3500 reliability...

[phatbassturd]

Looking at buying an '01 Olds Intrigue, was wondering if there's anything i'm going to have to worry about in terms of maintenance? I own a '96 GA which i put an '01 3100 in back in '94 and it's got a bit of an annoying electrical problem (door lock and unlock repeatedly when the seatbelt is worn- however it only does it until i'm outta first gear) along with a crack in the LIM where the temp sensor is... so i am figuring it's time to let it go and move up a bit... have only had 60* V6 since '99 but after my swap, sorta lost interest a bit and now, just doing some research and where better to come than to the people who know these engines inside an out!!

so like the 3100/3400 LIM is there anything to worry about?

[IsaacHayes]

That motor in the intrigue is not what we refer to as a 3500. That is the LX5 3.5L DOHC engine.

It's not a pushrod motor, and it's a 90* motor. A cut down northstar basically...


The only thing I know about it, is it has a 65mm TB which I have mounted on my LX9 (3500) upper intake manifold! hahaha

[Rhedalert]

Other than the fact that they almost always consume some oil ~ 1 Qt every 1k miles (therefore if the owner isn't careful and doesn't maintain it, could run it dry) they are very reliable motors.

[IsaacHayes]

How come they eat oil?

[Rhedalert]

apparently it has to do with very tight tolerances? I don't know for sure, but they don't have any other issues such as coolant ingestion from failure of gaskets like other 6 cyl GM's. They do tend to have a failure of the crank position sensor but that's a relatively easy fix.

[robertisaar]

How come they eat oil?

probably for the same reason that the northstar it was based off of does: rough cylinder walls and issues with the lower crankcase half sealing.

[no_doz]

now the real question is are the gaskets to repair such an engine-as expensive as for the northstar-because the zone wanted $300 for a set of intake & head gaskets for an aurora motor.