I have a 95 LeSabre with a series II 3800, now Hollanders says it can have a 5 bolt or 6 bolt crankshaft. Mine spun a rod and knocks like hell, so I got another engine out of God knows what and it is a 6 bolt crank. Our issue is that even by using the VIN [ letter M ] we cannot tell which engine we have until we pull it, and we don't want to pull it until we have another engine to stuff in it because we don't need a "dead horse" kicking around we can't move out of the way when we need to. Anyone got an idea ?

 

If memery serves, I think Buick was late to the party and didn't start using the series II untill 96.
A 95 model would likely still have the series I.

 

Well I thought the same thing until I bought this clean rust free [ almost ] 95 and opened the hood to see "Series II" staring me in the face.....I have several good running "Series 1" engines kicking around in parts cars. Since I posted that we have gotten about 2 feet of snow so I guess it will be a "next summer" project.

 

What did you end up find out about the series of your engine

 

Well, Hollanders is altogether WRONG on this, my 95 has what looks like for all the world the SAME motor as my 1993 LeSabre, but HOLLANDERS swears its a Series II, the Buick books say series II, BUT, I bought a rusty 1995 Bonneville with a Series II and that engine sure looks DIFFERENT, so does the God knows what engine I have on my engine stand. Now these engines look different than the series 1 engines in my 1990, and both 1991 LeSabres I have...so I am confused as hell at this point. The interchange is WRONG, nobody has this written where I can find it, I am confused....

 

Honestly this has me so pissed off I could punch a bunny !

 

And I need this 95 on the road YESTERDAY, my 93 is all rotted to hell, but it is getting us around, but it will not last very much longer.

 

So after much digging I find that my 1995 does in fact have an L27 SERIES I engine NOT a "Series II". AND it is 92 to 95 only because the 88 to 91 variant is referred to as a PRE-Series I engine, and while some say the only difference is the intake manifold being two piece instead of one piece aluminum this is NOT the case. These engines run different cylinder heads, internals, crank, etc. So any of my current hoard of parts cars will NOT yield me a lower half I can use, the kicker is that years ago I had a crashed 92 and I SCRAPPED it for junk thinking it was a PRE Series I engine.....dammit !