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History lesson 3800 v6 owners

jphanna

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Fridays are days I dig up something that may be crap, or interesting. You be the judge.

Just a brief history lesson for those that have a 3800 V6 buick derived engine under their bonnet. This engine is a derivative of the buick fireball 215CI V8 that came out in 1961. It was aluminium originally and it was also used by Oldsmobile in their compact V8’s as well in the 1960’s. The Oldsmobile version of this engine (6 bolts per head) was used by Jack Brabham in his 1966 F1 world championship winning F1 car. It was called the Repco-Brabham V8 to most people, but it’s the only stock USA block to win an F1 title.

This V8 fireball engine was bored, out and then 2 cylinders dropped to make the 3800 V6 that was used in USA from the 60’s and from 1988 in the VN commodore till the alloytec motor came out.

So, for those with a V6 3800 under the bonnet, in a very distant way, you are driving a car with a powerplant with a F1 racing heritage…
 

Turd Ferguson

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so on that basis, I DRIVE A FORMULA 1 CAR.

woooo
 

Stressball

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...This V8 fireball engine was bored, out and then 2 cylinders dropped to make the 3800 V6 that was used in USA from the 60’s and from 1988 in the VN commodore till the alloytec motor came out.

Shouldn't that be;
from 1988 in the VN commodore till the ecotec motor came out.

Or am I misunderstanding?
 

jphanna

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Shouldn't that be;


Or am I misunderstanding?


i dont know if the ecotech used the same block, if not then it ended with the original block. i dug up the info on wikapedia. you have to look at buick v6 history as well as buick v8 history, and of course repco brabham to see how its traced.

that block is famous!
 

Pub247

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Ecotec is basically same motor only slightly redesigned hence the buick 3800 series 2 cast onto the side of the block
 

andyman

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theres more to the buick motor than that, a guy that i work with worked at holden during that time, he said the 3800 was a desgin that was thrown out by buick years before the vn was released because it was superseded by another motor,

when Holden was looking for the motor for the vn, they picked up the (superseded for the time) 3800 and started redesigning parts of it, ie, they took half and inch off the pistons, reduced the piston skirts, redesigned the inlet manifold, made refinements to bore block crank etc,

when they were finished with it, and it was going in the vn, Buick in America started buying back there old motor and started fitting them to their cars again for a while
 

STEALTHY™

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Wikipedia, the best source of information on the net, because you can edit anything to make it your opinion ;)
 

Cobez

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Like i just did :p
 

STEALTHY™

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hakhawk

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there have been many block revisions since way back when, so the ecotec is still a descendant. we took the motor from the yanks, who were using it in a FWD setup, hence the crappy position of things like the thermostat in the VN s1 and the L67.

the yank L36 that the ecotec was built from, has been used in camaros and firebirds in a RWD setup wtih a front mounted throttle body. its one manifold im surprised no one has imported and played with yet.

attachment.php


http://www.zorly.com/images_camaro/gen4_gallery/3800 Series II 3.8L V6 (L36).jpg for big resolution pic
 

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