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What's the Most Popular V6 Engine for Light Weight Crawlers Currently?

Sean

Sean

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I'd think the 3.6L GM LFX V6 would be up near the top of list for 2 seat cars. It's in like 13 different vehicles from 2012 to 2020, is pretty cheap complete from junk yards with low miles (sub 20K miles), fairly compact in size and fairly light weight, 305+ hp stock. That said, I'm not seeing a lot of aftermarket options or support in terms of adapter plates/harnesses/power upgrades. Or maybe my Google-fu is weak and/or I'm not looking in the right places.

So what other options in the ~300 hp, small, light weight V6 world am I missing for a sub-4K lb 4WS car on 40-43s. Preferably, I'd like to find something that has readily available adapters to take a non-computer controlled auto (TH400 would be my first choice), a good wiring harness option and maybe even a few performance mods to bump the power a bit if one wanted?
 
Sean said:
I'd think the 3.6L GM LFX V6 would be up near the top of list for 2 seat cars. It's in like 13 different vehicles from 2012 to 2020, is pretty cheap complete from junk yards with low miles (sub 20K miles), fairly compact in size and fairly light weight, 305+ hp stock. That said, I'm not seeing a lot of aftermarket options or support in terms of adapter plates/harnesses/power upgrades. Or maybe my Google-fu is weak and/or I'm not looking in the right places.

So what other options in the ~300 hp, small, light weight V6 world am I missing for a sub-4K lb 4WS car on 40-43s. Preferably, I'd like to find something that has readily available adapters to take a non-computer controlled auto (TH400 would be my first choice), a good wiring harness option and maybe even a few performance mods to bump the power a bit if one wanted?
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Not sure if it qualifies as a super light v6, but the late model all aluminum 4.3 V6 is a pretty perfect option, good low end power and alread the correct bell housing pattern. Being pushrod instead of 4 cam, it may end up lighter than you'd think.
 
Didn't realize the 4.3L had gotten that much of an update. Sounds like a much better option than the 3.6L.

Thanks for the heads up.

Any idea on the weight or dimensions? I'm starting digging now.....
 
Sean said:
Didn't realize the 4.3L had gotten that much of an update. Sounds like a much better option than the 3.6L.

Thanks for the heads up.

Any idea on the weight or dimensions? I'm starting digging now.....
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"It's an ls with 2 cyls chopped off" if that helps.
 
2big bronco said:
Seen a lot of 4ws portal cars running honda v6s at koh last year. No idea what v6 it was though
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Yeah, saw that too (Wraith II chassis by Marked Motorsports was the big driver of the Honda engines) but the problem is there are not many people doing the wiring harness and there's only one trans option (700r4) readily available that I found and I'm not a fan of that tranny.
 
JR4X said:
The n/a 3900’s kick the shit out of the ol supercharged 3800’s and weigh a lot less. Very impressive little engines
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Is the 240 hp and tq any hinderance if the car is pushing 4K lbs? That was my reservation on the 3.9L. From what I read too...the reliability of the 3.9 wasn't as good as the 3.5L. The 3.6L had its issues....but they weren't that bad if you knew what to look for; especially for a trail rig. 4 Common Chevy & GM LFX Engine Problems - 3.6L V6 LFX
 
The 3.6 looks good on paper but they have their fair share of problems. I'm not sure one could convince me to run one.

LT based 4.3 is a good option. Really needs the aftermarket to wake up for it but people are working around what's not available. The pan and intake is tall from what I remember.

The Honda J series v6 are good options. Allan has one in his Wraith and it seems to do well, there's 2 other guys with Wraiths localish and they both have LT 4.3s in them.


I'm not sure there's much really out there with any aftermarket support that hasn't been mentioned. Clicking the boxes of powerful, light and support kind of seems to bring you to the pick 2 circle. You can have powerful and light but no aftermarket support, or you can have after market support and powerful but it might not be light.

I've kind of hashed it around a bit cause I'd like more power sometimes over what my 3rz has and a lot of the v6 options are a good bit more time consuming and less cost friendly than doing a LS and mostly use the same trans options. I'd really like to put a LT 4.3 in my buggy though.
 
94toytruck said:
LT based 4.3 is a good option. Really needs the aftermarket to wake up for it but people are working around what's not available. The pan and intake is tall from what I remember.
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Cut the pan and put an LS3 intake on it.

