Noobie to the forum , ok so i have a 2004 chevy monte carlo ss dale earnhardt edition and it has 127k miles. the car was my cousins and he had it for 3years and passed it on to me, the car is a rebuilt and had flood damage. The car runs good it just needs some tlc. The thing i want to know is should i fix him up a bit and add some performance parts or should i move on. I want to add an intake, exhaust, and a smaller pully and some other bolt ons. I like the car, but to me i think it has alot of miles to be putting bolt ons on exspecially after what its been through. Also if i put a smaller pully do i need to dyno the car? Any performance parts i would buy i would be getting them off 3800performance.com, thankyou for answering.

 

You will need a tune to install a smaller pulley. You can buy mail order tunes. You will need a down pipe at least to be able to drop pulley size I recommend getting headers which come with a Down pipe.

 

Yeah but considering it has 127k miles and it was a flood damage do you think it would be a wise idea?

 

well its like this..... you will never get the money you put into it back out of it if you decide to sell it. you need to ask yourself if you like the car enough to fix things that break and go bad (because it will with that kind of mileage) or if you dont wanna mess with fixing things. as far as flood damage, as long as it was rebuilt properly who cares IMO. now beware you will probably be needing trans work here soon if it hasnt been done, and if the lower intake gaskets have not been changed yet im sure it will need them soon if it doesnt already. other than that normal maintenance can make any car last a long time. (not saying it wont blow up because it could) i seen these care go 200k-300k but ive seen others that have been highly modded go quick. i shattered a connecting rod at 80k on the original bottom end.

another thing, these engines and trans are a dime a dozen there is so many out there there not hard to find and not very expensive if you would need one.

if i were you i would search all of the forums and buy a nice set of used headers and what ever else you want. there is nothing wrong with nice used parts for way cheaper than new.

 

Welcome to the site. If you like the car i say build it up. Here is some good info. LINK https://montecarloforum.com/forum/en...-bumpin-24896/

 

Lou, I was just thinking about that thread.

El099... The 3800 engines are very durable engines. 127,000 miles on it is not a major deal. If you like the car, go for your plans. Like the others said, you'll never get your money back out of it. People who love and mod their car never do. No matter what car it is.

 

I dont care to much about getting my money back at the end, i just want to to have a nice setup on my car and have it run nice an clean. Thanks for the opinions guy all appreciated.

 

I highly recommend checking out the L67 portion of the thread LouGreen03 linked in his post. Lots of the most common mods for the 3800 engine. The supercharged 3800 is the L67. The non-supercharged is the L36.

 

The 3800 v6 is one of GMs BEST engines. They were made to last as long as you maintained them. 127K, not a big deal. But as Turbo mentioned, things WILL break, expect it, despite the reliability of the engine, not everything on the car is made for the "long haul" (like wheel hub assemblies, or the trans).
As far as the flood damage, I assume that occurred well before your ownership? The problem with flood damage is if it gets into the wiring, it can cause nasty and difficult to diagnose electrical problems. But if the damage occurred before your cousin owned the car (or within his ownership), hopefully it was properly serviced and you have an idea of it's history to know if it's been acting up as a result of the flood damage.

In the end, it's up to you. If the body is sound, the car today seems sound, the 127K mileage on a well maintained car is really no big deal these days. I'd say, do you homework on your mods to know what you're getting in for and go for it.

 

So pretty much if i spend like 2-3k on the car i wont be getting my money back, i get that, and its not really a problem cuz the car is worth it to me that is, but (dont hate me now) i think i wanna move on and get my hands on the mustang gt, not because its a ford chevy thing, its just, i always wanted a rear wheel drive car. if the monte carlo was rwd i would most certainly keep it. But its not a manual nor is it rwd and thats just whats keeping me from keep it. But ill miss the supercharger whine and its roomy interior and cant forget the paint