engine trouble

loudwagon15s · Post by **loudwagon15s** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:28 pm

thank-you kindly sir, i'd prefer a stick, but if i can find a good deal, i'll take it, i dont think alero's or grand prix come in manual though....too bad they are nice cars, would be sick with a stick.

loudwagon15s · Post by **loudwagon15s** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:46 pm

ha, go figure. My car just took a ish and i won a free door pack from second skin audio on smd

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:00 pm

Thats cool. Sounds like a new build in a new car.

Some Aleros did come with stick. Not many though.

Ive seen a few Grand Prixs with it...

With the Alero's the only sticks are the Quad 4 motors, which I wouldnt recommend.

That 96 with the 3100 looked REAL nice though. Thats a decent car for radio also. 5.25's in the door. Nice trunk, ample room. With the 3100 expect mid-high 20 MPG... like 27 MPG or so.

NorthQuad · Post by **NorthQuad** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:28 pm

I like the blue car.

loudwagon15s · Post by **loudwagon15s** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 5:38 pm

yeah, it looks like a damn good car for that amount; we'll see what happens, my grandparents may give me their second car because my grandpa has Alzheimers and can't drive....get this its a 96 escort wagon haha, but it has 85k on it. They may give it to me, if so, its a free car, but if not i think i'm gonna look into that car, and what do you mean when you say 3100?

MobileAudio219 · Post by **MobileAudio219** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:18 pm

loudwagon15s wrote:yeah, it looks like a damn good car for that amount; we'll see what happens, my grandparents may give me their second car because my grandpa has Alzheimers and can't drive....get this its a 96 escort wagon haha, but it has 85k on it. They may give it to me, if so, its a free car, but if not i think i'm gonna look into that car, and what do you mean when you say 3100?

3100 is a newer version of the 3.1, which is a 60 degree v6 from gm.

They're famous for blowing intake gaskets. They made an improved gasket and it's fairly cheap to replace yourself (around 100 bucks for the gaskets.) The job is fairly difficult to do. Book time pays around 6-7 hours, so except to pay $350+ in labor to have the job done for you.

The problem is, many people don't catch it in time. Most of the time they blow internally, which puts water in the oil. If they keep driving it, the water really starts taking it's toll (pits the bearings.) I know many people who have popped their intake gaskets, had the gaskets replaced, then within a few hundred miles their motor spun a few bearings because water already had done internal damage.

If you keep your fluids check and your eyes peeled on the gauges you shouldn't have any real problems. Those cars will last forever in the right hands, so don't let the above information scare you, it's just stuff to watch out for.

Here's a good 60 degree forum.

http://www.60degreev6.com/

loudwagon15s · Post by **loudwagon15s** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:27 pm

thanks for the heads up, hopefully i will know about my grandpa's car by tomorrow, then talk it over with my dad. The only thing is, that car has a lot of miles....something i want to avoid. a bad intake gasket letting in water? how so? and what makes the intake job so difficult? sorry bout all the questions, i'm just learning how to do major repairs

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:45 pm

Its the LIMG Lower Intake Manifold Gasket.

The 3100's arent terrible for it. Its the 2000-2004 3400's that were recalled on it...

Its not a bad thing to do right off the bat IMO.

I did it on my Alero when I noticed coolant missing and unaccounted for. Fixed the issue. Its not hard to do. If your doing heads you can do this easy.

170K isnt to terrible. Its a clean 176 thats for sure. Leads me to think its been well cared for. I bet you could get it for $1K.

loudwagon15s · Post by **loudwagon15s** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:53 pm

i was surprised how easy it was to take the head on/off, along with all the other components, but then again the engine was just put in there a measly 30k miles ago, so everything came apart easy. All it took was reading over the manual a couple times, and of course the right tools
edit:

Ryan from Ohio wrote:Thats really shitty. Considering you JUST put money into it and time to find out its still poopty.

Buy a GM. You can usually find Grand Ams for cheap. Same with Alero's. Any GM with a 60 degree V6 is good.

oh, forgot about the 95+ degree heat i was working in for a good 16 hours worth with like 85% humidity....that part sucked

MobileAudio219 · Post by **MobileAudio219** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 1:37 am

Ryan from Ohio wrote:Its the LIMG Lower Intake Manifold Gasket.
The 3100's arent terrible for it. Its the 2000-2004 3400's that were recalled on it...
Its not a bad thing to do right off the bat IMO.
I did it on my Alero when I noticed coolant missing and unaccounted for. Fixed the issue. Its not hard to do. If your doing heads you can do this easy.
170K isnt to terrible. Its a clean 176 thats for sure. Leads me to think its been well cared for. I bet you could get it for $1K.

Yeah, it's something you want to do as soon as you notice a problem. Like I said, they'll last a long time if you take car of them.

The 3100 and 3400 share the same LIMG. I'm pretty sure 96 to 04? (whatever year they improved the gaskets) all used the same LIMG as well. Correct me if I'm wrong here.