I spent a year and a half inside GM performing fieldwork for my Ph.D. They would not even have developed the 3.9 if they didn't think it would be much cheaper to make than the 3.6. Maybe it somehow turned out more expensive because of low volumes, but that would not have been the intent. If volume is the problem, the Camaro will solve it.

The 3.9 is based on an old design going back to the 2.8 in the Citation. It may even use some old, old tooling. It's OHV. It can't cost much to make given decent volume. The whole point of continuing to offer OHV engines is that they're cheap to make.

 

Dont worry about the 3.9 its up and coming. The exciting thing about the Camaro is that with this addition other cars will follow.The engine will be upgraded and with more cars carring the engine we willfind perfomance partseasier.
The CTSis going to be cool its going to have two 3.6 options the standard bringing 258hp, an estimated $31,000, and a 3.6 with direct-injection bringing 300hp an estimated $35,000.Most of the imports already have the direct-injection thats abig reason for their higherhorsepower output. When the 3.9 first came out Popular Mechanics reconized GM for ground breaking technology with this introduction. Im looking forward to see what GM does to compete.

 

MalibuMaxx, Can you give more info about the your CAI and tune? Who's the manufacturer of the CAI you have? I'm trying to find one for my 06 Malibu SS. I don't know if the Dr Speed intake will work or not.

 

Dr Speed CAI will fit, it is for the 3.9 in the G6, sameengine just different mount points for theCAI,with some minor mods, and the Tech in the back at the dealership flashed it for me, hopefully will get it out this week and see the results. We did it in December but no chance to try itthru winter, got the 18s back on now and snow is melting fast so hopefully soon..

just for giggles, before the flash I tried it on the highway and 165 pretty much wrapped it inthe red on the tac, I never had any real track times or anything to compare, but just a comparison from shift points from 1 to 2 to 3 was basically I was only able to hit about 65 before shifting to 2 and about 100 for 3, and like I said top end was 165...not that the car wont go faster, the 4 speed limits its red line, so now I can handily get 80 in 1 wheel spin in 2 to about 125 and had it to 150 in 3rd today at about 4900 RPM and road are still crap here so stopped there.

now when hamering it while in drive and not in M mode....I cant get it to hook up it just spins till the TC kicks in, and turn it off and it just smokes the tires, even while at about 50-60kpm it will easily smoke the tires when hammering it, and I have hte potenzas on 18s..

So yes it worked, how good, it feels much better but wont know the numbers till we can get it out wit the laptop hooked up.

now for the Camaro getting the 3.9.... again I would be surprised, pop mech reckonized the technoliogy of the engine, but also acknowledged, that it was behind the times campared to Nissan, ect who alread had a 3.5 that made almost 265hp..Also the Uplander is done after 09, 1 of the only othervehicles to use this engine,The Impala does but it is DOD now. and the Monte is done as well, Even the new 3.7 in the Colorado makes more HP then the 3.9..So basically ALL of the Chevy vehicles that use this engine are on the outs and GM already said the new Malibu was getting the 3.6.

Maybe im wrong but I would be surprised...

And Steve I noticed you have a V8 T/blazer, why didnt you get the SS model of this as well, prolly would have been the same $$$

 

I'm confused, if the dealer "flashes" the PCM that just puts everything to stock settings. In order to change it, you would have to have a tuner tune it for you. I don't think the dealer did that. I had PCMforLess tune my Trailblazer and also my dad's Suburban. What a HUGE difference. I also plan to have them tune my Malibu down the road.

As for the Trailblazer, if I had it to do again, I would have ordered the SS. It would have only been around $2k more. The gas mileage scared me off though. I'm a member on a Trailblazer forum and several SS guys are getting around 18 with a tune so that's pretty close to what I get.

 

This forum was created to help others solve problems and to learn about upcoming Chevrolet products. Now I am not saying that I'm right and you arewrong. What I am saying is it is foolish to argue, when I'm just passing on information that I believe is useful to others. If it is a question of my sources they are reliable, it is hard to debate their creditability. So take my information as you like, but you will be surprised.
As for the Popular Mechanics article I have a link to it here, They do not say anything about Nissan and if you read the heading, they gave the 3.9L an award for breakthrough technology. It originally appeared in the November 2006 issue.
As for the Camaro, check out the new Motor Trend issue, April 2007

 

He does both benefit for me is warranty, the first time we did it, the RKE security is different and the car would not start, LOL so we phoned it in as a no start and had it towed, the 'Tech' in the back does all the electrical, and computer related stuff, the same guy that flashes it for me, so he flashed it back to factory settings, with his tech2 and drove it back to his garage and redid it. works great now...