How long did your 3800 v6 engine last??????? GM cars?

Question

i mainly want to know when it was in your Pontiac grand prix

im bou to buy a 97 grand prix gt 4dr... rebuilt engine with 60,000 miles on it, and the car/transmission has 170,000 miles on it i test drove it and 3700rpms when i rev up it start to shake the car just a little then past 4000 it shakes lil more like its spose too do you think its all good to buy it???? im gettin it for 2600, cuz he is movin out of state and needs to sell it by tommarrow....... he listed it for 3500 he did a major tune up....alot of things
the guy works at bell tire..... do they do free vehicle inspections??? should he? since hes sellin it there and stuff.



how long will the car last me.... (when maintained right!!!like a car should be) when do you think the transmission will go bad????

Answer 1

they last up to 300,000 mi.

Answer 2

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You can get 300K on that engine easy. those cast iron GM motors will keep on running. BTW the 3300 V6 is actually a smaller version of the series 1 3800 V6. I have a 93 Grand Prix with the 3.1L MPFI V6 ( it has a cast iron block with aluminum heads and intake) it has 176K on it and all the cylinders still have about 160 PSI dry! that's damn good compression for a 16 year old engine. Try switching to synthetic oil it will clean the engine up real nice and that thing will run even better.

Answer 3

I have a 2007 Pontiac with a 3.8 liter V6 in it and I have owned this car since it was one year old with 18 thousand miles on it. It now has 194,400 miles on it and basically the only repairs I have ever done are general maintenance. You know brakes, tires, the little 90 degree plastic coolant elbow on the motor, cleaning the throttle body, and stuff like that. The oil has been changed between every 3 to 5 thousand miles and the transmission serviced twice and my car still runs like a clock. I am hoping to get at least 300,000 out of the engine and trans because the rest of the car still looks like it is a 30,000 mile car, the paint and interior are near perfect. Actually I would replace the motor or transmission because the rest of the car is still so nice...

Answer 4

My in laws have a late 90's grand prix with that engine and about 150k miles on the orig engine. It seems to work fine. it does shake/vibrate a little but mostly just like I would expect any engine to when it is revved up. See if he has service records for the transmission, if he has been getting new fluid and flushes every year or 6 mons then it should be ok for a while (ie another 30k miles) but with a car with these many miles overall you should ask yourself how long do you expect to keep this car.

BTW we have a 02 sunfire and I have know a few people with pontiacs and GM of similar vintage that had problems with the power windows(the motors on the windows dying) and then basically getting stuck in the down position. See if the windows go up and down quickly and if he has replaced the power windos yet. it was like $200 for use to replace them in the sunfire.

Answer 5

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RE:
How long did your 3800 v6 engine last??????? GM cars?
i mainly want to know when it was in your Pontiac grand prix

im bou to buy a 97 grand prix gt 4dr... rebuilt engine with 60,000 miles on it, and the car/transmission has 170,000 miles on it i test drove it and 3700rpms when i rev up it start to shake the car just a little then past 4000 it...

Answer 6

You can get 250-300k miles out of those just fine. If its been rebuilt at about 110k miles it may have been abused and it sounds as if it may have been. Always have used cars inspected by some 3rd party that you trust before you hand over the money.

My gf had a 97 Grand Prix GT. It had 160k on it when she sold it. Ran just run and still looked good. The radiator hose blew as all hoses will wear out and the drain at the base of the windshield got plugged up causing some water to get inside until she figured out that it was plugged.

Answer 7

3800 Engine

Answer 8

It could have been a great engine had GM fully tested it first. As a rule they dump their intake gaskets right after warranty is up and many get ruined engines. Most dealerships charge about $2000 to repair them. I wish I owned stock in gasket companies like Fel-pro. Over 1.5 million on road and all need new gaskets. Same for GM small engines. Too bad

Answer 9

the 3800 motor with 60 k is fine it is a 200 k motor with decent maintenance.but the transmission with a 170 k on it is what i would be worried about.take it to local trans shop and have them give it a look,its cheaper than rebuilding it later.if it passes the car is a decent deal .

Answer 10

1

Answer 11

He must not have taken too good a care of the car, I have seen those engines go almost 300,000 miles.
They are a good car tho.