Feel free to discuss anything Non techinical in this thread :iceslolan.

Have fun!!!

John

Thanks John.

Finally, a substitute for the "2001 GA GT ECU" thread! :) LoL

I'll give this thread a kickoff by asking - anyone here besides me and possibly Meti going to the Michigan Grudge Match? There's tons of Grand Ams there. Anyone else here live in michigan or plan on going?

No problem, Anything for a Pontiac brother :evillol: (well not anything :eek7:)

:icon16:

LOL - hey speaking of Pontiac Brotherhood and pontiac loyalty, get this... -

I'm going to Kettering university (formerly GMI). I got a co-op with GM, and they'll pay for all my school plus some. I figuired it out roughly, and by my junior or senior year, after I sell my GA, I should have enough money to buy a used 2005 GTO (400 hp) (which by then should be into mid 20 K's) - it would kick so much ass. And then for another 2500 to 3500 $ worth of mods I should be able to bring it up to a solid 500 hp. I can't frikin wait. I love my GA as it is, and that GTO will be like my GA's daddy :) LoL. It even kind of looks GA-ish, so it'll be nice to have to reminisce. :)

Long live Pontiac Pride

Yeah, the new GTO's are pretty damn bad ass, If I could afford one right now, I would probably have one. Nice move though keeping it in the family :biggrin:

Ya Know Ride, for a young pup you seem to have things figured out especially when it comes to your cars. If you carry the same type of organization to college you'll do great. I recently ( 6 months ago ) finished my 1 semester junior year of college but I had to take a break to get some medical isues taken care of caused by a bad foot. I can tell you this, if the maturity level that you show in your reply posts is how you plan to approach your classes you should have no problems getting through school.

I went to college for the first time at the age of 41, and I would highly recomend it to any one that is thinking about going to college at the adult level.

Pretty cool about GM buying you an education.
Good luck with that!!!!!
Dan

Right now im attending a college here in upstate NY called HVCC. They have a program where i go to school and work in a GM dealership. It awesome. I go to school and get paid, and get to work on GM cars, and get to drive some awesome cars and trucks :iceslolan. But yea this is a great program. When i get out i will be able to take the ASE tests for GM and be ASE certified in most areas. I will also have the expierence needed to become a car dealer/inspector/everything that the DMV reqires you to have a liscence and expeirence for. Which at 18 is awesome. Just thought id share my :2cents:, on my life. Is anyone here from upstate NY? Like Albany area and above?

Ya Know Ride, for a young pup you seem to have things figured out especially when it comes to your cars. If you carry the same type of organization to college you'll do great. I recently ( 6 months ago ) finished my 1 semester junior year of college but I had to take a break to get some medical isues taken care of caused by a bad foot. I can tell you this, if the maturity level that you show in your reply posts is how you plan to approach your classes you should have no problems getting through school.

I went to college for the first time at the age of 41, and I would highly recomend it to any one that is thinking about going to college at the adult level.

Pretty cool about GM buying you an education.
Good luck with that!!!!!
Dan

Thanks a ton Dan! :p That meant a lot to me - it was inspiring. :) I am deffinately going to have to try very hard in college, but if I stay disciplined and organized I will make it. What did you go to college for Dan?

That sounds like a cool program, Justin. I'm never heard of anything like it - deffinately not around here. You're off to a great start man - keep up the good work.

pft.....GTO = Nothing :lol:

pft.....GTO = Nothing :lol:

Good call on the "pft", Lous - cause that's the sound the blow off valve on mine's twin turbos is going to make when I shift :).

GTO = Everything! :) LoL

pft.....GTO = Nothing :lol:
Someone's hating on the LS2 :screwy:, Those new GTO's are bad ass and have all the toys. What more could you want?.

Not hating on the LS2. Not hating on the GTO. Just making a joke.

Although, personally......LS6>LS2.

Good call on the "pft", Lous - cause that's the sound mine's gonna make with twin turbos when I shift :).
Gonna need those turbo's to keep up with my N/A car. :evillol:

Good Luck to all of you going to school... I often consider on going back to school for either something car related or another field. I already have my degree in graphics, but didn't pan out... at least some of you won't have that problem. I do agree with Ride, with selling the G/a for a GTO.... I would do that in a heartbeat if it wasn't for NJ's high insurance. I even got the G/F into GTOs over her japey cars.... couldn't convince her though when she was buying her RSX.... oh well can't win them all..

GTO= Driving Excitement ( hey the pontiac slogan!)

Yea it is pretty cool, Its called Automotive Service Educational Program (ASEP). I think its offered at a select few different schools. Hudson Valley Community College has programs for both GM and Chrysler. Of course i chose GM :tongue: :grinyes:. Once i get out i can become certified in engine rebuild/repair, transmissions, HVAC, Steering/suspension, and much more, pretty much everything about a GM car is taught here. So yea its a cool program.

The GTO's are f'ing awesome, i had the chance to test drive one at the dealership i work at. I would have done anything to get that car :crying: That and the new C6 Corvette :frown: Both incredible cars :grinyes:

And good luck with school man!! Sounds like fun.

Hey justin0717, in response to your sig....

This is the best Grand Am I have even seen....kinda.
http://home.comcast.net/~mrluos/GAGT02.JPG

I do like that one, im thinking about getting a used 05 next year, a 2 door GT black, not with those rims thought, i like the ones that are like that, but bent at the top, idk there hard to describe. Anyways im going for that or an 05 G6. Or perhaps if they come out with the performance G6 GXP like i heard they were going to. I would love a GTO but not anytime soon...

Hehe, that one is mine. That is my daily driver. Wanna buy it?? $9K? :icon16:

nope not now....i got no money cuz of college :shakehead. maybe in like a year though lol. :tongue:

First off any one who wants to go back to school, DO IT!!!!, I did and it was great.

As for the GTO guys wait till next years model, they are supposed to bump the engine and upsrade the suspension.

Just a not to the regulars... I'm headed off to Fla. Disney to be exact, taking the family and driving down. Not taking the GAGT, not enough room, have to take the XL-7. Any way I'll be gone for a week or so but I'm going to have access to a laptop and the net so I'll try to take some time and see what's happening on the GA Forum.

Be good guys...Talk to you later.

p.s. Ride I went back to get a teaching degree, I have a year and a half to go so hopefully I'll get this foot thing worked out and finish up.

see ya,
Dan

As for the GTO guys wait till next years model, they are supposed to bump the engine and upsrade the suspension.

Are you refering to the 2005's??

Or do you already have some info on the 2006's?

