Beretta Turbo

K

Keiffith

Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
the current powerplant is a 93 MPFI 3.1L attached to a 3t40 transaxle. the 3.1 is deffinitely a reliable engine, it and the tranny have taken my car un-rebuilt to a nice tick of 272,000 miles, but it has little potential, and the FWD definitely doesnt help. what i would like to do is take a 87 Turbo 3.8 and get it into my car in its RWD nature. I love being different, so having the only known street driven RWD beretta sounds like a good idea. This is a HUGE project for me, as im just a 18 year old with only novice experience at car modification, but help from the experienced is only a call away. any idea's on this would be appreciated, as im not sure were to start. this is going to be a long project, taking me probably 3-5 years to get it road worthy, but im willing to take the plunge.

i would like to get a complete engine and mod it from there. would using the T/A 4.0 bore aluminum block with a strocker crank and iron champion heads be a good idea? and where should i go from there? should i use the Regal suspension and front subframe if it can fit?

And heres a pic of my car.
100_3200.jpg
 
Keiffith said:
the current powerplant is a 93 MPFI 3.1L attached to a 3t40 transaxle. the 3.1 is deffinitely a reliable engine, it and the tranny have taken my car un-rebuilt to a nice tick of 272,000 miles, but it has little potential, and the FWD definitely doesnt help. what i would like to do is take a 87 Turbo 3.8 and get it into my car in its RWD nature. I love being different, so having the only known street driven RWD beretta sounds like a good idea. This is a HUGE project for me, as im just a 18 year old with only novice experience at car modification, but help from the experienced is only a call away. any idea's on this would be appreciated, as im not sure were to start. this is going to be a long project, taking me probably 3-5 years to get it road worthy, but im willing to take the plunge.

i would like to get a complete engine and mod it from there. would using the T/A 4.0 bore aluminum block with a strocker crank and iron champion heads be a good idea? and where should i go from there? should i use the Regal suspension and front subframe if it can fit?

And heres a pic of my car.
100_3200.jpg
Click to expand...

As far as converting your car to rwd you'd need to make a complete tube chasis. Your front end is strut and to use the rwd front supension you'd have to make some sort of tubular front section, cut the entire front end support off, cut the tunnel out to make room for the tranny, cut the rear suspension and fab up a complete mounting for the rear. I'm not trying to be a downer but I think this is a great deal over your head. It would be easier to find a supercharged 3800 series II and tranny and install them. Doing a fwd to rwd conversion is difficult to say the least. Google a guy named Rick Dobertin. He did a real good job of a conversion on a J2000 and it was a show winner. I think I spelled his name right but someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
 
i understand the difficulty of the project, and i know i couldnt do it alone. i have friends and family that have a large amount of experience in car mod, so this project is more of a joint effort than something im doing alone. i also know that these projects are money pits, but money will not be ani issue. the problem with a S/C 3800 series II is that the gains from it are only slightly more than a 3400/3500 swap, which is a bolt in engine that just needs the ECU wiring. This car means a lot to me, and GM has made 3 concept berettas, an AWD 3.3L, FWD isuzu 3.5l V8, and a 350 SB AWD, so the car does have the potential to be used for the Turbo swap, the only thing is the work necessary will probalby take anywhere from 3-7 years, which i am fine with. the real thing i want to know is if the regal suspension put on a smaller wheelbase would work well in a track/street application? and if the T/A aluminum block with Iron heads would be a good combination?
 
Like said before you would need a whole tube chassis to do it right. Then at that point why worry about stock GN suspension. G-bodies don't have sub frames like a unibody, they are full frame cars. The engine question of puting iron heads on the TA aluminum block- after spending the cash for that block why not go with aluminum heads as well? You could always do it redneck style and put that Bertetta on top of the GN frame:eek: I don't know how they fasten stuff like that together, but you see all sorts of bodies on 4X4 frames down yonder. The 3800 supercharged power plant has plenty of power potential, look up Intense motorsports.(there are others, they just come to mind) Do a search on the 3800 SC you may be surprised at what some have done. I'm not trying to down your project, it is just a huge job that requires a lot of fabrication. Good luck.
 
the point of iron heads is to keep the combustion chamber temp up, allowing better combustion. the beretta doesnt look good with a standard frame under it. the floor pan sits very low so the ride height and wheel gap is rediculious. people have put s10 frames under berettas, and it looks like carp. Im thinking using a camaros subframe would work well, and since they where 3.8 equiped, i wouldnt need to make motor mounts.
 
forgot to add, i have $100k to play with for the whole car, so about $60k or so for the engine/drivetrain/suspension.
 
Keiffith said:
forgot to add, i have $100k to play with for the whole car, so about $60k or so for the engine/drivetrain/suspension.
Click to expand...

I know you're 18 from your post.....BUT ARE YOU NUCKING FUTTS!!!:eek: With the current economy what you're doing this is not a smart idea. You could do MUCH better hanging on to what you have and investing in anything until our economy is in a better place. In a few years you could get a college education and make more to do more. Keep the car drivable and wait until everything settles down, and you have a degree. You're VERY young and I know it's tempting to make something special but right now isn't the "best of times". The best thing one of my older friends gave me was:
"Put down on paper what exactly you want to do and put it away for a month. Pull it out and look at what you're planning and see how practical it is and then revise it. Put it away for another month and then take it back out and get some opinions from others and see what they think. Don't just use your friends, go to places that hot rodders gather and see what they think. If it still seems practicle then see what you can do to acheive it."
After all this I relized it wasn't practicle and modified my plans to make a car that I enjoyed and drove for severall years. It's not what you want to hear but it's good advice from an "Old guy".
 
