well, i finally have my daily driver

[car audio dave]

my GA is now retired as a daily driver and now will become a weekend toy car. my "new" daily driver is a '97 olds eighty eight. i know its an old person car, but it was my grandmothers car. its got a 3800 series II in it, with a measly 200 hp, but i think its got around an 18 gallon tank, and it rides way smoother than my car. ill test it to see what gas mileage it gets, but im sure its better than my car, haha.

its soo damn comfortable too, all leather interior, room for 4 full size adults, and i have a trunk again. its only got a cassette player, but at least now ive got AM/FM again. ive just gotta get used to the column shifter. pics are coming this week. ive jsut gotta take off all the AAA stickers and the Sheriffs Friends stickers, along with the OLDmobile badges. :lol:

[rabidpanda69]

Even tho you already said you're posting pics, you're gettin the pic dance :D Pics Pics Pics :ghost:

[car audio dave]

lets see if this is small enough

[car audio dave]

here

[99blackSE]

cool another 88!
Ya they do ride nice, a good daily driver i think.

[car audio dave]

yup, with 25 mpg, about 2 better than my car. i love how when i make a turn i slide over into the passanger seat (i love leather bench seats :lol: )

[Chain]

Dang man with a car like that you need a wife and 3 kids. :)

[car audio dave]

yea that is true.
lets see if this works

[car audio dave]

wow, i think i figured otu how to keep the quality up.

[car audio dave]

note the STB in the car. im gonan steam clean the motor this weeknd.
last pic for now.

[car audio dave]

im planning to pull the stickers off and the badges off.

[Black2003se]

What type of tailligts are those in your GA? I have been looking for some like that.

[car audio dave]

they are from aedcentral.com but they cost around $500. the round parts are high intesity LEDs, like whats used in stop lights. for an extra $50 you can have the turns set up to work like a bullseye, where it starts from the outer circle, and work its way in.

i love the tails, but ive been having problems with them flashing fast when my lights are on at night. For the price that they are, they shouldnt have ANY problems. its more than likely something that ive done with my electronics that causes the problem, but ive learned to deal with it.

[car audio dave]

ok so i steam cleaned the motor today. when i washed out the chemical i usually see some black stuf mixed in with the white stuff...not with this engine...it was all white. no leaks...yet.

first pic is with the engine cover on...i took it off to clean and next 3 are with it off.

[car audio dave]

next..same view as last but without the cover.

[car audio dave]

close up.

[car audio dave]

last one of the engine...i promise. its been so long since ive had a car with so few miles.

[car audio dave]

next project is to see if i can get a cone filter on there without too much trouble. ive also gotta clean out the trunk.

[Prospeeder]

they compared those things to frickin jaguars and BMW's, i have a mag article on the Ods 88

[car audio dave]

wow i didnt realise that. ill bet the olds came in last though, huh? with only 200 hp in a 4800lb car... but on the flip side...25 MPG in a 4800lb car.

ive noticed that the bonneville from that year was the same car, but not as comfortable, and theres a buick thats the same as well.

[93nighthawk]

One word for you car audio dave, SUPERCHARGER!

Pick one up off of a wrecked GTP and slap that on with a smaller pully. Make the guy next to you freak out when you burn rubber for half a block. :evil2:

[car audio dave]

haha, that would be nice, but honestly, i like the fact that its slow, that means it wont tempt me to race it. maybe at solme point ill try it with a s/c, but right now its gotta get me to school and back (110 miles/day).

if i swapped a s/c into it would i need to do anything with the computer? i assume itll need a reprogram at the least.

[TheNewLMHDesign]

Ewww.....old person car. Lol. But yeah, they are so damn comfy inside. Oldly enough, my grandfather has that same car. I do want his engine though. I'd really like it.

As for supercharger.........bla. Turbo all the way!

[Prospeeder]

i agree, turbo is better :p

[car audio dave]

turbo may or may not be better, but neither is going into this grandpa mobile. this cars sole job is to get me to and from school for the next year without me putting miles on my grand am. if a turbo is going on anything itll be on the grand am.

[Night Wolf]

I missed this thread....

that is a NICE car!