Hey have fun in disney dan. And I, like Lous, want to know if you were talking about the 2005's or 2006's.

Hey did anybody besides me go to the Michigan Grudge Match today? I'm assuming probably not. But for those of you whom missed it, it was extremely badass. I had some great pics and vids, but my camera took a crap on me, so I can't upload them. It was very awesome - there were some sweet cars there - mainly nothing but Grand Am and Grand Prixs - it kicked major ass. I had 4 runs myself, and my best was 15.525 @ 87.32 MPH, which I thought was a pretty decent run for only having a few cheap DIY-er mods. It was a great day though. I had a blast, and it was the first time I've ever been to a drag strip / run my car at one. It was pretty awesome. Meti was going to try to come up, but do to lack of cash, he had to abort. :( poor guy.

For the love of GA!! Don't die thread!!

haha i got a grand am and could post the pic again but Ride mannnnn nice talkin to ya and I think I couldnt register ur cell phone # though...my phone didnt remember it since it remembers few recent calls but DAMN! GTO huh? those are sweet dude especially the sound of them.

for ur current GA...try to take ur muffler out or just disconnect it and turn ur car on....if hte muffler doesnt stay good just use some wires to make it stay as stock but damnnn it will sound so nice!

haha I wish i was co-op for GM lol ;-)

good luck and ttyl man and I will make it next meet, unless im not in the country :D

Wow it's been quiet around here the last few days.

Hey I'll send you my cell # some time, Meti - I don't have it on much, but I'm slowly but surely using it more and more often.

So when you disconnected your muffler, you put in a straight pipe, or you just left it off completely? Did you get any SES or SVS lights?

talk to you later man Yeh I forgot, you're goin to Kosovo here sometime soon. THat'll be awesome good luck

Dan, you back from Disney yet??

sry im really busy now days but i'll try this weekend to clean my car and possible put up on the site a video clip or just pictures!

:)

I got a light under the hood but its not a big deal. now am puttin a tv in the trunk and keepin my ps2 in there that me and my buddies will play at school or w/e we have some time off there at school lol
;-) I'll post soon this weekend again!!!

thx for ur # when u send it

It's been slow out here.... Well maybe this will spawn some responses, saw this on ebay.... If i had the money and lived in CA i would buy it.... Sweet looking car... once you see the car you'll know what i'm talking about.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4544694441&category=6421

Oh yeh I saw that on another Grand Am site. It's Rksport's grand am - it's pretty sweet - lots of appearance mods, low mileage, - no performance mods though, which is kind of weird.

I saw there was no added performance.... that also caught my attention, i would at least expect a CAI, and exhaust system..... What it really needs is a supercharger to set it off completely... then money or no money, i would be bidding on it...

It's been slow out here.... Well maybe this will spawn some responses, saw this on ebay.... If i had the money and lived in CA i would buy it.... Sweet looking car... once you see the car you'll know what i'm talking about.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4544694441&category=6421
Just my opinion.......but I really don't like that.
I will keep my plain black 2001 GT thanks.

haha let me be honest....I just hate that body kit. its so plain and not so evil lookin lol

well i would suggest getting somethin like a vader 2 with terminator (fat) back bumper....


who wants to live in Michigan? its so nice because 3 days ago i was tannin out on the sun playin basketball and havin fun and now....
well we have to keep out from ice and snow! so so sweet...it MAKES ME SICK, its so cheap weather and cold and I wanna move to Florida or CA!

damnit im pissed off.

Ride: dont u love this weather man?
haha
ttyl all

Yeh no kidding meti. This weather sucks. Last weekend it kicked ass - 70's and 80's - actually hot. Now, it's colder then hell - I had to bust back out my winter coat today :(. LoL - Looks like I'm gonna have to put the chains back on the Grand Am tires! :)

You're right about that body kit, now that I look at it, it's starting to look pretty sappy.

The only thing i don't like about the kit is the front bumper, it comes out way to far (it looks like an extra 3 inches), and the black stripes don't do it for me either... I do like the sides how it has a clean look but definetly not aggressive looking. The only kit i really like is the SC/T kit... but I know if i got that i would wreck it very fast driving around here...

^ ^ Amen - SC/T is probably the best kit out there, or damn near close. I'm sure Meti will disagree though :) - he's shown me some pretty wicked body kits that he's liked.

Hey, for those of you who haven't seen it, Dan (hoags) is back. He should be posting on this thread anytime now.

Dan, Did you ever go on the "rock'n roller coaster" that I told you about?

Ride, I didn't make it on the "Rockin Rollercoaster" all of that walking around really got to my foot and by time I started renting the wheelchair or scooter the pain was pretty intense. My kid rode it 3 times he said it was hie favorite ride in all of the parks.

Unfortunatly, this foot thing holds me back from doing some things but I did get to see alot of things in the parks. My wife's aunt who put this trip together did some Grand Gathering things like Breakfast with the characters (for the kids) [we were a group of 20 people]. We did the Saffari Dinner Cruise, Fireworks on the water, and some other dinner and lunch gatherings. I never ate so much GOOD food in one week. It's not like eating at the food courts in the parks.

All in all we had a great time...although leaving Florida and 80 degrees and driving 16 hours in 2 days to get above North Carolina and hit snow was a B*tch, but what can you do.

It's great to be back, I really did miss the Forum, I'm going to go back and take a look at some of the Threads that I missed. I have found that by reading the other threads I can pick up some helpfull tips and general knowledge about the GA that I have not experienced yet (some that I hope to never encounter as well).

Any way like I said it's good to be back and can't wait to work with you guys to help people on the Forum.

Hey it's good to have you back Dan. That stinks you didn't make it to the rollercoaster, but at least your son did. Maybe next time. He got me beat too, I only got to ride twice :). That really sucks about your foot. If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is wrong with it? You don't have to answer if you don't want to - I'm just curious.

Well it sounds like that group package was a great deal. The fireworks were awesome - I assume you saw the same ones "on the water". And yeh you're right, there's some damn good food there. My orchestra got catered a few times, and it was sooo good :). Glad to hear you had a good time Dan. It's great to have you back.

Completly off topic but i went to a Green Day concert last night, and i must say they put on a f'in awesome show. I saw them a few years ago, and the show was still awesome. Anyone else a Green Day fan? I saw them at the Pepsi Arena in Albany NY. Oh yea is anyone from near me. Albany area?

