v6 and lt1 life

hey im in the market for a new camaro. Anybody know what the average life of the v6 and lt1s are? The cars i see on autotrader are for like 150k and 170k. would it be safe to still put mods on those old girls? and also at that mileage what are the usual things that start to mess up?

i wouldn't mod something with 170,000 miles on it... buy it, drop the engine hone the cylinders, but a stroker in it, port the heads and the intake, put a cam in it... throw it back in and have a monster :evillol: but i wouldn't mod something with too many miles

the 3.8's are workhorses, test drive it to make sure it's all good... I bought mine with 145 k, stated modding at around 150-155 k, have 166k now still modding...

its the '97-'02 v6 camaros that have 3.8's... don't confuse that with the 3.4's from earlier 4th gen camaros... 3.4's are quite as tough as 3.8's i've heard... idk, never owned a v6

3.8 > all

3.8 > all
:loser: keep dreaming lol

great! im lookin at a 150k 97. my peeps was tryin to get me to buy the 170k z28. I was debating the tradeoff. high miles + good hp or lower miles + less perfomance.

Theres no telling when and what is going to go wrong with a car. Big things at that kind of mileage is the transmission. With a motor that high in mileage it may still have some power to it but it isnt something you want to beat on by driving very hard. It really all depends on how it has been taken care of during the 0-150000 miles before you got the car. Was the oil changed every 3000, if something went wrong with the car was it still driven and did the driver just put off fixing the problem or was it resolved and repaired immediately, when it was driven did the person rev it out to 5000 rpm all of the time and peel out at every stop light. When buying something like that it usually almost impossible to tell what condition everything is in.

whoa.....i started typing my messege and noone had posted a reply yet...the page refreshes and theres 6 of them....and 97 makes a good point, get an z28 in good condition and have the cylinders honed or bore it out and redo the heads and pretty much do a full or partial rebuild and your set. Heres a question....what happens when you bore it out to a 355 and then put a 383 stroker kit in it? is that a 388?

:loser: keep dreaming lol

Actually it's true. 3.8>All because they have been said to outlast the body itself! So dont think he was joking or being cocky, its just true. I wish my Monte had a 3.4 :(

well idk what the exact new displacement would be but it would be more than 388... because without an increase in stroke boring .30 over puts you at 355... and without an increase in bore the stroker puts the displacement to 383... off the top of my head i don't know how much stroke is added by a 383 kit... if i did i could do the volume formula and know for sure... but i would guess boring .30 over and using a stroker kit you would be somewhere aroun 395... maybe a little less or a little more...

i know the 3.8 is an awesome engine, but there is no such thing as a best engine... i was just being funny w/ what i said... why would you want a 3.4? you have a 3.8 i'm pretty sure

he tyupo'd, he has a 3.4 and wishes he had a 3.8.

just FYI i drive the shit out of my car and the tranny and engine are still in awesome shape

Yeah.. my bad, its a typo. I wish I had a 3.8, 200 HORSES!

200 hp 225 lb/ft is enough to get you moving, reasonably good aftermarket, GTPs are deep in the 10s, now that good tuning is available and theres some more aftermarket 3.8 f-bodies are in the 11's and pushing forward. And also the motor, as long s it's broken in and maintained correctly, will probably be like the last thing to go lol

hey u 4got 96..the first year of the 3.8...like mines. and they are right u dont wanna mod the hell out of a engine of no kind with that many miles on it. at 120k u should be thinking about a basic tear down and build up, of gaskets rings, and some bolts that may have rusted a bit and a few other things. i got my car with 126k on it, sprayed the hell out of it, then decided to rebuild her at 145k and she runs good when nothing silly is falling apart. u just gotta do it right when u do it. buy the car with alot of miles, and with the understanding that u can slowly rebuild her. when u are all done u will be like many of us who payed under 5k for our cars but have them running like new and faster than half the shit we run into on the streets.