Charlie is absolutely right.

why waste the time and the money on a project that will never give you the return. Start on something that will atleast have some resale value.

if your that dead set on doing then dont. let a professional do it so you dont endlessly waste money. it takes good experiance to pull off what you want, its just a cage short of basicly being a funny car. might as well spend that money on a slight older funny, and go 3 times as fast.

go find a cheap H body, or a 70s nova, 70s camaro, mini trucks, lots of easier wiser choices.

A.j.
 
dr_frankenstein said:
Charlie is absolutely right.

why waste the time and the money on a project that will never give you the return. Start on something that will atleast have some resale value.

if your that dead set on doing then dont. let a professional do it so you dont endlessly waste money. it takes good experiance to pull off what you want, its just a cage short of basicly being a funny car. might as well spend that money on a slight older funny, and go 3 times as fast.

go find a cheap H body, or a 70s nova, 70s camaro, mini trucks, lots of easier wiser choices.
A.j.
Click to expand...
the word "easy" usualy comes a lot with "done often". Which is the reason for this kind of project. im a member of a Beretta forum, and the fastest car there pulls a high 13 1/4. so obviously i would have the fastest known street beretta. they are a good platform IMHO, but im probably one of the few.


charlief1 said:
I know you're 18 from your post.....BUT ARE YOU NUCKING FUTTS!!!:eek: With the current economy what you're doing this is not a smart idea. You could do MUCH better hanging on to what you have and investing in anything until our economy is in a better place. In a few years you could get a college education and make more to do more. Keep the car drivable and wait until everything settles down, and you have a degree. You're VERY young and I know it's tempting to make something special but right now isn't the "best of times". The best thing one of my older friends gave me was:
"Put down on paper what exactly you want to do and put it away for a month. Pull it out and look at what you're planning and see how practical it is and then revise it. Put it away for another month and then take it back out and get some opinions from others and see what they think. Don't just use your friends, go to places that hot rodders gather and see what they think. If it still seems practicle then see what you can do to acheive it."
After all this I relized it wasn't practicle and modified my plans to make a car that I enjoyed and drove for severall years. It's not what you want to hear but it's good advice from an "Old guy".
Click to expand...
I see what you mean. i believe waiting would deffinitely be a good idea, and my car is starting to get some problems, so its starting to not be a reliable DD. Once i get a reliable DD, i think i will stick things out a few years and see what happens, but continue to develope my ideas. The thing i want to stay the same is RWD and the 3.8 turbo. other than that, i think im going to write my idea's on a paper and see what some of my friends and some local hot rodders i know. thanks:)
 
Actually it's not a bad idea. It gives you the basic frame and you can modify it without to much work. This would give you a good start for your car if you really decide to do it and it's already built. But I still think waiting is a better idea. Just my 2 cents.
 
i realy dont like the idea, because i want the car to be able to handle and not just go in a straight line. right now im thinking waiting will be my best option.
 
My point was that you have the frame made and then get rid of the front supension and change it over to something like a pinto supension and they DO handle. As far as the rear you could even go to a Jag rear or something like that. Think outside the box boy.
 
80's T birds Rear struts mount into a beretta rear strut mount the same way, im thinking if i build up one of those it would work well.
 
My buddy and I have owned a lot of Berettas between the both of us and they are great cars BUT suffer from a way too small engine compartment.
Guys talk about rear drive conversions but no one has actually successfully pulled it off. The problem is in order to do what you want requires a lot of engineering, money and time. Its not a quick and easy back yard swap.
BUT
If you want to be slick and have the fastest Beretta around I would work with the front drive set up and build a good engine for it.
Starting with a 3100/3400/3500 as a base or even one of the new 3900 engines. The newer blocks are stronger, have roller cam capability as well as better flowing heads and intakes. Get a good stand alone system such as an XFI, BS3 or GEN 7 to control it. You could probably make a Megasquirt work. Do a fuel system for it. Transmission wise the 125 (3T40 as you are calling it) requires a lot of work. Personally the Getray 282 5 speeds work really well and can take a lot of power. The only other automatic I would recommend is a 4T65E and there are PLENTY of SC3800 guys putting a lot of power through built units.
Find a quality machine shop capable of doing up a set of heads, get a custom ground roller cam and a good set of rods (Crower will make 60° rods) and quality set of forged pistons.
Build a turbo set up for the front drive V6. Here is a guy who flies with a Cavalier (which the Beretta shared engineering with) RMT Z24
You can also check out this thread on here http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/hybrids/272054-lg3-3-8-turbo-century-build-pictures.html (just keep in mind that the 90° V6 does not fit into the Beretta engine compartment without major modifications to the firewall, strut towers and radiator support.
 
i understand the logic in using a 3x00, but they just seam slow to me, the fastest one in a beretta pulls a 13.9. people have put 3800's in beretta's, but the swap requires a ecu swap, new mounts, and a lot of other misc. carp. i know this swap is not an easy adventure, but the only way to realy acheive something is to venture unknown teritory. im going to spend a few weeks drawing up my ideas and let it sit in my mind for a while. the fact that a T-bird rear end can be modded to fit under my car would make the whole deal a lot easier, i just need to see how wide the rear end is to make sure it will fit under my car without having gigantic fender wells.
 
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