I love the '97+ (?) body style, especially the front end, the back could have used some work.

4800lbs? maybe a 1975 Eighty Eight with a full tank of gas and some people :) I think you mean 3800lbs... but I don't believe that is true... I know mine is 3,200lbs... I think the newer generation is 3,400lbs or so.

Check out www.Oldsmobileowners.com

the place is completly dead, but hey, its a site for us :)

the 3800 will give you many, many, many x10 miles of trouble free service.

*only* 200hp? it gets aorund pretty good, you do have 225ft-lbs of torque or so, plus, unliked my Series I, the II has lots and lots of go-fast parts

Colum shift is great, isn't it?

You get used to the bench seats too... hell, I don't know what its like to sit in a seat that actually holds you in, when I get real spirited in my '93 DeVille (happens more often then not) there is 2 ways I stay in the seat, if turning right, my left arm is agasint the arm rest holding me up, if turning left, my left arm is out the window and holding agasint the door of the car while the right hand is turning the wheel and the foot is hitting the gas :)

You also have a tach... small, but it's there... that is cool :)

These engines are also great on gas as you have mentioned... my '89 with 130k gets 22 in town and 33 on the highway... and I drive with a heavy foot, same 18 gallon tank as the '93 DeVille, but it runs on regular... so cheaper to spend and about 80 more miles out of a tank (or more) and this car is amazing on gas... compared to the '79 that has a 25 gallon tank and gets 12mpg, it is a nice break too :)

Your car has the factory strut bar, that is good. These have to be the most universal strut bar ever. My '93 DeVille came with one, while the Olds didn't. That wasn't cool so I went to the junkyard and pulled one from a 1993 Bonnieville, $10 later and simply removing 4 nuts, putting the car in and then tightening the 4 nuts back down was all it took.

Also, the 3800 is a dream to work on.... very easy access to everything.

Here is my car, after I side swiped the telephone poll... actually this was taken 11/02/04 and is some of my most recent pics of it (I hit the poll back in Febuary or March of '04) and it has been almost 4 months I have been without my Oldsmobile :( 3 more weeks or so, and when I get it back, it'll be looking better then every (literally)... and maybe I can cut down on my gas bill of $40/week or so :)

[Night Wolf]

Our cars are 2 generations apart though... not too much in common besides the name plate :)

Here is my 3800.... gosh, it is such a great engine..... defintly very high on the list of my all time favorite engines :)

[car audio dave]

hmmm i guess ill check the weight sticker on the door again. it seemed as though the car had no pick-up-and-go, but now its doing better, i think that was because it sat for so long wihtout being driven (almost 1 1/2 years). its better now, but still not like the grand am. my freeway mileage doesnt seem to be as good as yours gets, my last tank i averaged about 21mpg and i do mostly freeway driving.

oh, i noticed that the engine was running hot last week so i checked the coolant reservoir...it was pretty low so i added some dexcool (mixed with distilled water). its still running kinda warm but i dunno where its supposed to be. on the freeway with it moving it runs about 210 degreed, maybe 205. i would have figured that with such low miles, squeeky clean engine, fresh dexcool, and the engine shield removed, that it would run cooler.

anyway yea i feel that this engine will last me a VERY long time, which is good for the grand am since now its getting some non-street legal mods soon. :D

[Night Wolf]

You have the cover off the engine?

that dosn't make it run cooler.... there was some talk a while back, but it dosn't do anything for heat.... it serves 2 purposes...

-dress up the engine

-eliminate injector tick noise.... notice the padding on the other side of the cover? thats what it is for... makes the engine more quiet.

I always thought the Series II NA covers were kinda ugly... see if a Series III cover fits?

If you were going by the door sticker, then that is gross weight, which means the maxium weight the car can hold, they get it by having the curb weight, full tank of gas, 5 people at 180lbs each (IIRC) and something like 200lbs in the trunk.... that is NOT the curb weight.... the "normal" weight of a car is the curb weight + about 110lbs (18 gallon tank) plus you and some various stuff in the car.... trust me, if that car even managed to weigh 4,800lbs stock, you would defintly notice it.... and it would take alot more then an NA 3.8L V6 to get it moving too :)

Honestly, the Eighty Eight should be faster then the Grand Am, the Grand Am has better overall gearing, and a stiffer suspension (which really dosn't make a difference in acceleration) but the NA Series II 3800 has 25hp and 35ft-lbs of torque over a 3400 in a GT, not to mention the 3800 mimicks a V8 in that the power is realitvly low in the rev band.

