The Oldsmobile Connection

[Shawn]

Well. I love my Mom's Olds Intrigue and she's giving it to me when I go off to college while she gets a new vehicle. I absolutely love the power of the car, and the handling of it is very impressive for a car its size. I don't know much about my mother's car as far as a Model type goes (Like some cars have a GT, SE, etc.) but I can try to describe it until I go and get a picture (The weather is really crappy). It has fairly large stock wheels. It's a 1998 model that has black mirrors, power everything, cloth seats, no spoiler, 3.8 L engine (as far as I know), speedo goes to 140, stock CD/Radio with a fairly nice speaker system, tweeters on the A frames...

I love the car. And I want to make a sleeper out of it. But then again... I have a fetish with stripes... what do you think of blue stripes on a white intrigue? I like the wheels, but I think I want something wider and an inch or so wider with uni-derectionals.

I want to know the know-around with this car so that hopefully I can start doing a few things to it. I really like the drag strip and I have had a dream to race something there. I think the car would perform quite well (considering past open-highway experiences).

well anyways... hello. I hope to learn something.

[Brando]

Sounds like a base line Intrigue!
My mom also has a 98 Intrigue...very nice cars indeed.
The 3.8L engine is also highly modifiable...you can go deep into it and change the cam, rocker arms, push rods, valve springs, some forged pistons, and install a turbo.....or you could go simple and install a cold air induction kit and open up the exaust a little. Or do all of it! :lol:

Since the Grand Prix is the same body (W-body) as the Intrigue, and it too uses the 3.8L, there are many options.

Check out:
http://knightsperformance.com/prod03.htm
http://www.zzperformance.com/

Plenty of stuff there, lots of things you can do to the 3.8, best thing of all is they are very reliable engines. BTW, that's a Series II 3.8L.

Welcome to the site! :rock:

TOC Admin
Brando

[Shawn]

Well... there I go counting my chickens....

I sorry for the confusion. Unfortuately, it's a 3.5L Twin Cam V6. And it's a 2000 Intrigue. I appologize. It's a mirror image of the white Intrigue on the page headers. Except it has black mirrors. Looks like the same wheels though, that spidery silver wheel...

I was hoping I could make myself a car to spruce up a bit and race others (Crown Vics, Grand Prixs) every once in a while...

Is there any hope? :lol:

Sorry if that caused any confusion.

[Brando]

:lol:

Ok, sounds like a Intrigue GX then! That's the base line model, that they changed to in 99.

The 3.5L is also a great engine, I have it myself, and the response is great! If you're not feeling it, maybe a tune up is in store.

As for performance parts, unfortunately there's not much for the 3.5L. I had asked Knights Performance about those cold air induction kits, and they CAN be MODIFIED to fit the 3.5L, but they aren't a bolt-on like for the 3.8L.

If you modified the intake, and then installed the cat-back exhast system from Knights Performance, that would give a little more (along with a high flow cat). Then there are a lot of suspension options for the intrigue. Like this:
Spring Tech Street Kit
and these:
KYB GR2 Struts
Eibach Coil Springs
There also are strut bars available from GM Parts Direct (Part # 12498648 for two, 12456148 for one), they list it as for Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, Impala...etc, those are W-Bodies and so is the Intrigue, so it will work, I have mine on order. Knights performance has several options in that area too.

Hoped that helped some, and welcome to the site. Best thing to do once you get the car is check all the fluids, filters, spark plugs and wires....etc.

:thumbup:

TOC Admin
Brando

[Shawn]

Brando wrote: :lol:
As for performance parts, unfortunately there's not much for the 3.5L. I had asked Knights Performance about those cold air induction kits, and they CAN be MODIFIED to fit the 3.5L, but they aren't a bolt-on like for the 3.8L.

Okay then... I know a lot of cars do transplants of other similar engines... is there anyone on here transplanting to the 3.8 L (I assume they come like that, so it's not too much hassle in getting a new one, but I do understand transplanting to a new engine requires tranny, wiring, etc...

Hmm... maybe if the engine plunks out (currently at 100,000 miles : Mom bought it used and drives cross-highway to work [c. 30 mi.])
on me I might consider that because I absolutely love the handing/look/style of the car.

Brando also wrote:
Hoped that helped some, and welcome to the site. Best thing to do once you get the car is check all the fluids, filters, spark plugs and wires....etc.


Mom and Pop are going to get a complete once-over by the techs at the GM center pretty soon when Mom goes and gets her new SUV thing or whatever it is she's loathed over. They said they'd get new pads, spin the rotors, new fluids, and all that jazz for it... so I'm sure that will perk it up as well.

I will poke around here and if I have any questions I'm sure I'll interrupt a topic or make one my own. Thanks for the basic info though; and love the site!

[Brando]

Thanks for the compliments on the site.
Yea, that tune-up should help out a lot.

Transplant a 3.8L in place of a 3.5L? Huh...never even thought about it :lol:

Yes, it would be possible, lots of work as most newer car engine transplants are...not like older cars where there are no electronics/computers to bother with. I am sure it's possible...but the 3.5L has potential. I've seen someone on CarDomain.com trying to mod the 3.8L Turbo from Knights Performance on to the 3.5L. Not sure if he succeeded yet though... :lol:

One thing you might wanna know, stock specs of engines:
3.5L 215 HP @ 5,600 rpm; 230 ft lb @ 4,400 rpm
3.8L 195 HP @ 5,200 rpm; 220 ft lb @ 4,000 rpm

There's not much of a difference in numbers, but compared to my mom's 98, it definately is a lot more peppy :mrgreen:

TOC Admin
Brando

[Shawn]

Brando wrote:
Transplant a 3.8L in place of a 3.5L? Huh...never even thought about it :lol:

Ha, I love smartasses...

Brando later wrote:
One thing you might wanna know, stock specs of engines:
3.5L 215 HP @ 5,600 rpm; 230 ft lb @ 4,400 rpm
3.8L 195 HP @ 5,200 rpm; 220 ft lb @ 4,000 rpm

I don't know that much about complete specs... but how does the 3.5 put out more? Interesting... 8)

Is there other stock specifications I can view (either here or external link)? Matrices help me visualize how things stand out very well.

[speedy266]

the 3.5L is a northstar engine i believe, also with DOHC but im not sure. Not that hard to make a smaller engine more powerful, easyiest way is to raise compression but to perform its best it would require higher octance fuel.

[Brando]

speedy266 wrote: the 3.5L is a northstar engine i believe, also with DOHC but im not sure. Not that hard to make a smaller engine more powerful, easyiest way is to raise compression but to perform its best it would require higher octance fuel.

Yes, the 3.5L is based off of the Northstar, that's why its nickname is Shortstar! :lol:

Yes, DOHC helps a lot, plus the engine has a very long stroke....this helps out a lot too.

Here's a nice article:
http://waw.wardsauto.com/ar/auto_everybody_likes_stroked/

The main thing is it's stroke...that's what gives this engine its awesome torque rating :D

TOC Admin
Brando