v6 and lt1 life

[stone_mound_camaro]

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?

[drvngstorm05]

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 but i wouldn't mod something with too many miles

[Savage Messiah]

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...

[drvngstorm05]

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

[Savage Messiah]

3.8 > all

[drvngstorm05]

Originally Posted by 97CamaroRS

3.8 > all

keep dreaming lol

[stone_mound_camaro]

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.

[92zcamaroperson]

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.

[92zcamaroperson]

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?

[Rally Sport]

Originally Posted by drvngstorm05

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

[drvngstorm05]

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...

[drvngstorm05]

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

[Savage Messiah]

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

[Rally Sport]

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

[Savage Messiah]

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