Sean said:
Yeah, saw that too (Wraith II chassis by Marked Motorsports was the big driver of the Honda engines) but the problem is there are not many people doing the wiring harness
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Tons of them around. But you have to look into the desert guys not rock donkeys.

94toytruck said:
I've kind of hashed it around a bit cause I'd like more power sometimes over what my 3rz has and a lot of the v6 options are a good bit more time consuming and less cost friendly than doing a LS and mostly use the same trans options. I'd really like to put a LT 4.3 in my buggy though.
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Turbo the 3RZ
 
94toytruck said:
The 3.6 looks good on paper but they have their fair share of problems. I'm not sure one could convince me to run one.

LT based 4.3 is a good option. Really needs the aftermarket to wake up for it but people are working around what's not available. The pan and intake is tall from what I remember.

The Honda J series v6 are good options. Allan has one in his Wraith and it seems to do well, there's 2 other guys with Wraiths localish and they both have LT 4.3s in them.


I'm not sure there's much really out there with any aftermarket support that hasn't been mentioned. Clicking the boxes of powerful, light and support kind of seems to bring you to the pick 2 circle. You can have powerful and light but no aftermarket support, or you can have after market support and powerful but it might not be light.

I've kind of hashed it around a bit cause I'd like more power sometimes over what my 3rz has and a lot of the v6 options are a good bit more time consuming and less cost friendly than doing a LS and mostly use the same trans options. I'd really like to put a LT 4.3 in my buggy though.
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Yeah, and the pan and intake height on the 4.3 are issues if there's no way to shrink them down. I have the car intake and fbody pan for the 2 LS 5.3s I was going to use just to get the size down to the 27" (IIRC) height that would be workable.

It sure seems like LS may still be my best option. I guess it all depends on how hard 4.3s are to find.
 
Sean said:
Yeah, saw that too (Wraith II chassis by Marked Motorsports was the big driver of the Honda engines) but the problem is there are not many people doing the wiring harness and there's only one trans option (700r4) readily available that I found and I'm not a fan of that tranny.
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I don't really know why marked motorsports ran with the "J" spec motor. Someone working with them must have hyped it up. In the world of older swappable Honda motors it's probably one of the worse to pick minus the 6cyl portion, cost, and Honda reliability.

The cost to get this motor in and running is similar to every other one on this list but has one more major flaw. You're pretty much stuck with factory ecu, power and tuning. Only option for tuning these engines is full standalone system like motec at $2,000 base.

And as Sean stated the transmission options aren't exactly super appealing.


I'm in the same boat with considering a V6, I have a hulse engineering chassis on the way and a junkyard Lm7 on the garage floor but I'd really like to not run a rear mounted radiator so I've been leaning towards the LV1 and Lv3.

The LV1 and Lv3 engine are from the LT family and share some parts from the gen 5 lt's. As stated the power is good. I haven't confirmed but I keep seeing postings that it uses the same LS pilot bushing for a th400.

The Lv3 came in 2014- present GMC/Chevy trucks. The LV1 come in Chevy Express vans from 2018-present. I believe the Lv3 comes with more power but you don't have to delete the DOD/afm on the LV1, can someone confirm this?

As far as deleting the DOD/afm on the Lv3 there's a company called scroggin-dickey (sdparts.com) that sells the delete kit and also offer aftermarket cams in stage 1 and stage 2. They sell the standalone harness, deletes and tuning. They also sell aftermarket motor parts and interchangeable parts from Gen 5 lt's.

Another site worth mentioning I came across is swaptheuniverse.com they offer harnesses, ecu tuning/deleting, and full turn key swap kits.

About as far I got in my few days research but I'll add as I learn.

Something I'd like to confirm if anyone can.

-Adapting motor to th400 is the same as an LS even though it's considered a LT?
 
Sean said:
Yeah, and the pan and intake height on the 4.3 are issues if there's no way to shrink them down. I have the car intake and fbody pan for the 2 LS 5.3s I was going to use just to get the size down to the 27" (IIRC) height that would be workable.

It sure seems like LS may still be my best option. I guess it all depends on how hard 4.3s are to find.
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In the same boat :lmao:. The Intakes tall and so is pan (scroggin-dickey offers a $800 moroso pan but not even sure if that'd clear). And still haven't found a motor under a $1,500.
 