Ride,
I have a condition that causes the meylin sheath surounding the nerves to deteriorate and as this happens the signals to the muscles. With that the musclews atrophy and the tendons take control and alter the alignment of the bones. It mainly affects the hands and feet. I have had 5 operations on the right foot and 1 on the left. After the last operations the pain just never went away. Now I'm on disability and can't work and because I can't stand for too long.The biggest B*tch is that the doctors do not know why there is so much pain so they have me on meds that alow me to function but even at that it can get to be too much sometimes, especially if I don't use my cane or crutches. The worst of all the problems that this gives me is the fact that I'm loosing strength in my hands and it causes me to drop things like tools which causes me grief when working on the GA.

I figure that I can keep pushing on I'm not about to let it beat me. I'll just have to pace myself in what ever I do.

Justin, Sorry but this is where my age shows, I've heard some of the GreenDay stuff but I'm into the stuff you guys would call "Classic Rock" groups like Skynyrd, Zeplin, 38 Special, Jethro Tull, Areosmith(the older stuff) and the hard rock groups of the 70's and 80's. I'm old I guess, and really haven't listened to the newer music too much. I think that I will no longer be able to avoid todays music with a teenage son he is begining to crank the music once in a while.

Justin: I would have to say I like green day ( my friend was tryin to get tickets to the show near me it's already sold out though), I would have to say I'm more of a linkin Park fan though, either way they're all good. if you live in the albany area, I live about 2 hours south of you in NJ. That's all it took me to get to albany university about a year ago. ( conference) I go up to the syracuse/ithaca area at least 3-4 times a year as well ( to visit GirlFriends family)

Dan ( hoags): that problem with your foot, I just heard about that from someone i work with. Fortunetly its only in your feet and not all over.... Good luck with it though, keep a positive attitude, it always helps!

Sorry to hear about the problem with your foot Hoags. :( But i also like 70's and 80's bands as well. I listen to a wide range of music, including linkin park. I live about an hr northwest of albany. It takes me about 3 hrs to get to NYC so only a few more min to NJ. The only other people i have an idea where they are from is michigan.

Thank for the support guy's. I don't want anyone to feel bad for me It's just something I have to learn to live with.

grfnkl: Unfortunatly it is through out my body but it effects the hands and feet the most. But I do get your point IT COULD BE WORSE!!! thankfully, for me it's not.

As for the music part of this thread I have to say that some of the new music is good but I'm still partial to my hard driving rock and roll, being a kid in the 70's I grew up on it and had my fill of my father saying "You can't understand what they are saying." I will say that to you guys in alot of the stuff out today you can't understand what they're saying. (OH Crap...I have finally turned into my father). Just like me you guys will some day have to call what you are listening to today "Clasic music"
and when you do think kindly of me.

Hey Knife,

I have to ask...Can you explain the Avatar, any significant meaning? I like it.

Well guys,

As you can see it's about 4:25 am(eastern time zone) and I am up...another drawback to my condition. Many nights with little sleep. but any way I replied to a thread asking about a 2.3L and 2.4L engine swap for now other reason that putting in a lower milage engine rather than a high mile bone yard 2.3 that will most likely nickle and dime the guy to death. If any one has any more insight on this would you give him a post. His line of rational on the newer engine is on target if it can be done with out a lot of hastle.

Thanks guys, I just don't have enough know how to give him a solid yes or no.

Dan

OK I'm going to change topics: I'm looking for opinions about the G6. My 70 year old mother is ready to get out of her 04 GAGT, she has been drivint the GT's for the last 10+ years. She leases for three years and trades. This has been going on for a long while, since Dad was in the biz she gut a new ride every 3 yrs. Since he is gone I have been taking her car shopping and every time she returns to the GT but now we have to go a nother direction. I only wish I had the cash to buy her cars. 3 yrs and less than 15,000 miles with papered maintainence. One hell of a clean car that usually can be picked up at a great price.

Any way now it's time to change again and I know very little about the GA replacement, I have heard that is is a bit of a turd performance wise with improvements comming but she can't wait. Let me know what you think.

Thanks
Dan

Dan,

That is my Attack Pig, which watches over me and mine 24/7. It lives under my corner table and is ever-watchful over me. It was made for me by my mom, many years ago, when i listened to BTO and Heart [early version of band] and Steppenwolf.

It is actually a huge piggy bank, but got promoted to attack mode, lol. The idea came from Amityville Horror, Jody the pig. I get a big kick out some visitors who see it and their startled reaction!!!! And I have the grandkids convinced it will eat them if they don't behave [which they usually do, they are good boys]. But they don't mess with the PIG, LOL. :wink:

Tam

http://www.turbonator.com/index.html?id=adWordsGrandPrix

What do you guys think of this????? I not sure about it, sounds like a gimmicky add-on.

Tam

The only thing i don't like about the kit is the front bumper, it comes out way to far (it looks like an extra 3 inches), and the black stripes don't do it for me either... I do like the sides how it has a clean look but definetly not aggressive looking. The only kit i really like is the SC/T kit... but I know if i got that i would wreck it very fast driving around here...

just wondering if anyone knew any sites that carry the sc/t kits for the grand ams, its got to be the best look on the grand ams that ive seen

I feel sorry for you for your foot problem Dan. Even if you "don't want people to feel sorry for you", all of us here do :)

As far as that G6 Dan, my dad had one for a company car for a few weeks, and it wasn't too bad. Had decent get-go, and it handled pretty nicely. It was faster then the stock Grand Ams are now easily. If I were her though, I might wait for the next model line to come out.

Tam, that turbinator thing is just snake oil. I've seen tons of things like it, and that turbinator was actually shown at a dyno loss of 3-4 hp. It actually causes you to lose power. It's just bullshit - don't waste your money on it. In the world of cars, anything that is too good to be true, probably is.

Mcbeefer, www.rsmracing.com carries the kit, and I believe www.pfyc.com does also.

Tam: I love the attack Pig!! and man did you bring up some good bands, I forgot all about BTO and Stepenwolf And who could pass up Ann and Nancy.

Ride: Thank for the G6 input but I don't think she can wait till next model run, her lease is up soon.

Have a good day guys!!!

Yep, ride, I thought as much. it seemed rip-off city.

Tam

Ya know I understand the premise but do people think that it actually works? By time the air gets to the intake manifold the turbulence must be great thus causing an interrupted air flow. Someone must think it works because they are still selling them.

yea...u guys and suppin up ur cars, lukeeeee, well i cant really do anything unless its unseen in the motor (so the old man cant tell, he will probly find out sooner or later tho) and i just stay stock...well, after high school, i can do anything i want but im not sure i will, need to save the money cause im rally serious about buying a GTO (after college, or tech. school) I will just have to see tho.

