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...and it was terrible when GM did it too. FWIW my Northstar has zero stop leak in its cooling system as the problem was fixed correctly, no thanks to the General.

Hello all -- New to me 1996 Grand Prix SE. I will fix this car up and my son will use for college. An experiment for me, too. How many miles can I get out of this car. Goal=200k. 3.1 motor. Auto trans. 102k miles. I live in Ohio. Florida car. Minimal rust. I see clean rockers, pinch welds, subframe, rear trailer arm connection! Clean, Dark gray cloth interior. Salvage title from hail storm. Good: Clean car. 1 year old rotors, pads, struts, front hub, 2 tires, New fuel pump and serpentine belt. AC works. Pioneer head unit. Looks to have nice specs and fitment. Bad: Hood hail damaged. 3 hail dings in front fenders. PO used duplicolor spray paint in a few spots. ABS light on. Windows and regulators kinda work. Needs inspection. I bought car and further inspected. Repairs so far: Transmission cooler lines rusted and leaking. Replaced. Changed transmission filter and fluid. Cooling system flushed (remove thermostat, fill and drain with distilled water 4 times), refilled with DEX 50/50, new thermostat, hoses, cap. Checked fans and they are working. Oil change to synthetic. Car is now running and driving. I plugged my Autoscan tool in and went for 2 hrs spirited driving. No codes and temp stayed between 170-190. Hot heat and cold A/C. No leaks I am experiencing "piston slap" when car is cold. Seems a common issue on 3.1 motors. I guess I keep the car maintained and live with it. Repairs in the next 2 weeks: Bad rear hub. Leaking gas filler. Windows and regulator. Interior light bulbs, some are out. Underside, door seams, inner fenders, and every nook and cranny will be oil sprayed with Fluid Film. Repairs in the next 2 months: I found and bought a NOS hood for $160! Body work on the front fender dings. Paint work on rear quarter. Front fascia needs to be attached. Replaced front door speakers with Kicker 41KSC54. Replace rear deck speakers with Kicker 41KSC6934. Trunk subwoofer. Kicker, not sure which one yet. Some vinyl graphics. I'm thinking a swoop on front fenders, or a rear quarter panel stripe. I saw a Gran Prix with Firebird on the hood, that was cool looking! I am thinking about a Firebird on the hood!!! Law says I needs a front license plate. I hate the offset look. Will related to center of front fascia. Not sure how that will look. The driver's door catch is annoying. It has 4 loud metal clunks sounds when opening and closing door. I can see the hinge is wore out, and lubing doesn't help. It will need to be replaced, but I am finding this part is NLA. Any suggestions? I scored some perfect Centerline Nitro 2 wheels on craigslist. They were on a 2002 Monte Carlo. 17x7. 5x115. 42MM offset. Polished Aluminum. WOW, are they light. Tire size calculators say 235/55R17 or 245/50R17 would be stock tire diameters and work with the 7" rim. I'm just starting research. Any thoughts or PICS on these sized tires for this style of car?

Looks like the quick connect fitting is ok. And the leak has otherwise dried up. Only time will tell though.

I've only seen terrible results from those products

I've never used that product, but I'm generally not a fan of stop leak products. I've used them in the distant past. In my experience, they tend to cause more problems down the road.

Thanks I will check that out. I did buy some of Bar Seal's best stuff and already it seems to be working. I'll know more about that in a few days. There was coolant on top of the hold down bolt (for the oil pump drive) and moving on down that way. But, I cleaned it all off before putting in the bar seal, followed the instructions and then drove the car a bit. No leaks last night and no leaks this morning, it's all dried out. Hopefully this will be the end of that, but I will keep my eye on that fitting.

It's possible coolant can leak from the intake manifold if they messed up the install somehow, but it's also possible it could be the heater hose quick-connect fitting. That's another source of coolant leaking from around that area that I believe is a fairly common issue. Especially more likely since they had to disconnect the fitting and probably didn't replace the fitting. It's this part: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/oldsmobile,1994,cutlass+supreme,3.4l+v6,1223367,heat+&+air+conditioning,heater+hose+connector,6876 It's located right above the crossover pipe and you might see evidence of coolant having dripped on the crossover pipe shield if it's leaking. I would put a white cloth under it and see if it gets wet.

So I've had 2 GTP's so far, but this is my first Buick Regal GS. bought it from a grandpa and it was very basic looking when I bought it. Since buying it a couple weeks ago, I've tinted the windows, installed 4 Buick puddle door lamps, white face gauges, scangauge ii, black-housing headlights, zzp F-body brakes, tinted the taillights, installed red reflective lettering on bumper, custom front license plate and holders to match car theme, and took out the window and shift bezel wood trim and painted it flat black to match the rest of the car. I'll post pics when I get it all done, still in the process of some of it

It definitely takes dedication to own a Northstar Caddy AND keep it running reliably for that many years, especially in a salt belt state ! All joking aside, they are nice engines, and can be made fairly reliable if you know their weak spots. I know that it's not exactly the same, but the Shortstar we had in our Intrigue years back was arguably more reliable than any 60 degree V6 or even 3800 i've ever owned. It reliably needed the oil level topped off every 1500 miles or so, but outside of a bad CKP sensor and an alternator....that powertrain was rock solid up until the day we scrapped it due to rust.

Now in that same spot I see a coolant leak . Very small but it's there. I will be trying out some bar-seal stop leak on it in the hope this will stop it. Something else that's odd is, I had them change out the LOW COOLANT sensor for a new one, and the LOW COOLANT warning still went on anyway. The car is not low on coolant. Geez.