philly knows where it's at.. if i ever run into a spot of cash though, i'll just buy a new car.. the paint is shitty on my car.. so even if i put tons into the motor.. i wont be where i want it.. and hell, a paintjob will cost almost that of a decent Z..

poor 3.4 owners...

exactly.. there really isnt a great aftermarket on the 3.4 and i could spend a substantial amount of money before i even reach the power level of a stock z28.. John and i did the math last winter.. also came to the conclusion that it was better to just face the facts.. lol.. the 3.8 kicks the 3.4's ass in that aspect.

my 3.4 has nearly 200K miles on it and it hasnt had any major problems that werent easily fixed exept it did blow a head gasket at about 150K miles. I do have a new tranny but that has nothing to do with the engine. they just keep rolin' rolin' rolin'

I would consider a blown head gasket a problem dude.. if I were you I would've gotten a new engine. But oh well, glad to see another 3.4 owner in the force!

well idk what the exact new displacement would be but it would be more than 388... because without an increase in stroke boring .30 over puts you at 355... and without an increase in bore the stroker puts the displacement to 383... off the top of my head i don't know how much stroke is added by a 383 kit... if i did i could do the volume formula and know for sure... but i would guess boring .30 over and using a stroker kit you would be somewhere aroun 395... maybe a little less or a little more...


actually a 383 is a 350 block punched .030 over with a 400 crank which is a stroke of 3.75" verses the 350 crank with is a 3.48" stroke if you were to just put a 400 crank in your 350 that would put you at 377 cubic inches punching it 30 thousands over is what gives you 383 cubic inches

i thought those stroker kits alone put the displacement up to 383... you mean that you have to bore .30 over to get 383? don't the stroker kits use a bigger than 400 crank? i can't say for sure i don't know the numbers off the top of my head...

I would consider a blown head gasket a problem dude.. if I were you I would've gotten a new engine. But oh well, glad to see another 3.4 owner in the force!

Whenever somethin breaks on my car I upgrade it.

With that ssaid, if a head gasket goes, http://www.abbottracingheads.com/gm3800.html stage 3 heads package baby ;)

Whenever somethin breaks on my car I upgrade it.

With that ssaid, if a head gasket goes, http://www.abbottracingheads.com/gm3800.html stage 3 heads package baby ;)

Sounds like a deal, it will set you back though.. a couple of 1500 bucks..

1500 is for both heads

Low mlg cars are way better. If you buy a high mlg car from a person who never abused it, changed the oil all the time (quality oil) and broke the engine in properly and kept it in perfect mech. condition, than get it. Otherwise with this mlg your electronics is crap if not changed-flywheel, clutch, starter, sensors, worn cam shaft, bad lifters, worn valve seats, sludge, damaged bearings, coroded cooling system, worn oil pump (low oil pressure), carbon build up are what you getting which means REBUILD. I say buy if its real cheap

pretty much what i said...but it cheap and rebuild her = u not spending 17k for a new car with ok speed, and u ending up with a fast ass car with lots of speed

195,000 miles on my car with only a failed waterpump.

And yes... stock opti :eek:

I plan on rebuilding the bottom end(355, not sure if I want to go forged or not) as soon as I have LT headers and the money to do the machine work.

stock opti?!?!?!?!?!?! nice!

Yeah, I scored a 191k mile(most highway) LT1 that was a one owner car, mechanically fine, from an older guy who's owned 5 other LT1s... for $2200 :evillol:

wow.. thats a deal and a half..
stock opti.. that's nuts.. usually you'd be ready to throw in a 3rd one by now.. lol

Thats insane dude.. but I remember when I changed my spark plugs on the Camaro.. they were BLACK. :eek:

A 3.8 Camaro (optional in 95, standard in 96-02) will pretty much last as long as you want it to. The 3.4s aren't bad either but not quite as good as a 3.8. The LT1 is also a very good motor, my friend has well over 100K on his 96 and hasn't had any problems to speak of, even after mods and hard driving.