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Post by 69Rebel on May 14, 2017 9:17:39 GMT -8
So, my wife talked me into buying an Olds Intrigue. Ordinarily, I won't buy American cars made after about 1974 (trucks are different story), but this one was a very well maintained one-owner car with 130K on the clock. And for only $1100, it seemed like a no brainer.
I gotta say, that 3.5L "ShortStar" is a beast of a V6. Power-wise, it totally smokes the 3.0 in our Lexus, and the 3.5 in my Acura. I haven't driven it much as it came with a bad wheel bearing ($100 at the local parts house, $33 at Rockauto, waiting for FedEx sux), but now we'll see how it holds up.
I know the GM 3.8 and Ford 3.8 variants were pretty good motors, too. Any other winners, GM or otherwise?
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Post by spud on May 15, 2017 7:12:52 GMT -8
ivehad 3.8 and 4.2 Buick-olds-pontiac engines and they are reliable yet not that powerful. I had a 3.8 ford which is basically a clone of the bop v6 and runs the same. I currently have a 2001 4.3 gm vortec and runs way better than the bop or ford clone, but am currently mad at it cuz the shitty plastic intake to head gaskets have failed. Lots of small issues with this engine. Last month the distributor cap and rotor gave it up, causing a weird crossfire on startup, which made the engine knock and stop rotating, which had me thinking I had water in a cylinder for a little while. When it runs it runs well . No experience with newer gm v6, but they do claim great horsepower, yet lack big torque like the 4.3
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Post by 69Rebel on May 15, 2017 7:24:39 GMT -8
I almost forgot about the 4.3. I wonder if a guy could retrofit an aluminum intake and normal gaskets onto the newer motor?
This 3.5 is a DOHC motor with timing chains (praise be to Allah, no timing belts to change), and it runs like a Jap or Euro motor. Strong in the mid-range and upper RPM, yet surprisingly solid on the low end. I think GM gave these a little lower 1st gear in the 4T65.
It does have, however, a plastic intake manifold, which does not thrill me.
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Post by Captain Awesome on May 15, 2017 7:44:00 GMT -8
Let me know how that mill works out. I hated hearing about any V6 other than the 3.8. We have a 05 GTP. 252,000 miles on a Booster mill. It pulls like a Big Block. Bottom end is super strong, but top end is lacking.
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Post by 69Rebel on May 15, 2017 10:19:01 GMT -8
I looked at a couple of those, Cap. They seem pretty popular. Fairly rough ones in the 2000-2005 years are going for over $2K around here, and clean ones bring more. This Olds is as clean as a hound's tooth cosmetically, and all of the electronics seem to be in order. My hopes are high. It had only been up for sale a couple of hours when I bought it out from under the guy who wanted to wait until the following day to look at it.
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Post by fast401 on May 17, 2017 13:34:05 GMT -8
My son has a 4.3 and if you piss on the hood that POS won't start. Finally had a friend tell him to keep WD40 on board and spray the coil wire when it doesn't start. BTW it's the 3rd new coil wire!
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Post by spud on May 18, 2017 9:35:16 GMT -8
There seems to be some unreliability in the secondary side of the ignition in the vortec. I don't know why but it does . I have had cap and rotor and coil wire failures myself. I think the 4.3 is my favorite but not in reliability. Idle to 4000 rpm power curve is better than I expected. With the 4L60 trans it does run good. Hi performance seems a bad idea with the vortec, but only because the heads are really good midrange parts. It works great for a daily driver and can still accelerate well. Mine has a kn intake and an under drive pulley set . Think I gained 2 hp with that. I like to think about putting a set of long tube headers on it. Not enough to actually do it.
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Post by Captain Awesome on May 18, 2017 15:17:28 GMT -8
That injection "spider" is a real gem.
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Post by spud on May 22, 2017 17:34:13 GMT -8
Yeah the original spider wasn't any too reliable. That appears to be a great rule of thumb or theme with this whole vehicle. lots of things to crap out and keep you busy. My current challenge seems to be fairly common. It stumbles or jerks slightly when transistioning between cruise and coast with steady throttle, like if you go from flat hiway to downhill. Seems to be more pronounced in cooler or damp weather. The buzz is it could be distributed gear or timing chain wear, or egr system, or maybe a half dozen other things like knock sensor, map sensor mag sensor idk wtf all. No codes. Idles great, runs strong. 99 percent of the time it runs great. General consensus is all it really needs is an ls1 swapped in. Chevy guys think alike I guess. So th update my favorite domestic v6.... I like this piece of shit a when it isn't fucking up.
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