Olds Intrigue given a second chance

Amateur · Post by **Amateur** » Sat May 11, 2013 3:43 pm

Sooo my brothers olds Intrigue has been out of commission since last october after killing itself during an autocross event. It was his first time out and at one point had the car sideways through the slalom slamming into multiple cones...good times. The notorious issue of the lower intake manifold plenum gasket on the 3800 series 2 gave out, effectively drowning the car in antifreeze. the car got towed home and just sat in the driveway since he doesn't have the funds to see to this issue.....until last week where I decided to fix it up for him as his graduation present. I got a used 91,000 mile motor from a 99 grand prix for a cool 500 bucks and decided to do the swap myself. At a leisurely pace, it's taken me a week to complete and it for the most part. it's in there, the wires and lines are all connected, and all that's left is to fill the fluids and put in some aluminum gaskets that won't fail like the oem ones. The original engine isn't hydro-locked and i managed to get the fluid out of the cylinders as with draining the contaminated oil. I figure I can freshen up this block...for my beretta! jk, but seriously, these 90 degree engines are cake to work on and actually this little project was quite fun.

Rettax3 · Post by **Rettax3** » Sun May 12, 2013 1:11 am

Amateur wrote: I figure I can freshen up this block...for my beretta! jk, but seriously, these 90 degree engines are cake to work on and actually this little project was quite fun.

?

Why kidding? C'mon, these are great engines, torque everywhere!

And yeah, easy to work on... But I don 't recall what you already have in your Beretta, so it may not really be an upgrade, IDK.
Looks like a good project, nicely done too. It feels good to turn the key and hear that engine fire, proving that you just brought a dead car back to life!

I'm going to have to get to the valve-cover gaskets on my 3800 GTU while she's getting the current tranny upgrade as the rear is leaking like a, well, like a 3800 valve-cover gasket, those are a factory-made-glitch too...

I would STRONGLY recommend using conventional green/gold long-life antifreeze in that engine, NOT the Death-Cool crap -that might have a lot to do with why your original gaskets failed (that and the fact that GM just can't seem to understand that PLASTIC is not a good material for internal engine gaskets

...) .

Amateur · Post by **Amateur** » Sun May 12, 2013 6:11 pm

^^ oh yeah, these engines have great low end grunt at 220 lb ft of awesomeness in non-supercharged form! I say just kidding because I have the base 2.2L 5spd and to put this engine in there wouldn't be a walk in the park, it would need alot of work. My Beretta is currently tied up with my pet project of putting in an IRS setup and the only thing holding that back is funding right now. I'm totally with you on that dexron coolant, Its terrible for the car and nobody likes it...i mean nobody, lol. I'll stick with the normal stuff for this car.

Rettax3 · Post by **Rettax3** » Sun May 12, 2013 6:22 pm

Amateur wrote:^^ oh yeah, these engines have great low end grunt at 220 lb ft of awesomeness in non-supercharged form! I say just kidding because I have the base 2.2L 5spd and to put this engine in there wouldn't be a walk in the park, it would need alot of work. My Beretta is currently tied up with my pet project of putting in an IRS setup and the only thing holding that back is funding right now. I'm totally with you on that dexron coolant, Its terrible for the car and nobody likes it...i mean nobody, lol. I'll stick with the normal stuff for this car.

Wow! Compared to an IRS conversion, a 3800 swap practically installs itself! Do you have a thread or write-up on that suspension work yet? Seriously, that is an impressive task... I'm not sure how long your 5-speed would hold up under the 3800, other than that, it might be easier for you to do than my GTU was, because I have all the old-style mounts that either get in the way or simply don't help much... I haven't done much with the 2.2 cars, but if you have the newer-type engine mount (like the Quad-engined cars or the SFI V-6 cars do), you can use the mount from a 3.3 Grand Am of the era, and it should be almost bolt-in. The exhaust work is the tougher part, but if you can do the fab-work necessary for an IRS, the engine-side should be a walk in the park for you. Okay, sorry, not trying to dilute the thread here...

Amateur · Post by **Amateur** » Mon May 13, 2013 6:20 pm

there's a write up for the jbody's on this. My plan is similar to that. The major mod is the shock towers to make the Alero IRS fit back there and so what I'm planning is getting a cheap cavalier/sunfire that has alot of issues/non-running from craigslist and cutting out their rear strut towers. With that, fabricating those towers into the Beretta to make life easier with the IRS install. That's the plan in my head anyways...actually doing it is a different story.

Koots · Post by **Koots** » Mon May 13, 2013 7:04 pm

I always liked Oldsmobiles styling from this era, I don't know why but I always did. Even more so than the Pontiac/Buick equivalents.

As for the IRS swap, there are a few threads out there with people doing it. It sounds like it's almost a bolt in affair with the 3rd Gen J-Bodies, but Amateur up here, also said that it might fit just as easy in our cars, which is awesome.

I've got a 97 Malibu (BOOO! cast iron spindles!) that I plan on ripping apart once I see how that all goes

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