^ ^ Awesome man! :) THat's so totally me! If you read earlier, I talked about how I'm going to buy a GTO in college, and my moding experiences have always, for the most part, had to be unseen by my parents :). That's honestly what started me off on AF was originally trying different stuff I could do that my parents wouldn't find out about. LoL. I can hook you up, my friend. I was totally in the same boat, and still kind of am.

haha, thanks. What can u do that is totaly unseen when some one was to pop the hood and look in it?...u see, if u have been to the post about the 1994 grand prix 3.1 Vs. 1995 grand am 3.1L, im going to race him in august and i know for sure that mine is a bit faster but i want to totaly smoke him, and just so ya know im a person that has to go big, or not at all (when it comes to the stuff that im aloud to do).

Ruh Roh, ride and grandam are getting devious :smokin: . Hell, to be so young to be able to play like that again, sigh, :biggrin:

Anyhoo, best to both of you dudes in your educational and modifying endeavors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup:

Attack Pig

o yeeaaaaaa, thanks, haha...just hope i dont get into trouble anytime soon for it.

You guys think it's tough with the "P's" believe me iy doesn't get any easier with the wife, I can'i even hide any mods...She sees the check book.LOL.

All I can say is go it while you can...because, unless you marry a car person the days of hyped -up rides could be over. I'm sure it's not like this foe every guy that gets married buy I've seen it an awful not with the guys I know.

I know I'll get a chance to play after the kido's have left the nest, I'll wait the way technology is going things will be better and less expensive. Then I can claim "lost childhood insanity" and just go nuts!!!!

Dan

haha, yea, hell, im only a freshman in highschool and i dont get my lisence for another 2 months and like 25 days...well i take my test july 28.

I guess i got one of the lucky ones, My girl is into cars... It makes it easier when buying things, I only have to explain why i need it... and thats it! I think i should keep her! HAHAH I would get smacked if she knew i said this.... hahah

Good for you, my Daughter turns 16 in a couple of days, in PA she has to wait at ;east 6 months and log so maby supervised driving miles before taking the test.

I still have to find her a car! She is not driving mine.

Ruh Roh, ride and grandam are getting devious :smokin: . Hell, to be so young to be able to play like that again, sigh, :biggrin:

Anyhoo, best to both of you dudes in your educational and modifying endeavors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup:

Attack Pig

You guys think it's tough with the "P's" believe me iy doesn't get any easier with the wife, I can'i even hide any mods...She sees the check book.LOL.

All I can say is go it while you can...because, unless you marry a car person the days of hyped -up rides could be over. I'm sure it's not like this foe every guy that gets married buy I've seen it an awful not with the guys I know.

I know I'll get a chance to play after the kido's have left the nest, I'll wait the way technology is going things will be better and less expensive. Then I can claim "lost childhood insanity" and just go nuts!!!!

Dan

LoL :) Thanks tam and dan. Yeh myself and grandam are still in the prime of our "covert modding" years. We're havin fun while we still can! :evillol: :jump3:

haha, thanks. What can u do that is totaly unseen when some one was to pop the hood and look in it?...u see, if u have been to the post about the 1994 grand prix 3.1 Vs. 1995 grand am 3.1L, im going to race him in august and i know for sure that mine is a bit faster but i want to totaly smoke him, and just so ya know im a person that has to go big, or not at all (when it comes to the stuff that im aloud to do).


Well it's hard to find a place to begin, but I'll see what I can think of right now. There's just so much miniscule crap.

If you can't modify intake, buy a K&N drop in filter.
Remove MAF screen
Remove intake resonator
Different plugs and wires (if you can find black wires they'll still look stock)
Billeted Underdrive pulley - will look different, but he'd have to be way down beside the engine looking in order to notice
Tire pressure - commonly neglected - more pressure, especially in the rear tires, will make it easier to get up to speed. Run a couple PSI in the rear tires above reccomended.
Always turn off ETS
Run premium
Depending on your 02 sensor location, you may be able to remove your cat.
and then the biggest of them all.... WEIGHT REDUCTION!! :biggrin: - I successfully dropped about 100-125 pounds back in the day weight-reducing my grand am, and it's all stuff that won't even be seen.

ITEM ----------------- TOTAL SAVED WEIGHT, pds

steel plates in doors ------ 4
intake resonator -----------2
childseat anchor plates --- 15
sound deadening --------- 20
tar mats / blankets ------- 20
Spare tire (doughnut) ---- 30
Spare tire jack ----------- 15
Rear floor mats (not used) -- 4

That's a grand total of 110 pounds! And if you were to sort through and eliminate all the other shit you don't need laying around in your trunk, glove box, console, ect., that would probably be another 15 pounds, which would bring you up to 125 pounds total savings. So let's do the math:

stock curb weight: roughly 3100 pounds
stock horsepower: 155 HP
power to weight ratio: 0.05

new curb weight: roughly 2990 pounds
difference = 110 pounds X 0.05 = 5.5 HP

So roughly, if you didn't do any mods, and merely removed all that weight (and mine was conservative), it would feel like you had added roughly 5 HP. - and that's just with weight reduction. Now let's look at some of the mods I talked about earlier.

MOD --------- % INCREASE OF HP (out of 100) -------TOTAL CUMALITVE HP

STOCK ---------------------------------------------- 155

K&N drop in filter --------------- 0.03 -----------------159
Remove MAF screen ------------ 0.02 ---------------- 162
Remove intake resonator ------- 0.01 ----------------- 163
Different plugs and wires ------- 0.01 ----------------- 164
Billeted Underdrive pulley ------- 0.05 ----------------- 170
Always turn off ETS ---- preventing loss of roughly --- 2 hp on launches
Run premium ---------- preventing loss of roughly --- 2 hp under knocking
Cleaning grounds / terminals --- preventing loss of roughly -- 1 hp electric
Removing Cat / simulated 02 sensor --- 0.04 ------------175

So with those mods / actions, under the right conditions, you would essentially be running 175 hp at the crank with a stock curb weight. Now with the weight reduction that I talked about earlier, it would feel more like 180 HP.

Hope that gives you some ideas. So through mods, and increasing you power to weight ratio, you could add about 25 HP. - none of which would be seen. It might be a little liberal, but I'd still say you could sack an additional 20 hp at the crank. Ask if you want more in depth info about any of those mods, or any others you're considering. Happy modding! :)

sry about this but whst is a MAF screen, the Billeted Underdrive pulley, and Cat / simulated 02 sensor?...sry, i only know so much right now. thats why i ask so i can know more. thanks

DAYUM, Ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, that was cool.

