V6 into a 86 Electra Estate Wagon??

Here's a slightly off the wall suggestion for the one that needs engine and transmission. Scare up a Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban, or what have you from about 2007 that is a write off. Take the entire engine/transmission/fuel injection system out and plunk it in the Buick. You'll about double the factory horsepower, and increase the fuel economy significantly, provided you use something like the Superchips performance tuning system set up for the high torque tow-haul mode. It will go like stink, sound amazing, and still be all G.M. small block, but with a 6 speed automatic.

 

That V6 in the '84 Olds is more than likely a 4.1 if it has a quadrajet on it. I had one in a '81 Toronado that i swapped into a '78 Pontiac Sunbird Formula. Only mods i did was to port and polish the heads, replace the cam with a RV cam (no lope) and install roller tip rocker arms. Had no problems keeping up with Camaros and Mustangs.

 

In Canada, we got the Buick 3.8 in the V-6 full sized cars. The 4.3 was in the S-10, S-15, and full sized vans and trucks.

Do yourself a favour. Do not put a 200R4 behind that Olds 402. It won't last around the block. I had one in my 84 Delta 88 behind the 307, and it was not strong enough to handle that little bit of torque. It needed rebuilding 3 times in 48,000 kms, which is only 28,000 miles or so. That 'thing' is the reason i drive Fords now. 42 work orders in 18 months is not the sign of a winning car!

 

I put a 4.1L Buick v-6 in an '82 Grand Prix, it came out of a '83 LeSabre. This is more than likely what Booboo has/had, they look identical to the 3.8L Buick, other than the quadrajet, and 4 bbl intake. That GP was a lot of fun with a mild cam, a bump in compression, and old Busch Grand National headers.

The best bet for the Buick wagon drive train would be another 307 Olds, but a 350 or 403 Olds motor wouldn't be too difficult, and a 200R4 with a mild shift kit, which will be just fine, ask the turbo Buick guys... keep it simple.
An LS engine swap would be awesome, but expensive, and, by Booboo's own admittance not up his ally.

Mike

 

I respectively disagree. As mentioned above that transmission is fantastic when built right and the Turbo Buick guys run 'em hard.

 

I rarely disagree with a subject totally but, you are dead wrong about the 200-4R tranny. A little tweak and guys are running them behind 800 HP and up to 1000 HP. Even more with more tweaking. It is a great street strip tranny. Period.

 

I don't know what they do to them now, but in 1984, General Motors could NOT get the damned thing to stay working. That was but one of the major problems with that Delta. I had torque converter failure, 4th gear got lost twice, I had hard and late shifts, and as I said, it was rebuilt 3 times in under 30,000 miles. After that experience, I wouldn't recommend using that transmission behind a 402. At least not without a comprehensive re-engineering of the entire gubbins. After all, the 402 was originally attached to a Turbo 400 because of the torque.