yeah the turbo was just a “what if” idea. It will be a blast NA thats for sure.
Yeah the body is all original, its been repainted once and had a repair on the drivers side, but its 100% solid. even under the car there isnt any rust issues to worry about at all.
Motor mounts are done, and 3 out of 4 are powdercoated. Ran out of clear on the last one. Powder should be here today, if so, ill post those pics and get the motor back in the car to work on the firewall sheet metal mods.
Its looking good. The 3.4 in the camaro was only rated at 145hp if I remember correctly. It retained the old inline valve heads from the 80s 60* V6 when the other FWD motors went to the splayed valve heads similar to a hemi. The 3.1L in my Grand Am is rared at 160hp and the 3.4 in 99 was 175hp.
If it feels slow up high there are plenty in junk yards waiting for ya. Also the 01+ 3.1L got the same heads and intake as the 3.4 raising hp to 175 with a slightly reduced torque in comparison to the 3.4 due to displacement.
Also the early 90s 3.1s in FWDs had nice cast valve covers that would look great on this motor. You will need 2 front or driver side covers as the rear or passenger side was flat for intake manifold clearance.
Fiero GTs also had some nice valve covers!
Maybe next year a 3400 top swap may be in order?
http://www.fullthrottlev6.com/forums/showthread.php?6752-Aluminum-Head-Swap-Info-(with-pics)
I would skip that and go LZ9. 240/240 in stock form with the same footprint. They go for ~$500 in junkyards all day with low miles.
orrrr we can just put the motor in that I already rebuilt, powdercoated and built motor mounts for??? 
The 3.4 in the 94 Camaro had a net hp rating of 165hp I figure with it in the MG with no A/C or power steering, with headers and a mild tune it should be close to 200. probably a little shy, but close enough. Considering the MG should weigh in at 2000 lbs, a 10lbs/hp ratio should work well.
The LZ9 engine, as most of the later 60 degree engines would work. The problem is you need to convert them to RWD. Because they have VVT, the engine management will also end up being a PIA. It can and has been done but, I wanted to keep it simple…For now
Thats why I suggested the 3400 top swap or maybe a 3500. The 3900 engine is complex. The 3400 should run just fine on an early (pre 98) 3100 or 3400 computer because they ran TV cable trans in the FWDs (4T60) which would work great for a manual.
Engine management for an LZ9 is simple. All you need is an e67 pcm and a harness from just about any modern gm. You can also lock the VVT easily if you want to go stand alone. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone that knows more about tuning LZ9 engines than me
K SWAP!
There is too much time into this swap to turn back now. Im sure this was fairly cheap in the long run. Buy an old car with everything you need for the swap besides a little fab work. M point is that if there is a thirst for more power especially on the top end where these motors are notoriously soggy than there is a top swap that can be done with factory parts to make another 30-40hp.
The good part is that besides possibly the VVT cam, The Camaro 3.4 and the Fiero GT had the best camshaft lift and duration wise. So this motor with a 2000 and newer 3400 top end with maybe a 3500 intake plenum would make 250hp and 200tq at the crank. That MG will be in the low 13s for sure. And its all GM parts with out losing any reliability and no need for tuning cause a factory computer will handle it.
Only thing you will want is some thick head gaskets to try and knock down compression. Apparently the 3.4 has flat top pistons where the 3400 are dished with small pent roof chambers. Approx CR comes out to 12:1. TR6 plugs and 93 octane would be a minimum. Getting the IAT sensor closer to the engine to retard timing would help some and 160* T-stat would not be a bad idea. Or get some 30lb-hr injectors and run ethanol cause E85 would love this CR
I’m sure this thing will be a blast with its new found power as it seems to be becoming a popular swap. A friend of my mother has a orange MGB just like it. I should try to convince him to perform this swap as he is a master tech at the thruway and very mechanically inclined.
Swapping the heads out can always be done later. It’s nice to know what might work without getting too involved.
Maybe after this one is done, there might be some more for Capital Region Customs to do! It is a popular swap, and the later MGB’s 75-80 have an even larger engine bay and tunnel for an easier fitment.
Who needs larger engine bays? That’s what 60* V6s are for. Anyway it looks like it would be a good candidate for a VR6 swap as well. But yeah, That’s what I was trying to say. Definitely get the 3.4 in now and in a year or two if ya get bored there is always the top swap option.
I like this thread.
Best looking 3.4 of all time.
Jon, we are still torn between two options for engine managment…
Stock PCM, EFI-Live and shred up the stock harness.
OR
Megasquirt and cut the pig tails off the stock harness/sensors and make a simple harness from that from scratch.
The EFI live route might be a bit cheaper, but need some extra time to pretty up the harness and extra time to play on the laptop to delete junk components it wont need to run. The Megasquirt would be a cleaner solution I think, sky is the limit tune/configuration wise, a little more time on the harness but will be simpler and cleaner, and the ecu is like $100 more IRC.
Honest opinions here guys, sofar this thread is yielding some very good info too, so thank you all for keeping it civil and on track.
No problem dood!
EFI Live doesn’t support the GM V6 unfortunately but HP Tuners does. That would be your best bet. If the motor is stock besides headers and intake I would use the stock ECM for now. Megasquirt is cheaper if you need to tune as HP Tuners is approx $550 IIRC. But at least with HP Tuners you have a harness and ECM with a stock tune as a starting point. MS would be a start from scratch.
Someone out there must have a base map for a 3.4L on the MS forums. HPT is about $200+ more than the MS would be to build. :wow
Yes but also the customer is paying you to build it so it may work out close to HP Tuners by the time the bill is paid. I’m sure you would give him a rate that is good enough to make it worth his while.
What PCM do these engines use? Can I program an EEPROM for it, Joe?
I didn’t think of that… Shes an oldie. 94 might still be EPROM. I know the LT1 switched over to flash memory from eprom in 94 but that was the high performance V8 only second to the LT4-5 at the time. They only kept the 3.4 up until 96 when everything had to be OBDII so I think they retained the old operating system until they simply replaced the 3.4 with the 3800.
I think I can tune it with TunerPro or nast1. I can remove EGR and adjust fueling pretty easily from what I can tell. That might be the best bet for this build.