why DOHC to pushrod?

[JasonZ34]

Back to the gas mileage......

Back to the topic of the thread......

Zboy you are right. There were many reasons and as far as business goes, it was a good decision. But I still see today's 3.2 Acuras and DOHC V6 Hondas and it pisses me off how good they run, but that they are still dependable as hell even when making some 260hp.

I'm no expert on honda's but i'm fairly certain many of them use chains. They use stuff domestics played with years ago, they just couldn't perfect until computers. Now they could do it, I just don't know why they don't. Other than they've had pushrods so long that they are most comfortable with it.

[Lowerd1]

Too me it was the parts that GM bolted to the 3.4DOHC that scared the people away. The 3.4DOHC has always gotten a bad rap, because of the parts bolted to it. My 3.4DOHC has been the most reliable part of my car, but I have replaced everything else, sometimes even twice.

If properly maintained I would put the 3.4DOHC against any other engine.

The 3.4DOHC was dropped because it got a bad name. Not a bad name because of the engine, but because Alt, Transmisisons, other parts, and the fact that owners were too LAZY to do maintnence on them. All of those things has nothing to do with how good the engine was reliability wise.

Oh well though, my GTP gets low 30mpg on average, makes alittle over 200HP and hauls 5 comfortably along with a house full of grocerys, and all the while looks better than most every car ever made. I love it when its running!

[blk92z34getrag]

But I still see today's 3.2 Acuras and DOHC V6 Hondas and it pisses me off how good they run, but that they are still dependable as hell even when making some 260hp.

It's really unfair to compare the LQ1 to any motor designed in the last ~5 years... Computers, electronics, and mechanicals have come a helluva long way since 1990. VVT, Cam Phasing, better manufacturing tolerances... you just can't compare an engine that was designed in 1989/90 when a 20mhz computer was god and airbags were bearly optional to an engine that can vary it's intake valves, exhaust valves, has dual length runners, has cam phasing, advanced engine management systems...

Maybe we should start swapping LS1s and Tremec 6-speeds into our cars.

[Rhedalert]

The 3.4DOHC was dropped because it got a bad name. Not a bad name because of the engine, but because Alt, Transmisisons, other parts, and the fact that owners were too LAZY to do maintnence on them. All of those things has nothing to do with how good the engine was reliability wise.

So, people are considered lazy when they won't remove much of the right front suspension to change an alternator? Or change out a timing belt? Or fix the O-ring on the oil pump drive? Might be easy for most HERE to do, but you're not thinking about the average driver who brings their car in for these services and gets a repair bill of hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars.

[Lowerd1]

The 3.4DOHC was dropped because it got a bad name. Not a bad name because of the engine, but because Alt, Transmisisons, other parts, and the fact that owners were too LAZY to do maintnence on them. All of those things has nothing to do with how good the engine was reliability wise.

So, people are considered lazy when they won't remove much of the right front suspension to change an alternator? Or change out a timing belt? Or fix the O-ring on the oil pump drive? Might be easy for most HERE to do, but you're not thinking about the average driver who brings their car in for these services and gets a repair bill of hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars.

No they are lazy when they want do the routine maintnence of changeing the timeing belt every 60K miles, and all the other maintnence that this engine requires. IF they could afford this car, I would think they could afford to pay to have someone do it. They don't do the maintnence, but they will certainly start gripeing about how crappy the engine is when their belt breaks. I mean how were they suppose to know the belt would not last 100K miles. My car had 80K miles before I changed the Belt the first time. I didn't know it had to be changed and hte stupid dealership was definatly not going to offer. I started researching my car more to see what maintnence needed to be done. Every page I found about the engine, SCREAMS to change the belt every 60K miles. Its not a hard thing to find out.

The Alternator are just part of miantnence, but its not routine. It doesn't cost that much compared to most other FWD, if you have a shop do it. Mine cost $400 for everything last time I had it changed. Thats not that bad when you compare it to other newer cars. Plus I can now do it myself, so its only a day of fun and about $100. Well fun in the most evil of ways.

[grandprixgtp_91]

i read something from gm about a year ago that the reason they ditched the 3.4L DOHC was because it was less than 10 % of sales.

Jake

[Lowerd1]

If you go to Autozone its 8% for 95! Well of the 95 grand Prix owners that visit that site I guess only 8% of them had a 3.4DOHC.

[Lyle's GTP]

That makes sense though. The 3.4 DOHC was only the "High end" option now they say "ram air" or "supercharged". It's the better option with the exact same engine under the hood. You can't blame the customer for not wanting a GTP. That's GM's fault, they should have put it in more cars. From GM's stand point, there is probably only $200.00 worth of extra parts in a 3800 S/C over a N/A version. The 3.4 DOHC was used as an upgrade from 3100's, the price difference between the two motors is probably more like $1000.00+. Not to mention the additional engineering required to mount a completely different motor. From a manufacturing perspective it would save millions.

Lyle

[Cliff8928]

[quote="blk92z34getrag"]

It's really unfair to compare the LQ1 to any motor designed in the last ~5 years... Computers, electronics, and mechanicals have come a helluva long way since 1990. VVT, Cam Phasing, better manufacturing tolerances... you just can't compare an engine that was designed in 1989/90 when a 20mhz computer was god and airbags were bearly optional to an engine that can vary it's intake valves, exhaust valves, has dual length runners, has cam phasing, advanced engine management systems...

Maybe we should start swapping LS1s and Tremec 6-speeds into our cars.

Well, VVT was around in '90. I believe my friend's Infiniti has it... VTEC was introduced in 92?... As for the dual-runner intake, GM had it's own in the 1992 model year (the 4.3 Vortec)


Cliff Scott
89 BerettaGT
89 Volvo740

[Lyle's GTP]

[blk92z34getrag]