What to look for....

[JesseGT1]

Im Thinking of buying a mid-90's GP with the 3.4L DOHC motor in it. When I look at it, what common problems should I look for, I may get it to just get a new toy AND/OR swap it into my 99'GAGT.

[SappySE107]

I dunno if you will fit that engine into a grand am...at least easily. If you wanna cut up the engine bay you can do that.

Pull the timing belt cover and check for fraying, black hairs all over the place. If there are, the belt needs to be replaced. Also, if you can pull the intake, look below the plenum for oil. If its wet under there, the distributor drive o ring needs to be fixed. Its either an easy or hard fix, depending on how you want to go about it.

Otherwise, just drive it and see how it shifts/runs like any other car being test driven.

[blk92z34getrag]

Make sure the Alternator is good too, 5 hour job to replace an alternator in the DOHC.

[JesseGT1]

5 hours!!!!! wtf That sucks Ive got it down to 5 minutes (replaced 4 times) on my 99' GAGT 3400 pushrod motor. I guess the engineers who designed the DOHC wanted Mechanics to make some serious jack on alt.jobs.

[SappySE107]

well they had to put the alt somewhere, and on top with the cam carriers wasnt an option. I dont think it has anything to do with them wanting to make more on repairs...

Replaced 4 times on a 99 grand am...

[JesseGT1]

Yes...4 times, Long story, basically I got 3 bad alts in a row from the parts store But I got a formal apollogy letter from both the store and the manufacturer plus a free alt.

[Lyle's GTP]

Of course they wanted to make more on repairs. All GM cars are designed to fail in less than 150000kms. They want your money, why else would they make warranties so short. But anyway there is no real way to properly test an alternator in the 3.4dohc. But I have got changing the alternator down to 1 hour on your front lawn no special tools required.

Now understand this, the 3.4l dohc is not any less reliable than any other gm and is in alot of ways better. The best thing to do is take it to an independent garage and get a buyers inspection. Don't let a dealer do it because they are crooked. I took mine to this one small garage and he checked everything. All brakes, tires, plugs, wires, cooling system, A/C, heater, hoses, belts, battery, alterntor, exhaust system, fluid contaminates, rust, paint and even the body for past damage and even did a computer diagnostic to check for old codes, etc... absolutly every thing. I suggest use good judgment and then take it to one of these inspections it will be probably the best $30 you will ever spend. Then maybe set aside a $1000 to do some up front preventative repaires. Tranny flush and cooler, timing belt, replace all fluids, plugs, wires, filters, etc...

[Lyle's GTP]

P.S. This car costs a fortune to work on at a garage and they will probbly do shitty work too, cause garages hate these things. But you can save all the labour (which is the worst part) by doing it your self and this car is quite easy to work on. Basically if it doesn't require a $5000 piece of equipment you can fix it in you back yard and do it better than a garage.