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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.

TGPforums.com is now working again. It is still in archive status, meaning no new member registrations are allowed, but the forum is searchable without the need for a registered account.

It's that time. The oil leak in the rear main seal of my 1994 Cutlass Supreme SL with the 3.4L motor has gotten so bad that it needs to come out for repairs. In addition to this being in need of replacement, I am going to have the oil pan gasket replaced as well, along with the 3 coils and the alternator while the motor is out of the car. In addition to that, is there anything else anyone can think of that should be replaced while the motor is out, as this would be a golden opportunity to get it done. The engine compartment will also be degreased to clean up the big mess this leak has been making. It does not need a timing belt, water pump, or any intake manifold work as this was all done 5 years and 10,000 miles ago and no issues here.

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.

Don't know how important this was to the corrosion resistance, but I forgot to mention I primed mine with Rustoleum Cold Galvanizing Compound spray. It worked surprisingly well as a primer on bare metal. It never chipped, flaked, or peeled. I don't know if it's the same formula today as the one I used a couple decades ago. Photos looks like it's now a smooth gray primer appearance, but mine was a very sparkly shiny bright metallic silver color. Almost looked like fine very fine glitter. Still have the can and looks like it's the same can as the current product though, so who knows.

You get it, you have those rims that visually open up the brake/suspension components much like the rims I have. When the rims and tires look good the rusty looking parts stand out. All the replacement parts for our 1st gens almost immediately flash rust out of the box and most 1st gen rims are mesh or solid so it never mattered, until 2026 when these are the "newest" classic antiques. I`m not trying to build a show car but something resembling a higher optioned factory 1 off that might show up at a show or randomly in traffic because the MPGs on a 3100.

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?

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

UPDATE - I believe I may have found a shop with a mechanic having the experience to have worked on these motors that will do the job. My first hunch was to go to a Chevy dealership as the Lumina had these motors as well, those Z-34's you almost never see (?). As soon as they found out I was in no rush to get the car back, they were more open to the idea of working on it. I guess they thought I wanted it done yesterday. Not the case, anytime between now and July 22 will do........ Stay tuned

My 89 Grand Prix was not in use for many years, the radio degraded in that time. It started to give a lot of pops and bangs. So much it seems to have blown a front speaker in the few moments it has been turned on. The speaker is an easy fix, just remove the dash pad and screw a new one in (16054362 is replaced by 15173233 and can be easily found). My system is a 4 speaker with Remote control head 16075882, the optional Cassette+equalizer 16050912 and steering wheel controls. The amp and receiver (16072780) which is located above the glovebox is the one that typically causes issues. I found the documentation here on the forum, unfortunatley the link for the amp doesn't work anymore: But even better than documentation, I found a common cause and fix for the pops and bangs: I tried exactly this procedure: https://reattaowner.com/roj/component/content/article?id=198:radio-capacitor-replacement-instructions. The 6 green capacitors were indeed shot. I found d4x5mm (not d5x5mm), 1uF, 50V, 105°C replacement capacitors at RS and had a specialist to put them in. The radio now works well, only some very minor pops are still noticable when the volume is turned to 0. I am very happy with the result and recommend this fix. However, I did notice now that my FM tuner apparently only goes up to 104.05MHz... Scanning, or manual tuning to get past 104 make it jump to the bottom of the frequency band again. I wonder if anyone else had a similar issue or fix for this?

I know she's in good hand.

Stuff happens, post on the Aurora if you`d like. Ive always liked those.

Well I'm sad to say that she has gone to her new home in New York City guy has another 9C3 but it's pretty clapped out being a new york car but hes gonna keep this one in storage and hes taking it to New Jersey this summer to have some Company that does really good work undercoating And hes keeping it in storage during the Winter months so I believe it's going to a good home. It was a fun car and nice project now I've picked up a 1996 Oldsmobile Aurora with a bad transmission so you know what's gonna happen the entire drive train is gonna come out and be refreshed.

I bought this 1994 Cutlass Supreme from the auction and who ever had it didn't finish the swap but I found out it's a 3.8 out of a Grand Prix.

