Thread: Upgrading NA 04 Grand Prix GT?

Hey guys! I have an 04 Grand Prix with about 50000 miles on it that I have been daily driving for about a year now. I have been looking for a project car to mess around with but have never found anything in my area that I thought was worth it. I do really like my grand Prix but wanted to keep it stock to have a reliable daily driver. I have been thinking about getting a cold air intake for it and maybe a performance downpipe but is the performance increase noticeable enough to justify the cost? Also I see PCM tuning seems to be a common mod for this car but I'm not sure I have a tuning place near me and I have heard mix things about pre-tuned PCMs. Is it worth upgrading a NA grand Prix daily driver? Or should I just keep looking for a beater project car to mess with?

Im almost 52yo and have had project cars since I was 14yo, and the most important thing I learned was if you have a project car, It is best to have TWO cars so you can drive one while you are working on the other car.
When you work on your project car, and it is your only car and go to work on it, and think, "oh, this will only take a few hours" WRONG!!! Sh!# happens! Like, new parts are wrong or dont fit, broken bolts, dont have all the tools,
have to go to the parts store for something you overlooked, ect. I am not saying it cant be done with just one car, it is just 10x more convenient with two, or at least have access to another car at a moments notice. The last thing you want to have to do when
working on your project car, is have to rush to return it drivable again.
As far as mods for your 2004 Prix, you could add a factory supercharger! I think that would give you the best bang for the buck. It was available for the 2004 Grand Prix from the factory, Im sure you know this already.

Happy wrench turning on your endeavors!

If your looking for big gains boosting is the way to go, however you can make the N/A 3800 much more fun to drive without boost. It takes more mods working in conjunction to see real improvements. Problem is N/A mods are harder to find these days as and it takes more planning to figure out where you actually want to go with it. ZZP's NA mod guide is a good place to start with How to mod your NA “naturally aspirated” L36/L26
– ZZPerformance

I do agree with quicksilver on having a backup car. While a good amount of mods are fairly simple bolt-on parts, things are always bound to go wrong especially now the 7th gen GP is approaching 20 years old and that elusive 10mm socket is still nowhere to be found