The 1988-’92 engines did not use a cam position sensor, some of the 1993-’94 engines had cam sensors and some did not, while all of the 1995 and later engines had cam sensors. The major differences to watch out for would be the A/C compressor and starter mounting bolt holes, and sensor mountings. If you’re swapping in a used engine for a customer, interchangeability will depend on the make and model year. Roller rockers were also used on most 1995-’99 3.1L engines. The Gen III version of the engine (L82 built from 1993 to 1999, and the later LG8 VIN code J engines) added a composite roller cam and used a number of slightly different cylinder heads. Some of the engines (notably 1990-’95 FWD minivans) had cast iron heads, while most of the later engines came with aluminum heads. The block has gone though half a dozen variants since its inception, with different mountings, sensor fittings and reinforcements for both FWD and RWD applications. The 3.1L V6 utilizes a 3.50” bore with a 3.312” stroke crankshaft. The one exception was the dual overhead cam (DOHC) “LQ1” version of the 3.4L engine produced from 1991 to 1997. We’ll touch on some of the more likely repairs shortly.Įngine Notes With one notable exception, all of the 60° V6 engines in GM’s 2.7/3.1/3.4L family have been conventional pushrod designs with two vales per cylinder. Consequently, there are still a lot of these engines on the road and people are still spending money keeping them running. You might have a tough time selling a customer a rebuilt long block, but they might consider swapping in a used V6 as a less expensive alternative.Įxcept for the notorious leaky intake manifold gasket problem that has plagued many of these engines, the 3.1L V6 has had a reputation for being a long-lived reliable engine. Even so, many people are hanging onto their old cars longer than ever these days and are still putting money into repairs to keep them running. A real cream puff low-mileage mint condition car might fetch a couple thousand dollars on a used car lot.īut, many of these vehicles are so old that they are probably worth less than $1,000 - which makes it tough to justify spending a lot of money on repairs if major engine work is needed. Most of these vehicles have aged to the point where they don’t have much resale or trade-in value. The narrow 60° angle of the V6 cylinder banks was chosen so the engine would more easily fit into front-wheel drive cars and minivans (though it has also been used in rear-wheel drive applications, too). By simply changing the bore diameter, the displacement of the same engine block could now be increased for more power and torque. Over the years, GM has saved a bundle on manufacturing the 3.1L engine by using the production line tooling it originally developed for the 2.8L V6. The larger 3.4L version has been imported into the U.S. Today, the 3.1L lives on in China where it is being made in various displacements (2.5L, 3.1L and 3.4L) for GM’s Chinese-built Buicks. The 3.1L was eventually replaced with various versions of the 3.4L V6. The engine itself was based on the earlier 2.8L V6 that was first produced back in 1980. The engine itself went through continual evolution and improvement during its production life, including Gen II and Gen III versions, plus an “Enhanced 3100” version from 1999 to 2001. Over 10 million of these engines were built during this period.
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