[goatwgn]

Originally Posted by 455Grandville

Hard to beat a big 70s GM. I had a 78 301 Bonnie that I commuted in for years. AC would freeze you out and my wife and our firstborn took many trips to TX in it in the late 90s when it was 20 years old. Even got decent gas mileage.

I agree. I have never had a POS, although I have worked on a lot of them for other people. I still have my two good cars. My '66 Pontiac Tempest wagon, and my 1974 Olds Cutlass Supreme. The 326 2 bbl in the Pontiac and ST 300 transmission went for 293,000 miles, pretty much trouble free, with nothing but a timing chain, a couple of water pumps, and wear items on the car itself, such as brakes and axle seals. That was what the odometer was at in 1987, when I purchased the Olds from an aunt, with 135,000 on it. My intention was to retire the Pontiac from daily driver status, building it into a fun weekend car, and use the well kept Olds for that. Worked out very well. The Olds accumulated even more miles than I had on the Pontiac. It ran like the energizer bunny, up to 500000 miles. At that point, in 2013, the Olds 350 was getting weak, but no knocking or smoking, so at that point, I rebuilt it. It had nothing but weak tension on the rings, and weak valve springs. Very clean inside. The TH350 has been rebuilt 3 times, and the 10 bolt axle, once, with new bearings and seals, using the original 3.08 ring and pinion. The Olds is a very comfortable cruiser, with power windows, buckets, console, ac, tilt column and 4 spoke sport steering wheel. Has a substantial feel, and I have been all over the east coast a few times with it. have had it repainted 3 times. The car still looks good, and rides like a dream. The Pontiac handles great with my suspension upgrades, and pulls strong with the 455 /TH400 transplant. In 2014, my dear Dad passed away, and I inherited my Moms 1993 Buick Regal with a 3800 from him. That car is a sleeper of a gem itself, although I am not a fan of what I consider "newer" cars, it makes a very reliable car to drive back and forth to work. It "only" has about 165000 on it. Doesn't burn oil, and drives very nice.

[455Grandville]

Originally Posted by goatwgn

I agree. I have never had a POS, although I have worked on a lot of them for other people. I still have my two good cars. My '66 Pontiac Tempest wagon, and my 1974 Olds Cutlass Supreme. The 326 2 bbl in the Pontiac and ST 300 transmission went for 293,000 miles, pretty much trouble free, with nothing but a timing chain, a couple of water pumps, and wear items on the car itself, such as brakes and axle seals. That was what the odometer was at in 1987, when I purchased the Olds from an aunt, with 135,000 on it. My intention was to retire the Pontiac from daily driver status, building it into a fun weekend car, and use the well kept Olds for that. Worked out very well. The Olds accumulated even more miles than I had on the Pontiac. It ran like the energizer bunny, up to 500000 miles. At that point, in 2013, the Olds 350 was getting weak, but no knocking or smoking, so at that point, I rebuilt it. It had nothing but weak tension on the rings, and weak valve springs. Very clean inside. The TH350 has been rebuilt 3 times, and the 10 bolt axle, once, with new bearings and seals, using the original 3.08 ring and pinion. The Olds is a very comfortable cruiser, with power windows, buckets, console, ac, tilt column and 4 spoke sport steering wheel. Has a substantial feel, and I have been all over the east coast a few times with it. have had it repainted 3 times. The car still looks good, and rides like a dream. The Pontiac handles great with my suspension upgrades, and pulls strong with the 455 /TH400 transplant. In 2014, my dear Dad passed away, and I inherited my Moms 1993 Buick Regal with a 3800 from him. That car is a sleeper of a gem itself, although I am not a fan of what I consider "newer" cars, it makes a very reliable car to drive back and forth to work. It "only" has about 165000 on it. Doesn't burn oil, and drives very nice.

My plan when I retire (hopefully in 7 years at 55) is to keep all 4 of my old GMs and just have my wife own a modern, up to date car to save money. One of these days I need to get the old Camaro road worthy.
I just feel new vehicles are simply to expensive.

Originally Posted by OG68

Same issue with Toyota four cylinders after 2000. Don't know if it was ever fixed or that Toyota is ignoring the problem

I’m calling BS on that, many late model Toyota 4 cylinder have passed 300,000 miles without being opened up,

Originally Posted by goatwgn

A far cry from Cadillacs of old, with 472/500s that would run forever. Even the old 390/429s were tough engines. High nickle casting, beefy blocks, that had a lot of torque, and were low revving. Cadillac really started to go south with the 4100, and downhill from there. Such a shame. CAFE ruined them, because they rushed the 4100 out there, because the old 368 (based on the 425/472/500) was not capable of delivering fuel economy necessary to stay within regulations for 1982 and beyond.

The V864 from that family was a good engine if you unplugged the computer. Think it was based on the 1980 368 ?