I have had an engine noise in my car since I bought it in June and it has slowly gotten worse to where my fuel mileage is on the crappy side and it has lose a lot of engine performance. So after a month worth of saving up the money and I took it to a shop to have it diagnosed and I was told the 3100 V6'* had a lot of problems with the camshafts in them and that is what is going on with mine. The noise I have is a bad camshaft. I myself don't understand how or why a camshaft would go bad let alone why GM wouldn't recall the motors because of flaws in the camshaft. So why does the 3100 series engines have the camshaft flaw and will replacing the camshaft with a better OE one be worth the trouble. A new one it about 185$ but from what I read that is a big job to replace them in a 3100 V6. So any and all advice would be helpful so I can get a better understanding on the problem that these engines had with the camshafts. Thanks.

ive never heard of a problem, if they change the oil and stuff shouldnt be an issue. i had a 3100 and a 2.8 last almost 300k before the bodies started falling apart and i had to get rid of it. i change the oil every 5k with regular valvoline and both got over 32mpg to the end. but i got them with lower mileage you dont know if the original owner ever changed it

what kind of noise and is it only under certain circumstances?

I have never heard of a camshaft going bad on a 3100 either. I worked at the gm dealership for 6 years and i know we never had one.

The noise is there all of the time coming from the driver side rear part of the motor next to the firewall. Also the noise will increase when slightly with go to speed up.

Also it is like a knock/tap noise I would be guessing. It is kind of hard to describe. Also the entire upper end has been overhauled clear down to new lifters and push rods. With the push rods when I replaced them I measured each one and made me a diagram so when I went to put it back together the right push rod went back in the right hole.

Also that noise I have from the engine travels threw my entire exhaust system.

Well everyone I am able to help everyone out on the noise I was able to figure out how to upload it to YouTube. Here is that link to that video. What is this noise? A bad Camshaft, Rocker Arms or what? - YouTube. I hope this helps everyone out on the noise I am talking about.

It sounds like lifter noise which is normal for the 3.1. Yours sounds a little louder than normal unless its just the video. To me it dosent sounds like lower engine noise.

If you know someone with the same engine listen to theirs and see if yours is louder or sounds different. If i had my smart phone or a video camero i would take one of my 3.1 for you.