tune with very minor changes..

Here is a short Vid... The van is a bit on the chunky side as it full to the top with Fuel, and I have an engine hoist in the back with all of the seats pushed forward.. LMAO... So I was kind of weighed down.. Not sure what to think at the moment, I still think its slower than I want it to be.. But it does sound and drive good...

[sandrock]

Now...change your siggy pic....it's out of date

[00Beast]

[bill buttermore]

Impressive effort and inspiring perseverance, Don.

[1fatcat]

You could cheat on the gear ratio and stuff some big tires under it.

[spidey3479]

I am in awe. You and my mech really impress me. Your detailed knowledge and confidence is really something. I can't wait to see this thing completely done!