'BAD' GM 3800 L26 V6 Engine Teardown. Why Are These Engines SO GOOD?

You’re welcome Eric. You will get all of Premiers core engines you want. 😂love watching the tear downs. I did find out an update yesterday from the customer. This car had sat since 2015 when they bought a new Camaro. Thats almost 9 years of contaminated oil sitting in the crankcase. Lol. I did drive it in the shop and it ran remarkably well. This grand prix got a very clean used 3800 with 101,000 miles. It had no signs of dexcool destruction like this one did. Keep up the awesome content. 👍

My dad changed the oil every 3000 miles and still this engine was crap

My parents had a 1998 buick Park Ave that the intake manifold went out twice at 120,000 and then at 218,000 miles.absolute crap

The intake manifolds were junk.

Meh. That'll buff right out.

I had a 3.8 V6 in my 83 Cutlass Supreme Coupe and it never broke down on me just did reg. Oil changes & tunesups and mines was a 83 this was in the early 90s when I was a teen when the quality of motor oil wasn't as good as now an now I run mobile 1 synthetic & royal purple in my vehicles

I've had 2 out of 2 grenade on me. I used to replace oil pumps quite a few times on those 231s.

We had a 79 omega 231 had 179,000 . We put a chain then a radiator then the A/c went out and pops said that’s it. Am selling it. Our neighbor bought the car for his son then his son sold it to his cousin then the car was given to a grandmother etc, etc finally at 560,00 miles it sent to the junk yard. Funny thing after we did the repairs it just ran and ran

Big, old-school pistons!! Almost as big as the Bentley slugs.

you said good gas mileage , but how many miles per anti freeze >

Well I must disagree, because the best GM engine ever made was the small block Chevy, used in more custom vehicles and engine swaps than any engine in history, plus ten times more aftermarket parts than any 3800 V6.

lol i would buy that plenum from you, just dusted off my 96 regal because my durango's headgaskets failed on my way back from putting on wheels because i had 4 OEM wheels fail (well, only one was bent enough to require immediate replacement, but it's the second in the life of the car that i know of, and of the other 3, 2 more were warped), wouldn't mind a neat little upgrade while i figure out parting out the durango and perhaps replacing the buick

Just started. Asking your videos a regular “watch”. Owned 2 90 degree 3800. An ‘89 Bonneville which got passed done to a son in ‘03 then immediately broke in half with little over 110k, nicest, “slickest” sedan we’ve ever owned. The other was a 2000 Le Saber, an ugly “boat” by comparison, got handed down to a brother’s mother in law, it’s still on the road. The follow on for GM was/is junk. GM lost me as a customer in ‘08 with the government buy out.

Looks like they used stop leak?

Dexcool is crap cusses all that

Both the GM 3.8 and Ford 3.8 are insanely good engines. The 3.8 Essex deserves a spotlight as well. The limitation of parts and internet documentation for it is astonishing.

I had a 2800 it ran forever and then i got a buick 3800 it did the same thing it ran forever even after being mistreated by my wife 😂👍!!

Full of Stop leak !

Antifreeze in the oil pan is never good but i bet that thing still ran.

You're never late in a 3.8! 😂

2001-2005 vs 2006-2011 dts northstar it would be a very content worthy vid plus no one has ever done it!! i seen u have torn one down but vsing it would show the heads,head bolts plus head gasket difference and make people understand why the 2006-2011 are better!!

So these engines are famous for being reliable and long lived....... And I'm not buying it. Not at all. I have never heard a single specific claim of longevity or reliability, just vague reputation. I have heard that they have a tendency to lose intake gaskets at relatively low miles and either hydrolock on their coolant or milkshake like this one. This teardown has not changed my opinion. It looks like an extremely normal and average transverse V6, very similar to the Dodge minivans I've had. Except this has a balance shaft.

Also aluminum oil pan with iron heads is wild

Great engines. A number of the designs used on these ended up being adopted on the LS engines.

I love my 69 430 thats bored out to 440.

Moms buick had 3 bad motors. I hate these engines. You all can enjoy and keep them. Periodic maintenance and oil changes. On them.

Had several from 1979 to late 80s, never had good service from any. 79 had a massive failure when it through a rod only heads were salvagable.

Thus, the 3800 was discontinued,

should do a teardown on that SC400 door. Its harder than the motor! Weird window rail system.

I'm going to say, those must've been 124,000 very hard miles.

That’s not true every 3800 series has had issues with aluminum heads. You see them with bad head gaskets all the time shut your mouth, Democrat.

The GM 3800 was like the Chrysler Slant Six, you couldnt kill it.

I have an 04 Grand Prix GT I’ve had for 16 years and an 04 GTP for 2. The GT survived my teens and early 20s of maintenance abuse but it survived and I take great care of it Joe and it still runs like a champ.

Bullet proof engine. Tear down looks easier than some of the other engines you autopsy 😊

it's not just GM's best engine of all time, it's one of the best engines of all time period

Looks like the 3.8 II did some cross-pollenating with the LSs?!

it's basically a mini LS

Can you do a video on the CPS issues for the GM 3.8L? All 3 of mine have the same issue. 2 run fine with intermittent stalling when i come to a stop... But it's rarely occuring (maybe 8 times in a year). And the other one only runs for maybe 20 seconds at a time.

I'd be really interested on seeing my 300k gen 1 3.8 torn down! But, I don't have the $$$ for it. It's from a running car... But a deer demolished the entire front end 😭 several years ago.

Greetings: I worked on and rebuilt many older GM V8s and I6s. I never saw oilpan filled with coolant.
Not the "best". Depends on criteria. However a good engine indeed. That engine is not junk. They Cans (AfriCans, JamaiCans) will buy it, install it, dump black oil in it and sell it 2 some millennial or yuppie idiot. Thx 4 the share.

Looks like someone mixed regular coolant with Dexcool

Likely used head gasket sealer. Proof it does stop the wrong things.

I see the coolant elbow was replaced from the pos plastic at least.

What a piece of Junk ! I will never own a GM product. It's practically designed to fail.

Oh be cool to show a 3.0 Volcan engine from Ford. I got 397k miles put of my Sable Wagon with aftermarket Supercharger. Ran great til someone hit me.

Funny I might need 1. I do know I need a Transmission for my Lincoln LS. Back to my Firebird though it has a rebuilt 3.8 and it gets 420 miles on a full tank unless I run it harder then I 387 miles on a full tank.

Yup and the 4.3

That was a great gm engine very reliable

Completely agree, i commented that exact sentiment on some YT video last week, to me the 3800 and the 4.3 V6 are bullet proof, I say the 4.3 to me and family had regularly gotten 200 to 400K out of them before upgrading to newer trucks. I used to work as a tech at a GM dealer, these 3800s regularly hit 200 to 300K and still kept going.