Topic: Gm vortech 3500 and 3700 engines?

[Ghettofab88]

I know I won't get a whole lot of info here, but I'm throwing this out there anyways as its kinda interesting tech.

In my research for engine swaps into my old 88 toyota I came accross the newer chevy colorado and gmc canyon trucks.  I had thought that every single truck on the market today was drivers drop on the front d-shaft, which puts the exhaust on the pass side, right where our pass drop d-shafts are.  This makes it difficult in cali as the smog refs want the exhaust as it came off the donor vehicle.  Oddly enough, the colorado and canyon trucks as well as the H3 hummers are all pass drop front d-shafts!  The exhaust is still on the pass side which is odd, but they had to work it and the cats around the front d-shaft and t-case, so it should be reasonable to package into a toyota.

Ok, so what, exhaust isn't the end of the world on the other swaps.  I started looking at these more in depth, all aluminum blocks, vvt on the exhaust, and timing chains!  The numbers look pretty good too, the 3700 puts down 242hp and 242lbft at the crank!  They have an odd bellhousing bolt pattern though, but the auto in those trucks is just a standard old 4L60E, so thats easy, and the manual is an Aisin Ar5 trans, which is apparently in the same family as the AX15, R150 and R154.  So theres the possibility of kluging a trans together to get a manual.

I'm curious if anyone has any input into these engines?  Any gm techs out there?  Are they good, bad, POS motors?  Does anyone have any weights, or other dimensions?

http://www.underhoodservice.com/issue/article.aspx?contentid=92795

Here is an artical about bolting a supra 2JZ in front of the Ar5 trans: http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2011/06/pontiac-solstice-gets-engine-transplant.html

Thanks,
Kevo

[Cheesemaker]

I've heard of a few rock buggies running the GM 3700 out of FWD passenger cars/vans.  Just mount a 4L60E trans an tcase.  I've thought about this.  The only thing about these motors is a issue with the intake gasket, but if you replace it with a steel backed one, then no issues.

As for the exhaust, I've seen many guys who swap out the 3RZ, which ran the exhaust under the bell housing and down the drivers side.  And they got it passed smog.  And if you have issues with that, I'd run a Atlas, or a lefty to a Ruff Stuff or Diamond axle with the diff on the drivers side. 

[Ghettofab88 [OP]]

You might be thinking of the buick 3800 series 2 or 3 motors.  Many were supercharged so they are popular for the buggy crowd.

Yeah, the exhaust is and isn't an issue.  It looks like they may be relaxing the rules as long as the distance from engine to cat remains the same.

The cool thing about the 3500 and 3700s is that they make more power than a 4.3, now I just need to know what they weigh?  Being aluminum they might weigh less than a 4.3.  They seem to move those colorados along just fine while getting low 20s mpg, and the colorados are a bit larger and I would assume heavier than a minitruck.  They also share the standard newer gm electronics that are so popular with the tuning crowd.

I have no idea if this would be a good swap at this point.  I just thought I'd throw this out here and see what other people thought.

Kevo

[Cheesemaker]

The article I read had the same 3400 series motor as my  minivan. OK, my bad! I missed the 3500/3700, and failed to remember mine was the 3400 series.

[Rocksurfer]

Of course I had one in my H3, I was always kinda wierded out on it being a 5 cyl. just couldn't get used to that, but it did run good down the road and was good offroad.