1997 Malibu 3.1 Upgrade options...

[bszopi]

I have had a leak there before. It ended up that the O-ring had actually fallen out during reassembly. But it is a relatively quick and easy fix. Glad to hear it has gone so smoothly for you!

[Baldeagle242]

Alright, I was able to get my fuel leak fixed. The O-ring must have slid up over the edge of the fuel line because it was cut in half when I took it out. No biggy, I just used the O-ring off the fuel line that came with the 3400 and all was fine.
HOWEVER, In the interest of I TOLD YOU SO...
The 3400 fuel injectors flooded the motor and made it run like crap. It was so bad I thought I had a bad vacuum leak and the rich smell was very apparent. I went ahead and pulled the UIM and replaced the injectors with the 3100 ones. I was able to get another injector harness form a member on this site so I did not have to rework my harrness again. This way if/when I find a way to tune this car I can put the 3400 injectors back in. Once I had the 3100 injectors in the motor it was as smooth as silk. The car is still sitting in my garage right now but about all I have left to do is put the hood back on and a few odds and ends. I should have it on the road this weekend.

[3400-95-Modified]

So should I say I told you so...

Glad it's all running though.

[Baldeagle242]

So should I say I told you so...

Glad it's all running though.

I think this is the only advise I did not listen to on this swap and it came back to bite me in the ass. I guess I just did not want to hear it after I cut and spliced my harness to make the larger injectors work. Oh well... all is well that ends well.

[IsaacHayes]

You will want to use the 3100 FPR too as the 3400 rail has a higher PSI FPR.... I can't remember the exact year they went to a higher PSI one but I think yours is higher on that 3400 than the 3100....

[Baldeagle242]

You will want to use the 3100 FPR too as the 3400 rail has a higher PSI FPR.... I can't remember the exact year they went to a higher PSI one but I think yours is higher on that 3400 than the 3100....

I changed the entire rail and FPR with all the injectors still attached. This thing is sounding sweet right now. Smooth idle and quick throttle response.

Not sure if the dash gauge is correct but after running for about 10-12 min. the temp was at 220. I still have one fan off so I'll put that back on tonight and hook up my code scanner and see what it shows the temp. I think the radiator may be full of crap too from what I seen in the overflow tank and what I drained out before the swap. I may have to do a couple flush and fills before I put to many miles on this thing.

[IsaacHayes]

Ahh nice. Yeah you probably need to flush the coolant system to get rid of all the chunky dexcool. A new thermostat would be a good idea too. You're close!!!

[Baldeagle242]

Flushed the radiator last night and refilled with clean water and a little anti freeze. Put my second fan back on and started it up and let it run for about 30 min. The temp started out a little hot but dorpped to 195ish and stabilized. I paln to flush this again in a week or so.
I also have a PO108 Barometric pressure sensor circuit high voltage code that pops up. Any idea what this could be? Vaccum leak or maybe a plug I have missed?

<UPDATE> The PO108 code turned out to be either a damaged wire in the harness or the harness was wired different. I was able to figure this out by connecting the old fuel injector harness.(The MAP wire runs through this harness) I then connected the MAP sensor to the plug and could see the voltage change on my scanner when I applied vacuum. Since I did not want to pull the UIM yet again I removed the plug and a few inches of wire from the original harness and just spliced them into the wires before the fuel injector harness. I then ran the wire around the back side of the UIM under the coil pack. This way if I change to the 3400 injectors down the road I will not need to rework this connection. I have put about 60 miles on the car since doing this and no codes yet. <UPDATE>

[3400-95-Modified]

Check the wiring and plug on your map sensor, or change it out,

its the sensor right in front of the coil packs.

[Baldeagle242]

its the sensor right in front of the coil packs.

That may explain my problem. This is one of the connectors that runs through the fuel injector harness that I swaped out. The connector was the same but it had a broken lock tab on it. I will have to check this out tonight and maybe wrap a zip tie around it.

[El_Diablo]

try a chemical flush... if i were you i would look into DEI products, both the readiator relief (stabilizing chemical and works like water wetter, also brings the engine to temp faster) and the radiator flush they have, great products

chemical flushes really are nice because even though you cant always drain all the coolant or water out of the system they can still reach those areas like the heater core and the lower water passages in the block, then just drain and fill with straight water and run it for a while and then drain again and fill with distilled water and anti-freeze, if your really paraniod you'll drain a lil and fill a lil and keep doing this until you've gone through a few gallons, lol

[3400-95-Modified]

VERY common problem breaking those lock tabs, I found a website thats for stand alone ECM's and what not, that has MAP plugs that you can splice in to replace the busted one.

Its on the powrtuner website I'll see if I can get the link tonight...

Off to the track right now though.

[Baldeagle242]

The thing with the temp that surprised my more than anything is the fans do not kick on untill the temp is at 225. Once they kick on they bring the temp right down. If I turned the AC on the fans come right on so I knew they were working. I just never realized the temp had to be that hot before they kicked on with the AC turned off. I was a little nerves the first time it ran for any length of time and it shot up to 220 and looked like it was going to keep going.

[IsaacHayes]

Yes for some reason the MAP sensor plug is the only plug they made a different color and that green plastic gets brittle as hell. Mine has snapped but the rubber gasket keeps it held in fine...

http://www.eficonnection.com/eficonnection/default.aspx sells new pigtails if you are really paranoid or it keeps coming out.

Thats how my fan works. Normal driving the gauge shows 1/4 or a little under, then when it gets hot from sitting in the summer it will go a little above 1/2 then the fan kicks on. Big range before the fan kicks on. The gauge is not numbered so I don't know what temps it is running at..

[Baldeagle242]

I would like to use this post to thank everyone that took the time to give me advice for this project. I would have never tried this without the encouragement and advice offered from the members of this site. I hope this thread can also be helpfull to others that may have this same thing in mind. I am sure it would have been a little quicker to just drop another 3100 into the car from another 1997 Malibu but for the newer motor and the extra power I think it was well worth a little extra work. I do not have tags on the car yet so I can't take it to far. I did however take it for a drive around my neighborhood and found it to have an abundance of power. I can't compair it to the 3100 because I never drove it with the 3100 but it seems to get up and go very nicely. Again thanks to everyone for their comments and advice. Here is a picture of the final result.

FYI... I have also went back through my previous post and added/edited a few comments that may help others.