Did it throw any codes? other then that... with this enigne, there isn't much at all that you should look out for... I would say, clean the throttle body, but it isn't 10 years old or 100k+ miles... maybe a tune up? I dunno... there really isn't much that goes wrong....

My Eighty Eight sat for 1.5 years also.... with dirty oil in it and the top of the air box cover removed, so when it was driven to my house... a good 15 miles away, it was on that old oil with un filtered air going into the engine.... and only front brakes as the rear brake lines were rotted :)..... the water pump also failed in town (mother had the car) causing it to loose all the coolant and the w/p pully was at a pretty extreme angle causing the belt to ride nearly off all the pullies.... but my mother drove it home (about 7 miles or so) and it was fine...... hell I even snapped a bolt off the water pump when putting the new one in and it has been fine... you really can't kill these engines :)

BTW how many miles are on the car? I don't remember reading it....

Get a nice coat of wax on her :) She'll be shining good...

[car audio dave]

haha when my dad gave me the car a littel over a month ago it had 28k miles, now it has just over 30k miles.

it really accelerates porly, er smooth. if im on the freewya andi wanna pass someone instead of a rough downshift like in my grand am is slowly accelerates. keep in mind all of the mods done to my GA. the GA can usually hang with a stock GP GTP (not beat it...yet).

overall, i cant hear the engine or much of anything else. its very quiet car. when i was at the pontiac show last weekend the GTP guys were telling me that they noticed a temp difference between the the cover and the cover off. i figured id give it a try and see.

is that a plastic UIM? it appears that way. :lol: but yea when my dad had it shipped for the midwest it arrived with a rotten rear brake line so he had that replaced, as well as new brake fluid, oil, ail filter, fuel system treatment, and tranny fluid flush. we also needed to get the A/C taken care of, now thats really cold. the fan itself is kinda weak, which i helped slightly by vacuuming all of the leaves and stuff that were covering the vent by the windshield.

the interior is pretty much brand new. a good vacuum and some leather cleaner and it cleaned up real nice. theres a few knicks on the bumpers but then again, this did belong to my grandmother.

[RocketFast321]

That's a good looking auto, you need some tint and it will be cool. BTW leave the engine cover off, it looks better :)


and
ummm rick yea umm would you mind selling your engine to ... I dunno some one like me :) Ok maybe not. But i have found it a PITA to take off the back header. I needed a 3' breaker bar and needed to be able to twist my body in weird angles. It was not pretty. And gm connects the a/c to the front heads with a star bolt.?!? The only freaken star bolt in the engine bay. I am going to get started about the the one odd ball bolt they use to connect the tranny to the engine.

Sorry for the rant I just want my play car to run :)

[Night Wolf]

Originally posted by car audio dave
haha when my dad gave me the car a littel over a month ago it had 28k miles, now it has just over 30k miles.

it really accelerates porly, er smooth. if im on the freewya andi wanna pass someone instead of a rough downshift like in my grand am is slowly accelerates. keep in mind all of the mods done to my GA. the GA can usually hang with a stock GP GTP (not beat it...yet).

overall, i cant hear the engine or much of anything else. its very quiet car. when i was at the pontiac show last weekend the GTP guys were telling me that they noticed a temp difference between the the cover and the cover off. i figured id give it a try and see.

is that a plastic UIM? it appears that way. :lol: but yea when my dad had it shipped for the midwest it arrived with a rotten rear brake line so he had that replaced, as well as new brake fluid, oil, ail filter, fuel system treatment, and tranny fluid flush. we also needed to get the A/C taken care of, now thats really cold. the fan itself is kinda weak, which i helped slightly by vacuuming all of the leaves and stuff that were covering the vent by the windshield.

the interior is pretty much brand new. a good vacuum and some leather cleaner and it cleaned up real nice. theres a few knicks on the bumpers but then again, this did belong to my grandmother.

