Lots of good info here. I'm glad to hear I'm doing things right for the most part.

I was really hard on my 93 Custom SE. The one in my siggy pic. Brake torquage, Reverse Donuts, often rev limit bouncing, drove all around town in 1st gear. And drove it like a it was a stick shift.and it had 230,000 miles on it AND incredibly It held together fine. Nothing broke and the ride quality never suffered. I do not treat my new Bonnie like that however. and I dont recomend u trying that but they are well built cars. Dont judge me! just kidding

Very interesting opinions here.

Transmissions are the only thing I'd be worried about. I've "beaten" (if you would call it that) on my engine since I bought it at 61k. Currently has 216k, which makes it 155k miles since I bought it. My last compression test had 3 cylinders at 190PSI, two at 188PSI, and one at 186 PSI, which is a 2% gap between the highest and lowest. IIRC anything better than a 10% gap is good, so considering this car gets to 5500 RPM at LEAST 4 times a day and has done so since I bought it, I'd be willing to bet you that your engine reliability will not suffer.

There was a recent topic about this. This particular fact is very important with Northstar engines. The concept is that you have to run the engine up to redline at least every once in a while to keep carbon from building up.

Have a look at this thread for example:

https://www.gmforum.com/general-gm-chat-88/italian-tuneup-hid-kits-291998/

So consider that babying your car might actually cause more harm than good. All you have to lose is fuel economy, but babying your car will cause it to build up carbon deposits, which in turn will reduce your performance (KR from predetonation), and cause other issues such as scratches in the cylinder walls. Northstar mechanics, as I mentioned, will tell you this same thing. The biggest problem with these engines is people who never get on the throttle, like old people with cadillacs (where the engine is predominately found). The carbon builds up, the piston liners start getting scratched, the engine starts burning oil, and so forth.

On the transmission end, the previous posts above me are true. Don't do one wheel burnouts, they're hell on your differential, and don't do burnouts in general. Ease into the throttle even if you do floor it. Hard launches aren't a great idea.

Most importantly, MAINTAIN YOUR CAR. When was the last time you checked the transmission fluid? What'* the level? What'* the color? How does it smell? When was it last changed? If it ever was changed, was the filter changed as well? Do you have a transmission cooler? Regardless of how hard you drive, you should have one. Do you keep up to date on oil changes? I've noticed that prolonging oil changes on a 3800 isn't a good idea.

I maintain my 3800 religiously, and in return, I can hit as many wide open throttle to redline runs as I feel like it every day of the week without a single thing to worry about. I have a massive transmission cooler and I have noticed that the transmission heats up to 100 degrees within 2-3 minutes in the winter, so I'll remote start my car and wait for it to warm up to that point before driving around.

As far as the scratches in the cylinder walls goes, this was noticed during the break in process only and I think that had something to do with everything not being completely broken in and seated or expanded into place so by breaking the engine in by driving slowly and keeping it under a certain RPM is was allowing the heads to wiggle in the cylinders causing the scratches. This was also on a motorcycle, not sure how similar it would be to a car. The point I wanted to make though is that this was during the break in process that it was noticed. I don't believe it applies once the car is already broken in, and you should not be afraid of babying your car. Although as we have seen babying the car too much and not ever giving it a chance to stretch its legs can have ill effects as well.

I agree 100% with you here. I have done nearly all the maintenance possible including trans fluid/filer, plugs/wires, fuel filter, PCV, oil/filter, etc. I think maintenance most important thing for any machine: cars, trucks, motorcycles, even lawnmowers.

I read the thread about the "Italian Tuneup", and I read somewhere that Seafoam accomplishes basically the same thing, correct?

There was a thread around here, I forgot where, that this particular instance was very predominant with Northstars. It was actually the rings that would get worn.

Ah, I found it.

https://www.gmforum.com/showthread.p...hstar+mechanic


I do believe it will do the same thing, and might actually clean out parts that the Italian Tuneup doesn't. I would use both methods just to be sure. Whenever I seafoam a car, I take it out for several redline WOT runs.

In regard to oil filters, absolutely everyone here should at least skim through these two pages:
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/mopar.html
http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oil.../opinions.html

Learn how to tell apart a good filter from an e-core filter, and pick one that you can use in your car. I usually pick up 4-5 Wix filters every time I make a purchase from rockauto for any car parts so I have some on hand for the next few oil changes.