NorthstarV8

How are these things? I like this 1990 I'm looking at because it's cheap, has low miles (79k), and looks amazing. But I need to know if it's going to be a money pit. I can pretty much only afford the car, so if anything expensive was to go wrong I wouldn't be able to fix it.

RicksIroc86

damn man that things in awesome shape. they are very reliable cars in general and especialy since it is the v6 its probly not been ragged out. i would buy it if you were looking for a 3rd gen with pretty good mileage just dont expect nothin fast.

Saculia

iTrader: (1)

I have owned the same car before. They are very reliable. However, the bolts that secure the exhaust manifold to the engine head tend to brake. In fact I have heard that these 60 degree v6s are notorious for that problem. I had the same thing happen to mine and it cost me alot of money to get it fixed since they had to pull the engine out to get to the on the rear bottom bolt of the passenger side exhaust manifold. Make sure that the car does not leak exhaust from those places and you can see the heads of all those bolts.

NorthstarV8

^How do you check for something like that?

ezysk

All cars are eventually money pits, the trick is can you sell them before they become a pit or not. If you buy a new car, you are throwing money at it all the time; it’s called a monthly payment. If you’re an older car and it breaks down, you are throwing money at it to get it fixed.

Not sure if this will help, but tell you what.
When I bought my first car I had a choice between a 1980 Camaro that had a list of issues and 110,000 miles on it, but ran good and a 1977 Grand Lemans that was mint with 44,000 miles on it.
The Lemans was 500 less than the Camaro, and I decided to do the reasonable thing and get the Lemans, because I didn’t want a money pit. But you know, the Lemans ran, was reliable, and got me from point A to point B, but was no fun and I hated to work on it, since I really didn’t enjoy the car in the first place.

Years later I bought a 1984 Camaro with a list of problems, but I fixed them, learned about the car, and you know what I truly enjoyed that car. Sure it had its issues, but was fun to drive.

If I had to do it over, I would have bought the 1980s Camaro, because sometimes fun with problems is better than perfect boring.

So like I said, eventually all cars, in one way or another are money pits, but if you enjoy the car, and like the car, it does not feel like so much of a pit.

Saculia

iTrader: (1)

Visually inspect the exhaust manifolds and make sure that you can see the bolts holding them to the engine heads. Also, when the car is called and you fire it up, you should be able to hear exhaust leaks coming from the manifold. As the engine warms up, the sound may or may not disappear as the metals heat up and expand.

Dale

iTrader: (12)

thats odd. My family has owned 6 RWD 60degv6's and not had one problem with the exhaust. Maybe thats a FWD problem?

At 79k, the timing chain will need to be replaced. If you do mechanics, its fairly easy to do, parts are average price.

As for reliabilty... to many variables. How it was driven, taken care of, how you take care of it, mileage(you state that and its low). Plus I still think the luck factor(more then I car to post right now).

Mainly now.. That motor has a flat tappet cam. It is known that due to epa requirements, flat tappet cams are going bad like never before. You will have to put some "break in" oil with it every oil change.

ezysk

I thought that was for engines that were being broken in. I heard it had no real impact on a car that already has plenty of miles on it.
I have never put any break in oil on my flat tappet bird, and its got 155000 miles on it and still running fine.

But I guess it does not hurt to play it safe.

Dale

iTrader: (12)

my 3.4 wipped a cam due to the oil. Then 4 more before I got tired of dealing with it. Then I found out about the oil.

This 350 I have is flat tappet I thought it would be a roller. Ive only changed the oil once since Ive had it. But its gonna get break-in oil every time tell I change the cam.

ezysk

Was the 1st cam an existing cam with a good amount of miles on it, or a new one that it wiped out? I know the modern oils are bad for new flat tappet cams.
That is why I run an off road oil with the ZDDP in it, on my 383, since it has a new cam.

But all my older cars with the 305s in them that already had more than 30K miles on it, I just use the regular oil off the shelf without issue.

But if I had wiped out 5 cams because of my oil, I would definitely do what you are saying to do as well. All it takes is being burned a few times to definitely make someone not want to take chances.

I didn’t realize that the break in oil had higher levels of ZDDP in it.

Dale

iTrader: (12)

I read that it was zink that was being removed(edit, read that zddp is zinc), and the breakin oils have that in it. Or thats what I understood. Maybe I need to do more reading?

The first cam was to have about 70'ish k when I got the motor. I had the motor for well over a year with atleast 2 oil changes before it went bad. It went bad after a 2hr road trip, when the car was use to 15min drives. But yea, Ive been burned so I'm going to do what I can tell I can afford and find a roller I like. I was very disappointed to find a flat tappet in this motor.

Saculia

iTrader: (1)

Other than the exhaust manifold bolts on my red, 1990 firebird with TA ground effects, I never had any other problems other than a starter that I needed to replace and an alternator.
I had two broken exhaust manifold bolts on the passenger side at the back of the exhaust manifold. At that time I had the shop rebuild the heads too, because the engine had to come out anyway to have the bolts extracted and it wasn't too much more expensive to go ahead and do so. The person that did the work, who is a very talented mechanic, and also the person at the exhaust shop who first spotted the problem, said to me that that is a common problem with these engines. The bolts get old, and from the excessive heat they deteriorate and brake. I have had the same thing happen to the 3.4L v6 in my 95 firebird, which is basically the same engine. I had owned both v6 firebirds since they had very low miles and were fairly new, and know that these manifold bolts had not seen a wrench.

Dale

iTrader: (12)

Odd..
2 93 s10 2.8 from new
1 93 s10 2.8 high miles
1 91 camaro very high miles
2 3.4's low mile

none of them had exhaust bolt problems

But, atleast the original poster knows things to look for now.