Without blowing my own horn, I would definately consider myself an expert on this subject. I've put put 3500 engines into a 98 cavalier, a 1988 Beretta 2.8, a 1990 Grand Prix 3.1 mpfi, several W-bodies, and countless numbers of GM late-model N-bodies. I think it's been about 2 years now since I came out with it, but I developed a kit to make the 3500 swap a direct swap into any car that came with a 3100 or 3400. The kits vary in their contents as different cars require different parts, but for a Alero it comes with the TCE crank trigger kit, throttle body adapter to bolt a 3400 throttle body on a 3500 upper intake, coil pack adapters to bolt your coil packs to the 3500 engine and intake, MAP adapter to use the 3500's MAP sensor, ECT extension to make your ECT plug re-route to the 3500's ECT located in the rear cylinder head, a differential bracket to fit the 3500 to the 4t45e transmission, the proper length A/C spacer to bolt the 3400 A/C compressor to the 3500 engine, and an oil evel bypass harness to keep the oil level light from being on when you install a 3500 engine without an oil level sensor. 99 and earlier vehicles also require a cam sensor to make the swap plug and play. 2000-2002 cars use their factory cam sensor out of their old engine, 2003+ cars use the 3500's cam sensor.
Can you use a 3400 upper? Yes, and if you do, you don't need the tb adapter, coil pack adapters, or MAP adapter, saving you about $100. Why use a 3500 upper intake instead of a 3400 one? Simple, it flows better. It also allows you to run a 68mm throttle body with bolt on parts, something which isn't even possible on a 3400 intake, atleast without re-making half of it after you've ported it to oblivion. So these swap kits we offer start at $300 and go from there. They are made to run off the factory pcm and harness even without tuning. That being said, there are many gains to be had by adding our pcm to this swap, a big reason being the current torque limit on most N-body cars is 208 ft-lbs, and the 3500 is rated at more than that. If I had to guess I would say a N-body that did the swap with a 68mm tb, our 2.5" downpipe, and our standard pcm tune would make around 230+ crank hp. Trust me, that 55hp gain really does wake the car up.
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1999 Z34 - 3800 Turbo - Under Construction
1999 Grand Am GT Turbo race car - 12.1ET on stock engine with 10psi!
1977 Corvette - LS1/LS6 T56 - Under Construction
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