The crap in the ports wasn't too bad to boot also. Minor cleaning up and it was good to go.



I wouldn't want to lose a cam sensor. Or was it a crank sensor - whatever might fly off on a high RPM excursion.

Well ok...you got me there but with Northstars it is different. Flooring a northstar to the redline cleans it out. When i first got my car and mashed into the throttle, there was some rust and other little stuff coming out the exhaust sometimes. My engine will reach 200,000 miles too. Cant say the same for the tranny and other components ( ) but i know the engine is capable of it. All the oil changes I do and the other stuff helps a lot. Fully synthetic mobil 1 too. hehe.

I remember a guy theorizing that flooring his engine (an old person owned the car before he did) caused some sludge to break away from the bottom end, thus interfering with his oiling.




He spun a rod bearing.

Lol...well some engines are an exception but there are too many people with Cadillac STS'* and other Northstars around here that drive them below 3,000RPM their entire time on the roads. They are thinking that its better for the car and oh its better gas mileage (true with gas) but the Northstar does not like to be babied like that. Wind er out every day or 2 or eat carbon. I am not sure if the ShortStar needs to be blasted like that, but I imagine it would.


Dan you will probably **** yourself when you see some of the things I do on a daily basis so I will not even go there. Here are a few tastes anyway.

http://www.graphics-forums.com/peelout_collegetown.MPG
http://www.graphics-forums.com/peelout_collegeapts.MPG

that was a 8-cylinder supercharged. Does it sound similar to a */C 3800?

no worries on the revving man. Send it up there every so often, it'* good for the engine. Stock, mine also made no power up there. I know what you mean about that.

Your engine is weird.. your connectors look different than mine, and your oil cap says 10w-30, but mine says 5w-30.. and mine is black. It seems like your engine has been well taken care of. No sludge all in the lifter valley, rods have burnt on oil [mine did too]. Scale on the heads from one time waiting too long to change the coolant. Carbon build up looks a little heavy, a little more than mine, but you also have 50k on me. So it'* probably all normal.

Oh yeah, get your car up to temp, and run it up to redline a few times after you break the intake gasket in of course. Then run some seafoam through the vacuum line.. trust me, your engine will thank you.


-justin

ok guys. Lets look at it in this perspective. The 3800 is used in most of GM'* full size cars right? The 3800 is used in many cars which are owned by people who are over 50 years old (1st owners.) Most 3800'* last to close to 200,000 miles. Most 50 year olds don't floor it very often. Maybe only a handful of times throughout the entire time they own it. My mom hasn't even floored her SSEi once and she'* had it for 3 years and it runs beautiful. These cars are just now falling into the hands of the younger more immature individuals who beat on them. If these 50 year olds drove like you did, you wouldn't be driving the nice cars you are today. They would be beat to crap. Engines are not designed to be revved to redline several times a day. They were engineered to work a long time on light to moderate throttle on a daily basis, not WOT.

how do you guys figure WOT revving is better for an engine than taking it easy on it? Carbon isn't going to destroy an engine like revving the snot out of it will.

I have yet to see a N* hit 200K.....



Once in a while punching her isn't bad for it.....Because yes it will blow some crap outta the motor. But 3-4 times a day or whatever it is you do is pretty excessive. How much carbon do you really think builds up in a day?

there is a 97 on ebay with 251,000.

Yeah i think i am beating on it way too much maybe, but I dont floor it every stoplight. I exaggerated that last post...hehe. 4 or 5 times a day though, yes.

Umm..custom, my car has been in the family since 91. For her first two years of life, she was owned by an older couple, who did take it easy on the car. Obviously the first 10k, I believe should really be taken very easy. No WOT during that time.

From 91-00, my dad drove the car.. for about 80k-100k he drove the car. He drove it every day to work. My dad, isn't easy on cars. He takes good care of his cars, but he isn't afraid to give the car some gas. By your standards, the car was beaten on.. because I'm sure it saw redline several times a day. At 150k, my engine is flawless. Cylinder walls are beautiful, and if you look close enough, you can still kind of make out the hone on the walls.

NOW, as far as owning a car that was never taken to redline, yes, that is bad. As the engine revvs up higher, the bearings stretch, and the piston moves further up. I believe this is no more than .2" But, as the engine ages, and the cylinder walls wear, and the car is never revved high, a physical ridge is created. Then, once you do bring the car to redline, you damage your piston rings. This causes oil burn, and usually compression loss, and major power loss. That'* why I ALWAYS recommend you give your car some gas every once in a while. Unless that ridge is already there, but on the 3800, if it'* taken care of, it really don't wear. So, you should still be okay.

Trust me, it'* good. As long as you do it right. Wait until the car is up to temp before going above 3k. and ease into it if you've never done it. Like one day, give 20% more throttle than normal, eventually working your way to WOT. Now, if you have developed that ridge, this won't help you with that, it'* inevitable. Fantastic88 has mentioned that a friend noticed oil burn-off under WOT acceleration, he has become a victim of 'the ridge' IMO. But I don't think his performance suffers from that. I KNOW, for a fact my car will never have any WOT problems, because she has already done so much WOT driving, that no damage will come of it.. as long as i'm not beating on her .


-justin