YES I read the swap info thread. Question now. This is for years in the future when I have the money and time to play around with (not to mention another car). But I have a 97 Cavalier with the 2.2 OHV and 3T40e Automatic. I read that I could keep the transmission and swap just the engine, but it also said it was strongly recommended against... My question is, why? Will it be awful? Will the torque completely kill it? Or what, because if I can avoid spending $2500 in addition to the engine, and mounts, fabbing and everything else... I will.

Wait, you want to keep the 3T40 on the 3800?

Yeah right. It will be taking double the horsepower. And thats if your talking about the N/A 3800.

How is a transmission going to cost you $2500? My whole L67 swap was less than that...

Correction- a new one from GM/a dealer would cost ~$1800 I think. Is the 3T40 that bad compared to even the 4T40?

Nick wrote:Correction- a new one from GM/a dealer would cost ~$1800 I think. Is the 3T40 that bad compared to even the 4T40?

Uh yeah? 3T40 is vacuum controled. 4T40E is elctronicly controlled.

Remember, your comparing an engine thats bolted to a 4T65E HD transmission... to a tiny little economy cheap and old 3T40.

i broke to of the 3 speeds with a series 1 n/a 3800 ome i blew the trans in half kinda neat really

So I would probably kill it. The 2.2 gets by with the 3 speed fine, so there is nowhere to go but up performacne wise, no?