Engine Death

[GrandAmMN]

Just curious what people have experienced with the 3300 as a major failure / problem that required an overhaul or other major repair (and at that considered junking), and at how many miles.

[Djpac]

well im at a little above 150k miles... and one of my pistons is going, its got like a small little crack or hole on on the side from all the friction over the years... and im either going to upgrade the entire engine, or just buy a new car... depends on if i can find an RX-7 or not... :)

[GrandAmMN]

I'm at 131,000 miles, and it still runs smooth with no noticeable problems, but it's a 15 year-old car, and am waiting for something to surprise me at any time!

[goredsox]

i have 156,210 miles right now as she sits in the garage and she runs great!!! I had new brakes and new motor mounts done recently and i will tell you what a difference she is soooo... much smoother and quieter now!!! I still have the original tranny, original waterpump, original A/C components which still blow ice cold.... She still shines tremedously!!! She is my baby... Love her to death, i will have her for at least another 8 years until i get my Pontiac G6 3900 6 Speed, Blue 2door, Black leather interior coupe... sorry for my i love pontiac GA 3300 rant... CHEERS!!!

[GrandAmMN]

You guys seem to echo what many 3300 owners state: many miles / kilometers with no problems. Too bad that GM only made the engine for, what, two years? What a workhorse of an engine! And I am also on my original transmission, it can't be that bad.

[ViperDVMan]

Well, the engine was available in the other N-bodies before the Grand Am got it. Whenever the 3.0L was replaced with the 3300, the Calais and Skylark, as well as the Cutlass Ciera and Century had gotten this engine. So it's actually a pretty common engine from GM, even if the Grand Am only used it for a couple years.

Good motor, not a lot of aftermarket like the 3100 had gotten.

[pokesmot]

im on my second engine with original tranny.

first engine was killed by some punk that owned the car before me. never changed the oil, drove it really hard... the motor had a huge knock, so i replaced it with a 3300 form a scrapper that had ~80,000 km on it.

just did the intake on it because of a slight vacuum leak, and a little bit of external coolant leakage. original gasket held up excellent for 15 years :)

other than 1 injector failing, the engine runs smoooooth. I love my 3300 :D

[graden]

I know a guy pushing 315,000 km on his orignal
engine and tranny with no problems.

Im sitting at 218,000 on mine.

I had a gremlin run through it a few months back
but after much greaf, Finaly got it out.

I have had this GA for 2 years now.

When I bought it I replaced the rad because it had a slight leak.
Scinse then:

3 Sets of rotors,
4 sets of pads, ( I drive my car hard)
1 brake line, ( blew it out on the highway, lost my brakes while driving, Craped my self) so .. a new pare of underware for that.

A few sensors including O2, TEMP AND IAC.
My coil packs,( the old ones were not dead, just wanted to put new ones in)
Battery,
Entire exhost system, ( salt and winter .... bad for cars)
Vac line,
struts and ball joints,
and I Keep putting it off but I realy need a new drivers side window regulator.
Doesint seem to matter, power or manual, the dam drivers side window reg's are of very poor quality.

But as far as the engine it self ............ she still purrs like a kitten
and has a ton of power still :D

[PontiacGA]

Only problem I had was the tranny. That was replaced at around 155K. My new tranny seems to make my car slower. I need to do the 4 speed swap. :(