Sheesh, ya completely forgot that some enamel black over a billet pulley will better camo it, sheesh :p . U devious dudes!!!!!!! :lol2:

Attack Pig

grandam, a billeted pulley is generally a lightweight and sometimes drilled pulley that is much lighter weight than the factory one. As result, it saves weight and adds to performance.

Dan, all I can say is sympathy on your insurance bill, sigh.

Attack Pig

Grandam, do NOT hesitate to ask, what we here for, only dumb ? is the one not asked, my opinion.

Tam

Grand Am, I'm with kinfe on this one Please DO NOT be afraid to ask any question, that's what the forum is all about. Besides, we would rather a young guy like yourself ask the questions instead of just jumping in on something and getting things fouled up to the point that you end up with a tow to the Pontiac garage to get it fixed( big time repair bill) most of us regular guy's have been through enough with our GA's that we can at the very least work together to resolve the issue. The only way to learn about this stuff is to ask or experience, and we've experienced so all you have to do is ask!!!

Hey Ride, I'll give you a day or so to recover after the long post...lot's of great info. You go..boy!!

Knife: thanks for the sympathy... I'm about to register as a non-profit organization. At least I'd be able to get government subsities...lol.

"Hail to the Attack Pig!!!"

Oh Yea,

Knife, very profound statement:

The only dumb question is the one not asked.

Keep up the good work.

Another sleepless night here, 4:00am Thank god for the Forum, Cartoon Network sucks at this time on a Sunday morning.

Grandam, the MAF body is in the air hose running from air cleaner to throttle body, there is a screen sometimes at the MAF to further filter air intaking into engine. That's what ride is saying.

The simulated 02 sensor is a dummy sensor [aftermarket] that replaces the cat. convert. sensor when the cat. is removed, so the ECM still "thinks" the cat. is there.

hm...ic now, yea, i got some answers to thoughs by my dad yesterday and he was wondering y i was asking them questions. thought the best thing to do then was to shut up so he dosnt know. well, i cant get a K&N fillter anywhere in town so i will have to see where to get one (cant get one off the net cause it would be dilivered to my house and the rents will find out). i so cant wait to get my cd player and speakers. I will have quite a bit of money to spend cause i get confermed today and i have a couple of bucks right now the way it is. i lost $20 check yesterday in the wash so there goes part of it. thanks alot guys.

o yea, the part about me either going to college or tech school, i think im going to pick tech cause i want to work on cars or electrical stuff. Electrica...dont need to ask any quest on stereo stuff cause thats my specialty...haha.

Well guys, The wife left me the GAGT today because the SES light came on and of course out of gas. I took the GT to AutoZone to get the code read...showed po141 O2 sensor before the cat. I picked up a bosch sensor for $20.00 and climbed under the car. I had to cut one my 7/8" wrench in half to beable to get to the nut on the sensor. but all in all not too bad of a repair. The only thing about it is that the car doesn't run any different, but the lights out. Sometimes I think the tollerances are way too low for the SES light, now I find out from a post that GTPDad did that the newer models are throwing code for a burnt out bulb. I wonder how much idiot proof ther are going to make these things. What ever happened to checking out your car every once in a while for thing like bad bulbs? I check mine when I give it a bath which is pretty often ( I hate a dirty ride). Any way I just wanted to throw that stuff out there.

Hang in there everyone,
Dan

sounds like you had a job. yea, but now you can cruise around it your GA.

I feel every computer has a different tolerance for trouble codes... I got the SES the other day, all i was told a hose was disconnected, I figure a vacuum hose, but hears the kicker i was told by my mechanic, that according to the comp, i was doing 84 mph?!! I have not hit those speeds in awhile. I think the comp in my car has a delayed reaction to things...
Supposively there is a light to tell you a light is out, it doesn't seem to matter people since there are a lot of rides with lights out, especially the taillights on the G/a's.( i know i have one out myself right now) I've never gotten a svs light for a light...

random thought on the SES light, how come lets say the change oil light comes on you get an annoying chime in the car, but if the SES light comes on Nothing? one would think that it would chime when that light comes on... Then again this could be my car not doing what it's susposed to.

Hey Ride, I'll give you a day or so to recover after the long post...lot's of great info. You go..boy!!!

LOL :) Hey thanks Dan and Tam for glorifying my 5-minute post so much :) LoL. I didn't think much of it writing it, but I guess it turned out a whole hell of a lot bigger then I thought it was. And I took Dan up on his "day or 2 off" - I hadn't really been on here for like 3 or 4, due to the fact that I was extremely busy. See, last saturday was our Senior prom, and I had an awesome night, and since then, I've been rediculously busy / successful with a few amazing women, plus added to my huge amount of school related gar-bahge, plus me and 2 of my buds have been doing PT about every single night, so I've been one busy-busy bee. Though, despite all that yoo-ha, I've still found plenty of time to work on my beloved GA! :smokin: LoL - It's great to be back in the groove around here, you guys did a hell of a great job helpin out everyone while I was gone - keep up the good work :thumbsup:

sry about this but whst is a MAF screen, the Billeted Underdrive pulley, and Cat / simulated 02 sensor?...sry, i only know so much right now. thats why i ask so i can know more. thanks

I'll give a go at grandamdriver. I know you guys already answered his question, so I might repeat some, but I just wanted to elaborate.

The MAF runs across the MAF unit - which you can see if you open your airbox and look toward the engine - that screen is actually in the MAF. The screen is a honeycomb-like material, and it actually wasn't meant for filtering (though I suppose if you completely removed your air filter, it might stop... say... a log... from getting in :) ) - It's there to alledgedly help straighten out the airflow going into your engine to help with idling. It actually leads to a blockage of 18% of the flow, however. With some people, there have been reports of causing rough idle; however I never have ever experienced any problems from it, and I would highly reccomend it. I noticed instant gains the next morning driving it. To remove it, you will need to take apart your intake, remove the MAF, and then pound an awl or a screwdriver into the screen, and then RIIIIIIppppppp outward. Be very careful not to damage the MAF electronics. If you are still going to be sticking with a stock intake, this would also be a great time to clean your whole intake, as well as install the K&N filter. And if you can't find one like you said, any local auto place that doesn't have it, should be able to order it for you. You may even have to drive a ways to find a place - but there should be someone within a 1/2 hour at most. I had to drive secretly once about 35 minutes one-way just to pick up a set of NGK plugs. LoL.

