does anybody know if swapping my 3.8L to a LS1 would increase the value of the car to a dealership. i figure it would increase the value in private sale but i heard it would decrease the value of the car to the dealership because the equipment isn't original. if anyone knows about this i would appreciate the help

 

prob decrease

but why care about what they will pay priv selling you make more any way

 

the reason i care is because i am doing the V6 to V8 swap and my mom was bitching about paying V8 insurance and all this other stuff and i called a friend of ours who is an insurance salesman but isn't our carrier and he said rates only go up if what you do to the car increases it's resale value and if a dealer value decreases by adding a V8 then my insurance payments won't increase which is all the more reason for me to do the swap.

 

It will decrease the value. I disagree with what your friend said and I don't even work for an insurance company. Your car would be worth less to the dealer but worth more in parts then it is now. In a really bad front end crash the insurance company would be paying to replace a LS1 instead of a 3800. I don't think the insurance company will lower your rates for putting in a LS1.

 

I completely disagree with what your insurance friend told you. By putting in the LS1 engine you will decrease the value of the car on paper but you still are gaining V8 power. back in 2001 I bought a 1999 camaro V6 for $16,000. Three months ago I traded it in on a 1999 Pontiac Formula V8 which I got for $14,500.

So by that logic my car insurance should have dropped a little since I was insuring the pontiac with a lesser dollar value then the chey was when I first insured that car. But my insurance did not drop. It went up by $600.00 a year which was no surprise. The insurance companies charge more for a V8 sports car because they know how fast they are. They know with a V8 you are more likely to race it, take corners too fast, drive over 100 MPH and get into an accident then you are in the V6.

If you do this and want to be on the up and up then expect to see a noticeable increase in insurance rates for the added power. If you don't care about being on the up and up then don't tell the insurance company you swapped a big engine in and pay V6 rates on a LS1 (you wouldn't be the first to do this). Just bare in mind that if you ever make a claim to them for your car and they find out there is a V8 in there you could get dropped as a client.

Good Luck

 

when you do the swap you can forget selling it back to a dealer. private sale is gonna be the only logical way to go. that makes me wonder how much my car is worth now. i used to be a yr 2000 55,000 mile V6 valued at 10 grand, now i am a yr 2000 28,000 mile V8. hmmm.

 

They will probably do more then just drop you as a client, insurance fraud is a federal crime.

 

Agreed. Just buy the V8 car, seriously. I was going to put a 350 in my 2.8 '89 RS. But once I considered it was going to be roughly $4,500 for a new 350, tranny, TPI assembly, all the necessary hardware, and installation, I considered this. I could sell my RS for $4,000 (which I did). So I would have effectively $8,500 tied up in a near-100k mile '89 RS with a new engine and tranny. For that $$, I could have one helluva 30k mile IROC...it made no sense. So I sold it. And this was a mint family heirloom my mom bought new. It killed me...

But if you do the math, and you want the 8, buy the 8. Sell the 6. It will make more sense. Add up what an engine, tranny and everything else will cost you, plus the install, plus what your car is worth if you sold it right now...it won't make sense...just my .02

 

i had a 55,000 mile yr 2000 V6 that i owed $13,000 on. nobody in thier right mind was going to pay me $13,000 for my car (a V6 with an SS hood). so i threw in an LS1 for $4,000 and now i have a car that looks like an SS, sounds like an SS, and most importantly drives like an SS. so now i drive a 2000 28,000 mile V8. show me where i can get a Z28 for $4,430. if i had sold my V6 i would have been upside down at least 3 grand and how much do 2000 Zs cost? 12/15 grand? i think i did pretty good.

 

Well, when I left where I was working a week ago, I had an '00 Z28 with everything and 41k on it I would have sold for $13,900 to blow it out, end of season special.

Now, if I owned your car, I'd throw it in the local ads for $10,000 to blow it out quick. So you would have been $4,000 behind, and would not have had the hassle of swapping in an LS1. Sounds like for 4 grand, you did the work yourself, which is impressive I couldn't even begin to pull that off...

TYPICALLY, swapping from a 6 to an 8 is NOT worth the time, $$, hassle, etc. I must say, yours sounds like it came out good. One nice thing about 4th gens versus 3rds is that if you already have a 4L60E, you already have the right tranny. A 700R4 like what came in my '89 wouldn't have worked with a V8 because the 2.8 is a 60 degree motor, not a 90 degree like the 3800. So I needed a new tranny too.

Keep in mind, unless you did ALL the SS tweaks to the car, you don't necessarily have a V6 thats now an SS. I mean, I can't throw an SS hood on my car and call it an SS, can I? I need the wheels, tires, bushings, exhaust (well, I just got that ), etc.

I do give you a lot of credit though...your 6 to 8 swap is one of the few that actually worked out good financially. Honestly, I have never seen another...

 

jason, i am happy with it.

here's my story

 

You got a steal on that engine/tranny combo Good for you man...cool story. Nice to see a 6 to 8 story happen without the guy doing it either shooting the car or jumping into a lake All too often, thats the beginning and the end of it!

Sounds like you got a sweet car out of the deal