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Series 2 S/C stand-alone info

634 Views 11 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  schlimthecarguy, 
J
New guy here wanting to use an S/C engine and transmission in a standalone setting for my dune buggy. What will I need to make this happen? Would a donor car be the best? Or, just engine and trans with aftermarket wiring? Thanks in advance!

Jay
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dezldave961
You can run it with the basic harness from the donor car. Matching PCM hardware and tune to the transmission is key, as there were a few changes to 4t65e's, if you're going that route.

Once you have everything laid out, I suggest getting in touch with ZZP's support folks, because I know they've been involved with a bunch of people doing buggy and other various custom builds. It'll be a couple hundred bucks for the tune/feedback, but you'll invest at least that much buying HPT and learning on your own, with at least a season not cleanly running beforehand.
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J
dezldave961 said:
You can run it with the basic harness from the donor car. Matching PCM hardware and tune to the transmission is key, as there were a few changes to 4t65e's, if you're going that route.

Once you have everything laid out, I suggest getting in touch with ZZP's support folks, because I know they've been involved with a bunch of people doing buggy and other various custom builds. It'll be a couple hundred bucks for the tune/feedback, but you'll invest at least that much buying HPT and learning on your own, with at least a season not cleanly running beforehand.
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Thanks for the reply. I will salvage everything from the running and driving car. As far as a transmission, I will upgrade the weak points and change the ratio too. It will be built to take some abuse. I’m sure my car will be less than 1,900 pounds wet. So, that will be easier on it too.
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dezldave961
Ya, fusebox and computer are the main things to hang onto until you trim out unnecessary lines.

If you just toss an input shaft, bigger cooler, Transgo shift kit, filter, and a few other small things in there, you should be fine for most typical upgrades.
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schlimthecarguy
a W body engine harness is best for reworking as its a nearly self contained stand alone harness from the factory reworking a G/H body harness leads to much more work in some cases, not to mention some have the PCM inside the car and is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot as far as ease of reworking
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J
schlimthecarguy said:
a W body engine harness is best for reworking as its a nearly self contained stand alone harness from the factory reworking a G/H body harness leads to much more work in some cases, not to mention some have the PCM inside the car and is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot as far as ease of reworking
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Isn’t the W body Series 1? Im really wanting to use a Series 2 set up
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schlimthecarguy
The W body was available with the series 1 3800 prior to 96 as long as you're getting a harness from a 97 and later w-body your fine although I would highly suggest starting with 98 and 99 as the best years.
97 was its own Oddball PCM

And later years started going to smaller and smaller strand wiring to save money on Copper
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schlimthecarguy said:
The W body was available with the series 1 3800 prior to 96 as long as you're getting a harness from a 97 and later w-body your fine although I would highly suggest starting with 98 and 99 as the best years.
97 was its own Oddball PCM

And later years started going to smaller and smaller strand wiring to save money on Copper
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Good info. I’ll most likely opt for a Regal GS. I was also thinking of the 5.3 engine too. Any hiccups with that one?
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dezldave961
The 5.3 LS4 is an oddball in the LS engine family, due to the couple of tweaks required to put in Wbody's. (That reminds me, I need to finish my video edit from pulling mine out for maintenance 6mo ago.). Also, they immediately overpower the transmission in stock form, and require extra care to keep that happy, along with using more/newer computer modules to make it work. It's been done, but I'd lean toward the 3800 in this use, if it were me.
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J
dezldave961 said:
The 5.3 LS4 is an oddball in the LS engine family, due to the couple of tweaks required to put in Wbody's. (That reminds me, I need to finish my video edit from pulling mine out for maintenance 6mo ago.). Also, they immediately overpower the transmission in stock form, and require extra care to keep that happy, along with using more/newer computer modules to make it work. It's been done, but I'd lean toward the 3800 in this use, if it were me.
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Understandable but, I will be reworking the trans and fixing the weak points for this reason. I’ll also be going with 3.69 sprockets to maximize the low end torque
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dezldave961
The 5.3 has no issue with torque, especially if it's lighter, just like the L67 doesn't have an issue either. The transmission isn't made of glass, just some various items that help longevity.

You could pick a space shuttle engine and make it work, if you wanted. Just pick a direction to get more focused answers when you're ready.
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schlimthecarguy
The 4t65e can eat a bag of dix
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