And as far as the billeted underdrive pulley, Knifeblade was right. It's a replacement for the harmonic balancer (drives all the accessories), which weighs a shitload = lots of rotational mass. By saving just a few pounds on that pulley, it frees a lot of horsepower. Like he said, they're usually alluminum, but I've never seen them drilled (for weight.) They're drilled for the mounting bolts for using a J-tool to remove the pulley. They're usually smaller too, (thus the term underdrive - due to the fact that they underdrive your accesories). So if you have a big amp, or system, the UD pulley actually wouldn't be a good mod, because your alternator won't be putting out as much juice with it. If you want to check out a couple, here's some links. Some people give shit about it "messing up the balance" of the engine - the harmonic balancer on our engines plays a very little role, however. It is equipped with rotating rubber rings, to help dampen vibrations travelling down the crankshaft. The billeted pulleys do not have these rings. On an externally balanced engine, this would be a problem. Ours, however, are internally balanced, so no significant vibrations are handled by the pulley. Noone that I've heard of has ever had any damage occur as a result of a UD pulley.

http://www.fastfwdperformance.com/ud.htm
http://www.rsmracing.com/ - under Grand Am section

From all the talk that I've heard, the FFWD performance is actually the better of the two.

Ok, I'm done. :) Goodnight everyone.

So, does that mean someone got very lucky? :evillol: Glad ya enjoyed the "ordeal" :smokin:

The GA's rarely send signals out re burnt bulbs, as Dan states, it best to visually inspect for operation. :smooch: Hint~~~ since it usually a big pain in A** to check out rear lighting [brakes, turns, etc] without someone else around, back the ride up to a glass window somewhere, I usually find some storefront window that will reflect the rear end of the ride. Do your pedal and lever stuff while watching through the rear. Saves time.
Can also be done against a concrete wall, but the lights don't visualise as well. :biggrin:

Knife, good hint about the window, just make sure you don't get too close,LOL. I strongly belive that one should go over the car once in a while and not depend on the computer so much, after it is a machine and things go wrong with them and sometimes you can catch them before they get costly. My thought on it....

Ride...If I would have known you where going to be so successful I'd have given you a week to recover. I do however want a clearification, you said a couple of amazing women right? was it at the same time? Wait...don't answer too fast let this old man develop a visual. Just jokin' havin some fun. any way glad you had a good weekend. also glad to have you back in the swing on the AF.

grfnkl: I agree with you, although the 96 GT of mine does not have the change oil indicator I do think that there should be an audio warning with the SES, I recently foun out that the SES light on the GT had been on for a while but the wife had the car, it gets better fuel economy than my Suzuki XL-7 and she dirves to work every day. It was only the upper O2 sensor [quick fix], but if she would have heard a warning then it would have been taken care of the other day. I also think the computer can be tempermental at times, just like the home unit.

Have a good day everyone, talk to you later, have to take my daughter to the Doctor this morning.

yea...my mom is getting sick of me and talking about my GA to my dad and she is threatining to sell it. that means i cant do anything to it. but im saving money right now for my own ride. still a GA but a GT. Not sure if it wil happen but if all goes bad for me with my mother and i have the cash, screw her, i will get my own car and then i can do anything to it i want.

So, does that mean someone got very lucky? :evillol: Glad ya enjoyed the "ordeal" :smokin:

Ride...If I would have known you where going to be so successful I'd have given you a week to recover. I do however want a clearification, you said a couple of amazing women right? was it at the same time? Wait...don't answer too fast let this old man develop a visual.

LMAO! :lol: :) OMG - wow that cracks me up lol. You guys were instantly extremely interested in if Ridenour scored or not :evillol: Well to give you the low-down, I didn't quite as lucky as I would have liked, but me and my date went back to my house after prom, and got a movie, and we spent about 2 1/2 hours not watching the movie :smokin: LoL it was awesome. And sadly, Dan, the amazing women were not at the same time. LoL I got freak-danced hardcore by 2 really hot ones at the same time though, if that counts :icon16: - when I was on the dance floor, I got more ass then a toilet seat. When I was at my house, I got... uh... er... well I had a great time. LoL but yes the night was very satisfying non-the-less, I had some incredibly awesome moments, and essentially was a sex-god for about 12 hours - Gol I wish every night could be like that! ... and it wouldn't been great to have my way with more then one of those chicks at the same time - LoL from the way you sounded Dan, it sounds like you're really missing your youth-years :wink:

Wow grandamdriver, that realy sucks. Is your mom ticked because she doesn't want you modifying it, or what? That'd be great if you could actually afford a newer GA GT - I have always loved mine to death. And yeh make sure the insurance / title is in your name too, that way you'll have full ownership of the car. Keep us filled in man.

Grandam,
All I can tell you is to be carefull when choosing which bridges you burn after you have crossed!!

It's mom's perogative to give you a hard time about the GA, that is what mome do. Don't forget she's never been a young guy who's into cars. Just keep saving the $$$ and get your own but make sure you can do it All on your own, if you have to end up at mom's purse strings you will never live it down. I've been there and it is not pleasant.

Just some well intentioned advise for you to take as you wish.

Hope all goes well,
Dan

Oh hey, forgot to mention - Ridenour successfully completed yet another significant intake mod tonight. I finally thought I was out of little tweaking I could do to my intake, but I decided to re-try something I had attempted a long time ago. The ribbed rubber section between the MAF and the TB, I was going to replace with a metal tube for smoother air flow, and cut the holes for the IAT sensor & PCV intake. But I never got it to fit right, so I gave up - but tonight I found some straight rubber coupling that I had from an intake I bought a lonnngg time ago, so I cut that up and made it fit. So I'll see how she runs tommorow. Shouldn't be a huge difference, just helps smooth out the air flow a little and keeps the turbulence down and the velocity up.

Ride, I do miss my youth, but I can honestly say that I am really into the married life, I've got a great wife and two great kids, plus extras...Two cats, both are a pain in the ass, but they're cool. And I can't go on with out mentioning the GAGT.

However, I think I'm loosing the GAGT, since the wifes been driving it to work every day (fuel economy), she is starting to realize how much fun the car can really be. At least I know where it is and what is going on with it.

Now as for your wild night...I'm proud of you, Any one that can get ass on a dance floor deserves a Hats Off!! As for two women Only a few men can be so fortunate, I've never achieved that feat (not to my recolection) but I did spend quite a bit of time with the brew. For as much beer that I drank back then I have done a complete 180, and havent had a drink in about 15 years. To tell ya the turth I don't miss it. Even though I never got hangovers, I just woke up one morning and just gave it up. Now all I have to do is quit the smokes and I'll be in good shape.

What ever you do at your age ENJOY YOURSELF, BUT USE CAUTION.

Hey I got to run...I'll check ya out tomarrow,
Have a good evening.