Don't forget. Like I said on FB that 99 gtp pcm will be plug and play on your lumina once it's swapped. No tuning or messing with antitheft needed

Hey Iv'e browsed around here for a long time, but just actually joined for much needed help. My rear pads are completely gone and have damagd my rotors pretty bad. I went to replace the pads and rotor but noticed the rear calipers have the e-brake attached to it. How do i remove the caliper with the e-brake in the rear? I think i can remove the cable but the actually ebrake unit itself in the the way of the caliper bolts. any help is appreciated, thanks!

Yup. That'll do it. Not the best/most efficient method--but that'll work. Pistons definitely twist back in--unless you remove the one nut and one washer, and pull the eBrake cable bracket. Pushing the piston STRAIGHT in with a c-clamp is a thousand times easier than spinning it back in, and there's no special tool needed. Instead of the huge friction from the large piston seal, you have very little friction from the small O-ring that seals the small threaded post that the e-brake cable bracket is secured to. It could not be easier--except to have a caliper that doesn't have the e-brake mechanism. All four of my rear calipers have had the pistons pushed straight back in, one car has been done two--three times as the pads have worn out. E-brakes and service brakes still work just fine. This does NOT destroy the calipers IF (big IF) you REMOVE THE NUT, WASHER, and BRACKET. No promises on this working on the newer-style calipers, but it certainly works on the first-gen style.

That is the official procedure. My way is far faster and easier.

i did the "remove backside stuff" method before.... i think i did something wrong though, because then it would never seal back there again. or maybe the caliper itself was already failing when i got to it. either way, i ended up replacing with the 94-up setup due to that.

'92? Caliper piston does NOT need to be TURNED back in. In fact, that's the most-difficult possible way to retract it. Remove one nut and one washer from back side of caliper--remove the little bracket that the park brake cable attaches to. Remove caliper from rotor. Secure so it doesn't hang from the brake hose. I pinch the rubber brake hose with a needle-nose vice grip or the special hose-pinching tools. (Can't do that with aftermarket steel braid-over-Teflon liner brake hoses!) Open the brake bleeder valve on that caliper. Push caliper piston back in with a C-clamp. The spinning is done by the shaft that the nut, washer, and bracket were attached to, not the piston. Brake fluid squirts out bleeder valve, might want to use a length of vacuum hose on the bleeder nipple to direct the fluid into a drain pan. DO NOT allow the old dirty brake fluid to push backwards through the system so that it contaminates the ABS hardware. Remember that the caliper is adjusted by REGULARLY USING THE PARK BRAKE, so if you go months at a time without setting the park brake, expect caliper problems.

L26 Swap Electrical portion C100 Connector, 96 Harness on left side, 95 Body harness on right side. Directions follows for harness changes: Cut E1 wire, reposition into A3 Connector. Run wire through fire wall and through A1 Port after disconnecting J2. Disconnect K1 and isolate. For K1, Battery Fused wire will need to be fused. I Spliced into the 60 Amp Maxi fuse circuit for the 3.4L Air pump circuit. Pump consumes 25Amp (No longer used). Spliced into a circuit requiring 15 amps for Sund Roof/power windows/locks/Digital Temp Control. Wire pulled from K1 DOHC Harness and reconnected into 1996 Regal harness circuit. Also Trans wiring. Verify Which harness you have on the 1996 trans. OBDII Conversion: Cut off OBDI Connector, Cut off OBDII connector from junkyard. Match up all colors the same. Orange to orange (needs to be fused into B+) Both Black wires spliced into OBDII Black wire, Tan to Tan. Note the purple wire is spliced into my Serial Data wire I fed through C100 connector from A1.

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.

Well, that's not fun. Got all the aftermarket audio equipment pulled. Plugged in the factory radio and... sounds distorted on the left channel, right channel completely out. Pop sounds when I push the buttons. It worked fine when pulled 32-years ago, so I'm guessing something that ages has gone bad. Probably electrolytic capacitors. I've read there are some green ones that like to go bad and leak. I just learned today the amp/radio module is the same as used in GMT400 pickups. I guess that explains why these radios are modular and can be taken apart into smaller modules. Vehicles with the split radios used the same modules with cables connecting them.

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.