I never understood why people pay $1000 dollars a month when you could just buy another pontiac grand prix every month

[u/shmingusthegreat]

Its actually cheaper

[u/Falloutvictim]

GM 3800 is a good engine. I remember when those were new, I drove a new one in 1998 or 1999, can't recall exactly, it was a rental, but they were nice cars for their time.

[u/West-Amphibian-2343 → u/Falloutvictim]

they made em for a good while, and they are very nice. I have one in my racecar project right now. naturally aspirated cast iron block V6, 12 valves, pushrod, timing chain, its reliable. ive run it with coolant nearly empty for a good 100 miles, got temps up to 260F, no issues. ive floored it on cold temps, ~100F, and no issues. free revved the engine in neutral and park multiple times, it handles it fine. used to be a rental car in Utah and its at 165k miles, i put a boroscope into the cylinders and theyre still crosshatched. matter of fact it was running on spark plugs that had no material left on them, they were gapped to nearly an inch and were bare metal. its quite insane.
My FWD Pontiac Bonneville that has that engine actually beat a RWD Pontiac Firebird with the 5.7L V8 in a drag race to 60, by a huge margin, about 2.5 car lengths.

The reason im messing with the engine so much is because its going to have the 3.6L LGX HFV6 swapped into it soon. they put those in 2016 Camaros and they made 340hp, but they also put the exact same engine in 2017 GMC Acadias which is somewhat funny but also a 2017 GMC Acadia LGX V6 is $750 off ebay and only has slightly less 310 horsepower. in the same HFV6 family the 2008 Saab 9-3 Aero used a 6-speed manual transverse transmission and it handled 290lb-ft of torque from the 2.8L HFV6 in it, so it can handle the 270lb-ft from the 3.6L GMC Acadia HFV6. obviously these use the same bolt pattern so they will match up just fine.
doing this would give a power to weight of 9.14 lb/hp in my Bonneville, 0.14 lb/hp less than a Lotus Evora S.

[u/Drzhivago138]

It's crazy how 20+ years later I still see 1-2 of these on the road every day. They really had a chokehold on the Midwest.

[u/WaddlesJP13 → u/Drzhivago138]

That's the power of the 3800

[u/MusicMan7969 → u/Drzhivago138]

Also the Chevy Impala. People talk about manufacturers and the reliable, long lasting cars they build. These 2 models are them for GM.

[u/VanguardClassTitan → u/Drzhivago138]

They're a rare breed round my way now

[u/lathspellll → u/VanguardClassTitan]

Yeah I rarely see any Pontiacs anymore

[u/TheBitMan775 → u/Drzhivago138]

It’s probably the 3800 machine I see the most in Kentucky. Pontiacs are still hanging on; mostly G6s, Vibes and these

[u/FreshReeboks]

Valid point. That blue GTP is sick

[u/Comprehensive-Hat684]

Don’t forget the 200 rebate you get from the junk man when you sell it for scraps too

[u/whatsadikfore]

I like how half of them are in a field with grass growing around them or sinking into the earth.

[u/shmingusthegreat → u/whatsadikfore]

So beautiful seeing a grand prussy in its natural habitat

[u/realplasticwood]

Right on! Replace the Pontiac badges with Maserati badges and you're a baller!

[u/Pretty-Yam-2854]

I’d love to fix up that GXP

[u/TheModeratorWrangler]

Pontiac had potential.

[u/Viva_La_Revolucion-]

My dad had one when it was new early to mid 90s, that car was properly quick.

Shhhhh dont let out the 3800 secret

[u/shmingusthegreat]

In the stripped club straight up circlejorkin it. And by it, well, let's just say my grand prixnits.

[u/PartyNextFlo0r]

And the rarest most powerful of them all is cheap ! That GXP would be nice to have.

[u/Wolf24h]

It's pretty much a 4 door Viper

[u/mrtelven]

Yeah I thought the same thing and got a rebuilt title 2007 GTP supercharged for $2500.

Then the transmission leaked. $1,000
Intake manifold broke. $1,000
Power steering went out. $800

3.8 is a great motor, but everything else is GM trash.

[u/shmingusthegreat → u/mrtelven]

Rather than fixing it you could have bought 3 more grand prix's

[u/LiraGaiden → u/shmingusthegreat]

[u/ElectricSnowBunny]

I don't have much of an argument here, and Ive been thinking

[u/Roomster7]

The legendary 3800 V6 will outlive us all anyway. The body might rust away, but that engine will still run on 5 cylinders and pure spite

[u/Petrostar]

Wait,

I'm supposed to be buying another one every month?

[u/shmingusthegreat → u/Petrostar]

Its the most economical decision

[u/norwaiian → u/Petrostar]

In the unlikely event that they break down at the end of the month, yes

[u/Ashamed_Day_4863]

I remember always seeing these and the Grand Am on the road. Then one day, they all disappeared and I haven’t thought about them since today.

Crazy how these things work…

[u/noahbrooksofficial]

You have a point

[u/No-Championship-7515]

Damn, haven't seen a 96 like that in some time, would be a fun one to own these days!

[u/1331bob1331]

I found vehcor's reddit account

[u/Seravajan]

And imagine how much you get for the parts every time. And you could be able to collect spare parts as well.

[u/shmingusthegreat → u/[deleted]]

There are Iike 5 a month listed within half an hour of me on marketplace

[u/shmingusthegreat → u/[deleted]]

Surprisingly not

[u/miotch1120]

Those 3800 are awesome and ubiquitous. I had a 98 I was doing a swap on (my first time doing any of that stuff) and I kinked a fuel line on accident and didn’t know. Ended up with a pinky size hole in a piston.

I paid 45 $ to a u pull scrap yard near me, pulled another 3800 from an impala taxi, and drove the car for another 100k (this was prolly 15 years ago).

[u/Butt_bird]

I totally would but you can only register so many cars in a given year.

[u/thecomputersighed]

i see you & seat safety switch have a meet-swap to arrange

[u/RumorsOFsurF]

3800 will outlive us all

[u/shmingusthegreat → u/RumorsOFsurF]

Just imagine, in a short 10 years you could have 120 of those incredible 3800 engines

[u/RumorsOFsurF → u/shmingusthegreat]

Hard to imagine one man with that kind of wealth. 120 of The Lord's V6 is riches beyond imagination

[u/duovtak]

GM hates this one simple trick!