Hey anyone know of a place to get a good price on a '97 malibu 3.1l v6? One of my friends blew up the engine in her car and is in need of a hook up on a good priced replacement.

hoopers or sovas in midland should have them plus it does not need to come from a malibu

I'm not sure whether to thank you for the salvage yard info or e-smack you for this comment Where are you at again? you should be required to drink a full boot of Joose for that

Called Sova's, they won't answer the phone, Hoopers is going to call me back.. furthest so far I've gotten, the last junkyard I talked to said I was the 5th person to call for that engine yesterday!!

Well you called everyone you know to find this motor so im not surprised they have been getting alot of calls.

My question is, why put in another shitty engine? Any of the GM 3.X V6's suck, with the possible exception of the 3.8SC.

"Let's run coolant, oil, AND a really f'in hot EGR tube through our intake manifolds, seal them up with plastic f'in gaskets and use a proprietary coolant that turns acidic with heat and time!!! Yeah, that's a GREAT idea!!" Someone got a bonus for that design. If someone brings that idea to my desk and asks for approval is getting a boot to the face.

/rant

Hoopers would have been my first choice, followed by Sova's. Steve's Auto Parts in Midland also has a limited supply of engines, but they also have their own sources.

theres a couple places in Mt pleasent too. I forgto the name of the place we went all the time when i was at midland tire.

even if you get a used egine i would still replace the gaskets, head and such, with a felpro set as they have a better updated design than the standard ones. they hold up better.

so Hoopers had a 3.1 out of a 95/96 beretta for 600 which they said could work if you change out the manifolds and the timing tensioner.. so I called the place this car is at and the guy was iffy on doing the swap but when I told him about the tensioner he said that wasn't what they planned on doing, they were not going to tear into the timing or anything, at least for what they quoted apparently. The search continues

The thought had crossed my mind to inquire about what it would take to put a 4 banger in it, the other engine option for that car.. at least she might be able to get the thing back on the road again if they can't find a 3.1 for it. Not sure how much needs to be swapped though.

you can't put a 4 banger in it though unless you change the engine harness, maybe others, and the computer as well

Yea that's what I was worried about.. I knew it would need the engine harness, but I've seen some cars that had a PCM under the hood and wasn't sure if that interfaced with the engine on one side and the ECU on the other.. I think that was all Ford though, you probably know.

Lately if it isn't on an Evo it's like 10X pain in the ass.. last thing I worked on was my mom's Sable, replacing a metal coolant pipe that was routed next to the fenderwell.. destroyed by rust from salt and what not, took me longer to deal with that crap than it took Jarrod and I to swap out my cams the last time