New member/owner

[Hpiracr28]

Hello all. Just introducing myself. I will be passed on a 2003 Grand Prix SE here soon. It was my grandmother's. I won't go as extreme to say "she only drove it to church on Sundays", but it only has 52k miles on the clock, so still young. I will be posting throughout to gain some knowledge of this new ride. Thanks in advance!

 

[SubwayGuy]

Take good care of it with that low of miles. Start flushing out the DEX-COOL to try and save your intake manifold gaskets.

 

[Hpiracr28]

I will definitely take care if it. It's been garage kept. No rust, no interior fading. Basically flawless. I doubt there's dust in the engine bay. Does the dex cool eat away at the gaskets?

 

[SubwayGuy]

I will definitely take care if it. It's been garage kept. No rust, no interior fading. Basically flawless. I doubt there's dust in the engine bay. Does the dex cool eat away at the gaskets?

If you don't change your coolant for awhile, air gets in the system over time and the DEX-COOL starts sludging up and becoming acidic. It then starts eating away at the poorly designed plastic intake manifold gaskets.

I'd also change that tranny fluid soon, too. These transmissions are built kind of weak and old fluid will only make things worse. So just keep up the normal maintenance.

 

[Hpiracr28]

Ok. Thanks for the insight.

 

[SgtMarshal]

if it's the right price, it's probably a good find, the 3.1 engine isn't as good as the 3.8 because they both get about the same gas mileage, but the 3.1 has like 20 less horsepower. there is also a very limited aftermarket for the 3.1, so not many options that will help make the car more powerful.

 

[SubwayGuy]

If you really want to shell out the money, you can buy a supercharger for the 3.1/3.4L. But you'll end up making around the same horsepower as a N/A 3.8L. So you might as well just swap in a 3.8 if you're looking for performance.

 

[Fergelicious]

First time on the Forum, long time GTP owner. Hello everyone.

 

[Hpiracr28]

if it's the right price, it's probably a good find, the 3.1 engine isn't as good as the 3.8 because they both get about the same gas mileage, but the 3.1 has like 20 less horsepower. there is also a very limited aftermarket for the 3.1, so not many options that will help make the car more powerful.

It's being given to me, so no cost to me. Not looking to upgrade for performance, just another daily driver other than my 97 Camry that has 237k miles. I'm savvy with the 3100 series motor as my old 98 cutlass had the same motor that I rebuilt from the bottom up.