Wow... 28k, that is nice.

I don't know what you have done to your Grand Am.... that Eighty Eight, stock, should run around a 16.2 or so in the quarter mile... not a sports car, but definit;y fast enough to holds its own... maybe even a little faster :)

The intake manifold is plastic.... well, impact resistant something blah blah. Look at my intake manifold, see how it is kinda stright (then under the cover has the runners) that is the old kind (steel) in 1990 they changed it to "tuned port injection" which was good for +5hp + 5ft-lbs torque and 1mpg better mileage, AFAIK the old TPI intake manifold is very similar to the new one (such as on your car) with the swirly runns and stuff. The Cadillac NorthStar uses a similar design (atleast the older ones did.)

*never get the transmission flushed out by a flushing machine*<--- it creates all sorts of trouble.

I don't have a temp gauge on my car, and the only time it overheated was when the water pump went out and my mother drove it home, so I can't say how well it stays with temprature. The car heats up very quick in the winter, and I have never had the coolant light or anything come on, even on a hot summer day with the A/C cranking :)

About the cover, I am sure it does a "little" to help, but I honestly do not see how it would effect operating temprature all that much, it will cause no harm with it removed, just a personal preference, like I said, it's only purpose was to clean it up under the hood and mute the injector "clicks"

Keep that leather cleaned and conditioned! that is good that you cleaned it, but keeping it moist with a good conditioner atleast once a month is the best thing you can do to let it last the longest, not crack or anything...

Have any more pics? It is funny to see that some people are actually "into" "these" cars eh? I am one of them though :) They are great cars, there is no denying that :)

I would love to get a '97+ Eighty Eight LSS...... it has a small option.... the supercharger.... same as the GP GTP, and even the Regal GS.... except NOBODY would ever suspect the Olds :)

Plus I am pissed that GM killed off Olds for many reasons, so for that, I will keep driving mine around as a testimate to their quality :) Plus "Oldsmobile" is just cool :) not to mention how many people get confused by me driving a "1989 Eighty Eight" "ummm, so what year is it? '89.... ok.... what car? Eighty Eight..... no the car model.... Eighty Eight..... I thought it was an '89 it is, oh, but you said Eighty Eight.... yeah" Not so much the older guys, because Olds has had the Eighty Eight forever, but younger kids... really fools them.... I guess a 1988 Eighty Eight would have been worse :) Although in 1988 it was called the "Delta 88" and in 1989 became the "Eighty Eight Royale" I someitmes call my car a Delta 88, because it is equally as cool :)

[Night Wolf]

Originally posted by RocketFast321
That's a good looking auto, you need some tint and it will be cool. BTW leave the engine cover off, it looks better :)


and
ummm rick yea umm would you mind selling your engine to ... I dunno some one like me :) Ok maybe not. But i have found it a PITA to take off the back header. I needed a 3' breaker bar and needed to be able to twist my body in weird angles. It was not pretty. And gm connects the a/c to the front heads with a star bolt.?!? The only freaken star bolt in the engine bay. I am going to get started about the the one odd ball bolt they use to connect the tranny to the engine.

Sorry for the rant I just want my play car to run :)

lol, supply me with a running s/c 3800 Series I, and my 3800 is all yours! :) This engine will probably outlast the car :)

Gosh, it is really a shame you are not around here, there are DOZENS of these cars at the local junkyard... the good junkyard...

one of them is a 1988, red/red, I got the wiper motor from that along with some interrior trim pieces (need to go back for more) as the car is in mint shape, it was rear-ended hard (buckled the roof) but no glass is broke, so the interrior is good. the engine has 119k miles, and when I remove the oil fill cap, it is clean.... cleaner then mine which kinda has a black sludge build up layer on it. That is the best car to get an engine from, it was running when it got hit, and it was totaled because it got hit in the back.

Plus, $90+$30 core buys you a complete engine, so keep your old engine for parts, and $130 has your pick of any engine.... gotta remove it yourself, but hell, it is cheap :)

transmisions are only $60 too.....