Sean said:
Is the 240 hp and tq any hinderance if the car is pushing 4K lbs? That was my reservation on the 3.9L. From what I read too...the reliability of the 3.9 wasn't as good as the 3.5L. The 3.6L had its issues....but they weren't that bad if you knew what to look for; especially for a trail rig. 4 Common Chevy & GM LFX Engine Problems - 3.6L V6 LFX
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I don’t know anybody having issues with the 3.9. The ones I know of run smooth as silk but they are mostly portal cars. TF 904’s and D300’s to 10:1 axles so hp isn’t an issue. I also don’t do mud and rock bouncer stuff. My buddies running them are doing trail breaker stuff. If your needs are full throttle assaults at mud /slime covered rocks I don’t know how they’d hold up.

My big concern with any engine in a crawler is oil starvation when standing on its ass nose or laying on its side. These 3.9’s with the factory pan seem to take just about any angle without running to zero psi oil pressure. You’re not doing that with an LS without doing a dry sump system. And before anyone thinks they’re going to scold me on the LS comment, I want you to know I’ve been standing next to them when they spun a bearing and locked up because oil pressure went low for one second.
 
Wuz-A-zuk said:
How does one put a V8 intake on a V6 motor? Am I missing something :confused:
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With an adapter plate.

JR4X said:
My big concern with any engine in a crawler is oil starvation when standing on its ass nose or laying on its side. These 3.9’s with the factory pan seem to take just about any angle without running to zero psi oil pressure. You’re not doing that with an LS without doing a dry sump system. And before anyone thinks they’re going to scold me on the LS comment, I want you to know I’ve been standing next to them when they spun a bearing and locked up because oil pressure went low for one second.
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That's the big downfall of LS engines. Oil system is marginal at best. Having an accusump and a baffled pan is mandatory and even that isn't a guarantee of success.
 
I've been going round and round on this myself researching for a new buggy build that might happen someday. I really want to like the honda J35, but its just too much to adapt it to be useable. They can be had super cheap, like $300 around here which is surprising, but spending twice that on a GM 3.9 would make more sense as you can bolt a trans to it and the starter is on the correct side. I haven't considered the new 4.3 as I assumed it was way out of my budget.
 
Sean said:
Yeah, saw that too (Wraith II chassis by Marked Motorsports was the big driver of the Honda engines) but the problem is there are not many people doing the wiring harness and there's only one trans option (700r4) readily available that I found and I'm not a fan of that tranny.
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Why only one trans option?

Seems like if they have an adapter to a 700R4, they have all the GM longitudinal transmissions, with stand alone controllers.

Wuz-A-zuk said:
I don't really know why marked motorsports ran with the "J" spec motor. Someone working with them must have hyped it up. In the world of older swappable Honda motors it's probably one of the worse to pick minus the 6cyl portion, cost, and Honda reliability.

The cost to get this motor in and running is similar to every other one on this list but has one more major flaw. You're pretty much stuck with factory ecu, power and tuning. Only option for tuning these engines is full standalone system like motec at $2,000 base.

And as Sean

-Adapting motor to th400 is the same as an LS even though it's considered a LT?
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Correct, the 4.3L is the same as all the other LS/LT mounting, to a longitudinal trans.

I believe they also share the same PCMs.

Also, most of the big companies are making cams etc, for them.
 
JR4X said:
I don’t know anybody having issues with the 3.9. The ones I know of run smooth as silk but they are mostly portal cars. TF 904’s and D300’s to 10:1 axles so hp isn’t an issue. I also don’t do mud and rock bouncer stuff. My buddies running them are doing trail breaker stuff. If your needs are full throttle assaults at mud /slime covered rocks I don’t know how they’d hold up.

My big concern with any engine in a crawler is oil starvation when standing on its ass nose or laying on its side. These 3.9’s with the factory pan seem to take just about any angle without running to zero psi oil pressure. You’re not doing that with an LS without doing a dry sump system. And before anyone thinks they’re going to scold me on the LS comment, I want you to know I’ve been standing next to them when they spun a bearing and locked up because oil pressure went low for one second.
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Same here....there are some places where a bump/momentum is necessary....but no WOT stuff. I just didn't know if the 3.9L would be enough power for something that weighed 4K. I'd love to weigh 3-3.5K....I just don't know that it's likely.

Yeah, I was thinking an accumulator was going to be necessary on anything I put in....
 
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