Noisy 3.4? What else to look for?

[Guest]

Hello everyone. Been lurking on and off for about a week, and finally registered.

 

Anyway, I need to pick up a car to replace the Ty and serve as a daily driver that'll rack up ~40 miles daily (4 days/week). Looked at a '94 GTP and came away unimpressed.

 

Owner wanted $3500 for a 120,000 mile car. Suspension was solid, and the tranny felt good, but the car didn't really feel very powerful at all (of course, I'm used to much more torque than the 3.4 should put out). Didn't smoke or leak anything (had already had the dist shaft o-ring replaced). BUT it rattled a lot until it got warm (~5 minutes at idle). Drove the car to a nearby shopping center so I could really inspect the car away from the owner and found out that the oil looked to be about 2 quarts overfull (and it was brand new oil).

 

Oh yeah, the driver's door hinge needed new bushings badly. And he put purple pinstripes on a dark teal car. :?

 

Anyway, we may be looking at a '95 GP SE (not sure which engine is in it) and thought I'd come and ask what to look for in the car. Is the 3.4 supposed to rattle when cold? What to look for in the 3.1? Anything else I should consider?

 

Thanks!

[patgizz]

my 3.4 never rattles .

 

3.1's last forever.

 

man i wish i had a sy/ty

[Guest Anonymous]

my 3.4 never rattles .

 

3.1's last forever.

 

man i wish i had a sy/ty

 

Well said, except for the 3.4 part since I don't have one.

[SuperBuick]

The 3.4 has alot of moving parts, and sometimes, while the oil is getting up and into all of them, it can sound a little bit "mechanical", until it warms up of course. There is a visible difference in the sound of my car when it warms up, but i wouldn't say the sound when cold is necessarily bad, it's abvious that it is just "getting warmed up". Not sure if this is the sound to which you refer, or if the sound you are talking about is worse, like it sounds obviously bad. - Tom

[brian89gp]

The lifters can tick something fierce if the oil has drained out of them.

 

And someone once said this "It is a DOHC engine built on a pushrod block for gods sake so the thing will make noises."

 

For the 3100 listen for piston slap as those had a problem with that.

[chronic139]

My 3.4 does sound a little louder when first started in the mornig but after warm up it sounds beautiful. I still love her, in spite of that f*&king bolt. damnit. Oh well

[crc]

The lifters can tick something fierce if the oil has drained out of them.

 

Anyone have any good suggestions on reducing the ticking? My 3.1 has about 260k on it and so far has been extremely reliable, solid. I'm starting to notice the noise though and it's getting slightly worse. I've heard you can add a bit of a detergent like ATF (tranny oil), drive on it briefly, then do an oil change. Would this clear up the ticking a bit?

 

Or I guess I could try something like CD2 or an Oil Suplement.

[Guest]

Heh. Thanks for the words, everyone.

 

We need to find a car in the next week it turns out. Fun. So far haven't had much luck finding a GP or Cutlass Supreme (for either, 2 doors, 92+ and a moon/sun roof would be perfect) for ~$3K.

 

If anyone knows of anything near DC/Balt, let us know...

 

Will go look at a GP SE like I said above. It's at a dealer in NoVA, and when asked whether it had the 3.1 or 3.4, the person on the phone went and checked and responded with "It's a V6." :shock:

 

The search continues...

 

(Of course I'd love to have a TGP to go with the TTA, but I haven't seen ANY around here... )

[GnatGoSplat]

You might look in the used classifieds for private owner sales.

You should be able to score a 92+ for less than $3k easily.

My 94 droptop Cutty w/118k was $3k from a private owner.

Even if they're asking for more, just lowball 'em. The previous owner of my droptop Cutty was asking $5500.

[Guest]

I've been looking around, and haven't found much of anything useful for sale. At least not without driving for hours just to check it out.

 

We looked at an LSS that was local, but unfortunately needed not only paint and body work, but also a complete suspension rebuild! It was scary to just drive it down the street. :shock:

[chronic139]

Sommtimes, If your lucky and VERY mechanical, and a little fearless, you can find a decent DOHC because as they get older people get mmore scared of the labour costs they will incur. eg. 5 hrs charged for a timing belt. I ve had mine for over a year and Ive done the Alt., and Timing Belt (tonight) for the cost of the parts. The engine is actually not that hard to work on.

[Guest]

Heh. Mechanical isn't the issue. The only time in recent memory I haven't fixed something myself (or with the help of a friend) was when I didn't feel like changing the fuel pump in the Ty in the rain.

 

Looking at the 3.4, the only thing I wonder about is how to get to the plugs on the firewall side. Can you go up from underneath or something?

 

Heck, even if I end up with something else, I'll still probably hang around and learn more about the cars. Sooner or later we'll get a GP or Cutlass to play with. Hell, I've got a friend who's got delusions of putting an F-body floorpan/suspension under a CS (and the scary thing is he's got more than enough skills to pull it off, and make it look factory :shock: )

[ctx46]

91- 95 roll the engin forward

96-97 take off the plentum... there not hard at all. just time consuming...

[Guest]

Roll the eninge foorward...huh?

[sx460]

Yeah, I'm curious too about how to roll the engine forward. I've heard it's not that hard. Just unbolt the front engine mount and where the wishbone is stick a pry bar and give it hell (pull it forward towards you). Then push the bolt back through where there's another engine mount on the frame. My wishbone has some scuffing almost as if it's been done before. It just seems really bad to do to the motor...

[Paul GTP]

CHeck Your alternator, if bearing are gone it's going to make a lot of noise. Had the same thing on my 94 GTP.

Good luck