How Reliable is this engine???

[Derek56514]

I just upgraded from my 95 Grand Am SE 4dr with the quad to a 97 Grand Am GT 2dr with the 3100. I'm very happy especially with the power this car has over the quad 4..., which getting to my question ran like SHIT!, finally it blew a rod straight through the block just idling at a stop light...how embarrasing that was.

Anyways we had this car checked out by a mechanic and it passed all inspections except the lower tranny cooler line was leaking, which we fixed the next day, the control arm bushings were shot the dealer replaced them before we took it home he also replaced both power window motors. The est was the intake gasket will give out in 25-40k miles which I can deal with as its not to expensive to get done. How reliable are these engines overall? I did my homework online and found no major problems except the famous intake gasket but I wanted some people with personal expeirence... i love my GT! so much faster then the 95 SE ha and the jet black paint is still glossy. Also in your guys opinion think i got a good deal? It was 3900 hundred dollars with 115k miles on the V6 but all the other dealers cars with this many miles were 6k+ still some with even more miles, 6k is a little much for me. Brand new 16' tires, new wiper blades, full tank of gas, etc all included.

Sorry i'm rambling lol Thanks for the opinons.

[RocketFast321]

see if you can do 3500

[kickarsgrdam01]

when i had my 97, along with the LIM i also had a lot of coolent problems, i blew a few hoses, the water pump and such like that which required my car to be towed quite a few times.

[MantaGreen97]

You mentioned that the intake gasket is "not too expensive to get done"??? Well if you consider $500-$1000 "not too expensive" then I guess so...

Other than that the 3100 engine is very reliable. It's just the LIM gasket that isn't :(

[Derek56514]

The dealer gave us a deal when we told him it will need to be done in a few years and he called the dealership and printed us out a form that we give to dealership, that form will send half of the bill for getting the intake gasket done to them. We got a quote from Pontiac cost wise and they said about 550-600 dollars so I will only pay about 275-300 which isn't bad at all. Sorry if I wasn't clear but thats why its not a bad deal. I was lucky to find such a nice dealership. I'm very happy to hear that other then that the engine could be very reliable and treat me well...god knows my quad 4 didn't