Dan

Grandam: definetly pick your battles wisely with the car.... otherwise you'll end up like me. My 88 G/a My mom doesn't even know i own it, since she hated the car so much.... I bought it back in spite.. not a good thing, cuz too many people get involved!

Ride: Lucky b*stard! I remember my prom and it was nothing like what you described.... you're making me jealous! argh!

However, I think I'm loosing the GAGT, since the wifes been driving it to work every day (fuel economy), she is starting to realize how much fun the car can really be. At least I know where it is and what is going on with it.

Now as for your wild night...I'm proud of you, Any one that can get ass on a dance floor deserves a Hats Off!! As for two women Only a few men can be so fortunate, I've never achieved that feat (not to my recolection) but I did spend quite a bit of time with the brew. For as much beer that I drank back then I have done a complete 180, and havent had a drink in about 15 years. To tell ya the turth I don't miss it. Even though I never got hangovers, I just woke up one morning and just gave it up. Now all I have to do is quit the smokes and I'll be in good shape.

What ever you do at your age ENJOY YOURSELF, BUT USE CAUTION.

LoL that sucks Dan. You might need to get one of those "black boxes" to make sure the wife isn't beatin the poor ole' grand am. I'm glad I'm not married - never have to worry about a woman driving my car without my supervision :)

LoL yeh I was lucky to get freak-danced on by 2 girls at once, it kicked ass :icon16:. That's good you gave up drinking - my dad was a hardcore alcholic, but after my oldest sister was born, he finally gave it up, and hasn't touched a drop since. It takes a lot to do that - we're proud of you man :). So far, I haven't had a drinking problem. I've had a few drinks, but never gotten plastered or anything, and I intend to keep it that way, especially since alcoholism runs in my family. Oh and don't worry, I haven't done anything too extreme yet. I'm going to be in college in about 2 months, so things might get a little different, but I'm pretty sure I can hold out without doing anything I'll regret too much. Whenever I'm in, shall we say.. "tempting" situations, I'm a pretty level-headed guy. I'm lucky - I know so many kids in my grade that have already themselves over the rest of there lives just for stupid shit that they did for kicks one night. Hey good luck quitting smoking too - talk to you later.

Ride: Lucky b*stard! I remember my prom and it was nothing like what you described.... you're making me jealous! argh!

LOL :grinyes: I know it - I'm one lucky dog. Actually, if it makes you feel any better, my junior year prom sucked. But now that I think about it, it was actually decent, but it sucked compared to this years, cause this years kicked so much unbelievable ass! :grinno: LoL

I just can't understand why Ride has Help Me on his sig. screen :confused: :p

Hey, Dan~~~~~~~~~~~ :biggrin: "Tween us both, we beat Ride.

Tam you are sooooooo! right, I would really hate to be a kid trying to meet someone now a days. Sometimes history carries baggage. But our boy Ride seems to have his stuff together, pretty smart kid, I hope my boy turns out like him instead of the little a**hole that I was.

Ride: Thanks for the kind word, it's pretty cool to be able to go out once in a while and watch everyone get toasted knowing that they will eventually do something stupid and not remember the night before. I'm not the kind of person that is against anything people do I figure it's their choice as to how they conduct themselves as long as they don't try to pull me in. Take my brothers for example, they are both drinkers [not alcoholics] but they like to go out and have a good time, I've gone out with them a few times and they still don't think I not a drinker because I have as much fun as they do...but I remember it. They end up calling me the next day and ask what they did. Kind nuts if you ask me.

I'm proud of you, you really have your s*it together and at your age thats cool.

Now as for the GAGT, the wife is cool about driving it she will not beat on it because she is afraid that she'll cause a break down and I'll have to fix it or it will cost too much to get it repaired. So it's Cool.

Have a good day all.
Dan

got my new cd player and speakers. it was an awsome buy for $270 bucks. it is finally better than my friends and now he wants to get the same stuff i have.

Grandam...And The Race Is On!!!!

Go get him.

Good luck,
Dan

Hmmmmmmmm, crank up some YES, or some REO, or some Fleetwood Mac, or some Nazareth,and ya'll beat the doors off their hinges.

i have some good cds. i saw this cd (really stupid sorta) because it was not music, no one was like singing to it or anything. all it was was like bass notes that maker ur system sounds really good but all it was was beats. it was like a cheap techno cd. it sounds awsome though. one of my best buys i have ever bought. also, i work at a grocery store and i found out that they sell Lucas, STP, and other products for you car. i was going to get some octange booster and fuel injection leaner for my car and i got fuel injector cleaner from lucas and they only had octane booster from STP and my dad took it from me when i took it from the shelf to look at and and put it back. he told me to never buy anthing other than lucas. they sell it at john deere and thats where he works and he said thats all they will sell now because all of the other stuff isnt near as good. so now i have to look for octane booster from lucas. weird thing is that he will let me use that stuff and i wont get in trouble. so its safe for me to buy the stuff anytimne i want. i think im goin to buy Lucas racing oil too...mabey, but will it help me in the agaust race?....thanks guys.

Boy Knife are you reaching back, A little " Hair of the Dog " is good for what ails ya. You might as well throw in some Kansas, some Nugent "Stranglehold" [ live of course], can't forget the ZZTop either. A little Foghat and BTO for good measure. Man I could keep going, but I think we will start to loose some of these young pups.

Keep Rockin,
Dan

REO, I haven't heard their stuff in a long time, you have got the flashbacks started.

yea...I feel like im missing out on something because i dont listen to them. Sry to say but i got pulled into R&B, Hip Hop, and Rap a couple of years ago and cant let go. But i am getting into like the beatles and stuff like that now but i like new music alot. The rap type of music sounds the best on the speakers i think. oh, if any of you recall on what i said about my parents getting mad and threating to sell my car?, well...i think i just raised the bar higher. But im trying to hold them back cause im putting all of my pay checks in the savings and stuff and when it comes to me to drive, i will try to be nice to them till i have the money and say good-bye with it. i really like that car a whole lot and i think im one of the craziest people to be giving it up but at this point i wish i could do whatever i want to a car. Im going to college to do the same and work on them. but i want something to call my own. i do have alot that i can say but its not even close to a car. i would just like to say "yea, i bought the car, am paying for insurance, and can take care of myself." But they wont let me do that. im just gonna have to see what happenes later and hope for the best. i still think im crazy. what i would love to do is if i can find exactly like it, and if i have the money, buy it, and say, hey, i got car and show my rents what i got. i would love to see their reaction would be to me. I know i sound bad but im not. i just cant handle them having full control over my car. i want to work on it becuase thats what i love to do. but they are holding me back from doing that. Sorry if this ws sorta wrong, also i got off topic again. Just needed to get somethin of my chest before i explode!

