Thread: J57ltr's 05' GTP wrecked again.

So back in about November of 04' I drove an 05' Grand Prix as a rental car, it had no badging but as I drove off I couldn't mistake the M90 whine and found it was a a Gen V supercharged and thought wow I like this car it's got some pep and drove great. I was a little rough with it and even found pics on my photobucket that I posted back then:

This is that car


I met up with a motorcycle group I knew in Chicago and we all were at Chicago Indoor Racing well after we finished up playing pool racing and having a few drinks and talking cars and such we went to leave and everyone was wanting to show off and since their bikes couldn't produce much in the way of smoke from the tires I figured I would give it a go.

At this point I figured out to not to have the AC on when doing a burnout in a FWD car. At the time I was used to RWD in my Supercoupe.



Well flash forward about 10 years I am in the market for a newer car that I can play with so I decided on an 05'or later GTP. I ended up finding this jewel in the rough at a major dealership and went to take a look. The salesman called me several times "Oh you don't want this car the rack is leaking", then "it won't pass inspection". But I said don't worry about I'm going to come by and look at it. Well the rack was leaking like a sieve but decided to take it on a test drive. Well after looking at the engine it was apparent that someone had jacked with it. 3.4" pulley some 2 chamber flomasters, down pipe to the rear exhaust had been replaced(cat front) probably due to needing a new cat more than performance. Various small issues. Had old wires and I figured I could get it to misfire and set a check engine light to further drop the price. Sure enough getting on it once set a multiple cyl misfire. I also noticed the blower stopped working. Well the sales person got out and I kicked it under the passenger side and it started blowing ice cold AC. I used all this to get the car knocked down from about 5K to $3600 total out the door. Paid cash for it and could probably have gotten it cheaper but I was happy with it. The car had 133k on it when I bought it and later found out that in 2 years it racked up 60K. It was previously a fleet car and has had some decent records cooling system records. But in the last 3'years it's been repossessed about 6 times. Some of you know the trials and tribulations I have been through getting the car to run like it should. A lot of work for the simple misplacement of a check valve, and a Ford one at that.

So now that is all behind me here is the car I purchased.






Thats it for now I guess. More stuff to follow.

Jeff

And now...both car and owner are smiling!

For some reason, probably based on the threads full of issues about it, I assumed your car was beat all to hell. But Alas...

She looks good dude!! At least from about 5-10 feet, picture wise.

I always liked the way those rims look on the 04+ ones. Gotta get me a set.

After a few more fixes...it'll be time to polish it up!

Originally Posted by J57ltr

Start looking at the pick and pulls in your area, 04' up are popping up all the time here.

Lol, it's not without its issues, the front bumper cover has paint coming off and there is a dent in the pass side fender just behind the tire. Maybe because they dropped that check valve in there and had the issue I had and went and installed a MPS system and a 3.4" to make it boost and got mad and kicked it. You know it's the cars fault after all. Thanks the interior is in good shape, just plain black cloth which I prefer over leather (shorts and leather+ Houston summer= scalding). It's got the 3 button DIC and a HUD but a single disc CD player and manual controls for the AC which I like. Going to get new outer tie rods (castle nut does not engage the cotter pin) then new front tires and an alignment. Suspension seems really good and tight. The transmission was replaced at some time as I found a LKQ sticker on it. I'm thinking about a shift kit and filter and fluid change to 6 quarts of dex 6 first though.

Jeff

That statement there scares the crap out of me. Not knowing when, where, who replaced a huge piece of the car sucks. Hopefully it's shifting well for you now, but I would do that fluid/filter and shift kit soon just in case. Also if you have someone local who can up some of the line pressure in your tune that helps as well, especially if you plan on modding it eventually.

I'm lucky in that i'm on my original trans, that still shifts great at 106k, somewhere above 300whp. But i know i'm the exception. Next gp i buy (yes i said next) i'm sure i won't be as lucky with.

If I pop the hood and see a trans or engine replaced, I smile. That means it has less mileage and the bad part was replaced before I bought it

Don't go being negative Nelly or I'll rename you!

I just have a hard time trusting other people put the same effort into fixing something that i do. That's my only issue with major repairs by others on my stuff.

But if his trans is good, roll with it!

If my trans went..I'd likely go with a JY. I put in a ton of $100 transmissions while flipping Impalas (ever one has a bad trans) and they all works specatcularly. Car had 150K.. got a 100K trans for $100 plus fluid.. seems like a good situation and50K less miles

Sub'd This is gonna be good! You finally have boost? Thank Jebus! I install the shift kit differently than most, I mimic Transgo instructions for the 2-3 accumulator to both the 1-2 and 2-3. It comes with everything to do it except for a 1\2 inch spacer.

I don't know if Transgo will get you that, the Intense kit might. Transgo is more of a shift improver kit, it's more like the kit that gets the 4T65E to shift like it originally should. That's what I've read anyhow. I haven't been in a car with anything but a Transgo kit and stock.

Stock pressure , the intense kit shifts very nicely during all throttle up to about 60%. After that , it's a very solid feeling , not a shock shift but feels right/perfect. My .02

It's a shame there isn't anyone local to actually see/drive my car....

lol i second that^^^^

the tep built trans in my s1x e85 car is hands down the best part of the car. entirely worth the tep vb upgrades!

my transgo shift kit + overkill tune the shifts are pretty solid at wot