I picked up a 93 Grand Am 3.1 V6 that had blown head gaskets and warped heads. The machine shop had to take .40 off in to get them straight. Car is all back together and I'm having problems. The valve train when tourqed to "by the book specs" wont allow the car to run and it free wheels with the ease of a car with no spark plugs. When you back the valve train off it starts and is taping very loudly, try and adjust the valve train when running and it gets quiet but dies. I'm thinking lifters, they were not taken out and the car ran fairly well before just the heads were leaking water in. Azone says this application has non-roller hyd lifters yet it had a roller lifter assembly in it. I'm all confused here and am going to tow it over to my parents shop later and have my dad work on it. Another issue I can see is the machine shop took too much off of the heads and this is also contributing to problems. I dunno what do you guys think????


Thanks!

 

Shaving .040 off IS ALOT TO TAKE OFF. I bet the compression sky rocketed and you have to modify the spark and fuel to get it running correctly. I would try richening the fuel mix and adding hotter plugs. Personally I would go to www.car-part.com and do a search for replacement heads. May be better off.

 

i dont think that .040 would make your compression skyrocket, but .4" would. thats almost half an inch if you took that much off then your pushrods are bottomed out in the lifter and your valves are open all the time so wich is it .040 or 4?

 

I looked at the ticket and the guy took off .004 .
I dunno, this car is a pain in the *SS to work on thats why I dont really want to tear it down all the way again.



SSC

 

four thousandths should not be the problem. look somewhere else for the reason

 

Go get a compression gauge and the spark plug adaptor fitting. Adjust the valves that way.
Then slap on valve cover, mid & Upper intakes.
Adjust valves for highest compression each cylinder.
WORKS PERFECT EVERY TIME!
Should take ya about 20 minutes.

 

Thanks for the reply's guys! I just got off of the phone with my dad and he found the major problem, The lifters will not pump down like I thought (all of them) Funny because the car only sat open for about a week. Were guessing the water in the oil must have fried them. He called and thier $16 a piece, so he's goning to see if the 4.3 lifters he has laying around will fit or try and clean these ones up. I was only gonna sell the car for $1600 bought it for $700. Dont wanna put too much money in it.

Thanks guys!



SSC

 

Yeah .004 won't do diddly. .040 will raise some and .4 well it won't go cause your valves will be hitting your piston.... Lifters can be a pain. The 4.3 SHOULD work, the same family anyway...

 

Heres the update. The 4.3 lifters are 1/2 and inch too long so that was a bust. I went by there after work and he took apart the lifters cleaned them up and now they have the proper play. Only 1 lifter wasent sized. He said it would be done tomorrow after noon so hopefull no other problems arise. Those roller lifters can be a real PITA, expensive mothers too. The good news is for you guys who want some more power this cam or another profile 3.1 cam be used in in a 2.8 or a non roller 3.1, 3.4 block with minor machine work. Its gotta be worth alot more power because these grand am's haul!




SSC

 

that ga will haul because it's light.

it's a 3100 or so pound car with a 140 or so horsepower motor. try a 94 ga with the 3100. it'll be even stronger w/ 160 hp and 185 tq.