85 3.8L v6 Lifter Tick Issues

[SuperRegal]

Hey GBC i was wondering if anyone else has had any issues with hydralic lifter tick on a 3.8L 231 v6 N/A, as wanted to know how long could i drive the car with the problem?
I started happening a while back and got it checked out by a shop that my dad has always gone to. The quoted me around $650 to fix the issue. The car is my daily so i want to keep her running good aslong as i can. I was also considering maybe just doing an engine swap instead, and just swapping in a chevy 350, nothing fancy.

 

[81Regal]

First off an engine swap will cost more than 650 since nearly everything under the hood for a Chevy is different than a buick. Easiest and cheapest swap would be to swap in a bick 350 even though they are not found on every corner.
Did the swap say what needed fixed? Cam swap is fairly straight forward and IMO easier to do on a buick instead of a chevy.

 

[SuperRegal]

they said they would need to replace one of the lifters. I know an engine swap would cost more, but wouldnt mind some more power.

 

[81Regal]

Doing a lifter swap is super easy on a Buick engine, pull the intake and valve covers don't even need to pull the distributor after draining the radiator, unbolt the rocker arms they are on a shaft so no adjustments are needed. I would replace the pushrods while in there, pull the lifters out. Before putting new lifters in soak them in oil for a while, and bolt everything back together.
As I said before if you still want to swap in a v8 and never did a swap before a Buick 350 would be a good pick everything on the front of the V6 swaps over including the motor mounts. And will bolt to your existing transmission where the chevy may not depending what you have.

 

[SuperRegal]

I may just get the lifters taken care of, gonna be doing an audio build in it pretty soon, but then the engine problems kinda threw me off track. And unfortunately I don't have any tools or experience really to fix it myself. Plus with school and work, i tend to be busy most of the time. Thanks for the info.

 

[Silent viewer]

I wouldn't put anything into a 3.8 unless it was like a belt or a tune up personally. the SBC swap is a walk in the park for anyone with a decent amount of mechanical knowledge. personally the LS motors are the new way to go for bang for buck. sure you will get the purests saying to do the buick v8 but its not the most cost effective swap and you are much more limited to what you can do with them. modern stuff like EFI and serpentine setups are much easier and cheaper on a SBC. if you go SBC I personally would look for a vortec based engine out of a late 90s, they are 1 piece rear sealed, use all silicone gaskets, they have the best factory heads made and are factory roller cam engines. the vortec 350s are nearly identical to a ramjet 350 long block minus the cam and roller tip rockers