GrandAm, just relax I'm sure your P's have their reasons for holding you back from doing mods to the car. All I can say is do the college thing and get out and get a job so you can do what you want when you want. I'm sure it seems like a long way off, but time does fly, and soon enough you will have the car you want along with the car payment, insurance, rent, food and all of the bills that go along with life as an adult. I hope things work out the way you plan.

Hang in there,

Off topic??

Someone buy my Grand Am please. $8,600

Stay away from STP, it nada for the money, my opinion. I've seen lucas around, seems to have decent rep. so does Wynn's and Gumout.

Oh, Dan I can go SO far back!!!!!!!!!!! Styx, Journey, Foreinger, Spooky Tooth, Wishbone Ash, Exile, and yes even Kiss, LOL.

Grandam, it like Dan says, it will come in time, us older guys been there, seen it, done it, let time be your friend, dude.

Sheez I haven't posted on here in a while - i've missed a lot. Grandamdriver, I have some great words of wisdom for you....: "(everything that Dan said.)" LoL and dan, thanks for the stuff you said about me after my last post - i appreciated it.

Mr. Lous, you might get a hell of alot better luck posting that add in the FS section ( seeing as how anyone on the grand am forum most likely already has a grand am :) ).

Now onto my new topic - Yesterday, I recieved the most baddest things of all badass things - a FREE (....zip, zero, nada...) SC/T Hood for my GA! :) BYAGGHHH!!!!!!
Ok, I'm sure you're all wondering how I got it - here's the deal. My dad works at the LGR plant (where all the caddy's are made) and at LCA (where all the Grand Ams were made) - anyways, he's headed up tons of projects and whatnot around the lansing area, so he knows tons of people throughout GM. Well when they originally launched the S/CT package on the grand am, they made some prototype hoods for a while - which were just like the current ones, except the driver-side scoop was open w/ mesh, instead of closed, (which works perfectly w/ short ram intakes like that of my own :) ). Anyways, they used one of these first hoods to make fixtures and gages / machines for making the hood in actual production. So they had a "galaxy silver" hood (which happens to be the same exact color of my car) that they had marked on with black marker, and had been minorly scratched. When they were done, they put it in storage, and when they were completely done with the launch, and cleaning out the tool room, they were going to throw the beautiful hood away. However, a great man (god bless his soul) saved the innocent hood from the wrath of the general motors janitorial staff, and had since given it safe haven in the attic above his garage. My dad knew a guy that knew him, however, and he ended up communicating with the guy directly. He asked him if we would be interested in selling the glorious hood of glory from which all grand am gloriness flows, and the employee (god bless his soul again) said "well, I didn't have to pay anything for it... I don't see why you should have to..." and simply gave it to my dad, whom brought it to our house to find a new, happy home on the front of my grand am (whos current hood had a dent in the front anyways) - and all I owe the spawner-of-the-sc/t-hoods is Lunch! :) - I can deffinately do that! So there you have it, that's how I recieved the hood. The hood was filthy, and marked up, however after about an hour of cleaning, washing, and TLC, I had it spick and spam, just with some minor scratches remaining (I'll take some rubbing compound to those sometime). After another 1/2 hour, I had my old hood off, and my new hood on, (it looked very happy sitting there) and ever since, I have been very happy! :) The thing felt about 15 to 20 pounds less then the stock hood, and I swear I can actually feel a slight difference in handling at low speeds - it makes sense - lowering weight up on the front of FWD cars is critical in handling capabilities. It improved my weight distribution as well, due to the fact that after all my weight-reducing, I essentially had no weight in the rear of my car, it was almost all up front - this helped to balance it somewhat. Anyways, the whole being that the hood is badass, I was incredibly fortunate to have it fall into my hands, and that I shall love and cherish it forever. I am totally exuberant over these recent happenings, and have been telling every soul I know about my good fortune. Everyone should have something like this happen to them. I literally got a 600 to 700 $ hood for free - I am a very lucky man. I wish the same luck upon all my fellow grand-am-owners :). Below is a picture of my car back in the winter, and below it is a pick now with the new hood.

BEFORE THE COMING OF THE RISEN HOOD OF RADIANT GRAND-AM-GLORY

http://img100.echo.cx/img100/9274/hpim04750vi.jpg

AFTER THE COMING OF THE RISEN HOOD OF RADIANT GRAND-AM-GLORY

http://img99.echo.cx/img99/3379/new6nz.jpg

Damn Ride, I love the hood but you need to edit that second pic. LOL

Black Sabbath, Hendrix, Stones, Joplin, Canned Heat, the Dead [overrated, my opinion, Garcia was nada], Allman Bro.'s, Skynyrd, Zeppelin [now that was a band], Who, all the one-hit wonders of the day. Anyone recall Tommy Roe or even >shudder< Bobby Davis?

I can edit that pic for you if you would like Ride.

Shit oops sorry Jon. I posted that second comment before I saw your post, and then deleted it when I saw you posted at the same time - If you understand what I mean. I wasn't trying to be sassy or anything. I got it sized down myself to a more reasonable scale. Thanks though - is that better?

Works for me and I can see deleted posts. Thats why I asked. It didn't bother me either way. Also , on a side note sorry I haven't been around much lately. Been busy with work and working on the Formula. If any of you guys need anything or have a thread you think I should take a closer look at, please PM me. I check those a couple times a day and glad this thread is getting plenty of use.

John

Jon, dude, just a thanks for an OT thread start, which as ya can see is social, but also is informative [hopefully] to new folks to the forum.

Sometimes, it cool to just chat a bit with fellow members, away from the [re-edited by me 5/13/05] car problems some folks are dealing with and that we all try to help with.

Jon, I agree with Knife, This thread was just what we Grand Amers needed. It has become the place to go to see how the others are doing, it has also given us a place to get to know each other a little better, aside from the car talk. I can honestly say since I came across the Forum and joined back in Jan. I now have something to look forward to when I am having one of my "Bad Foot Nights" and when sleep doesn't come easy. The Forum itself have also given me an oppertunity to learn more about my GAGT than I ever could have. But I think the best thing to come out of this has been the chance to meet some guys that I can call friends. I have a great deal of respect for Knifeblade and Ridenour these two are a great asset to the Grand Am forum. Their knowledge has helped me and so many others save alot of $$$ when it came to making repairs. If we had a place for "Forum Member of the Month" I would have to nominate both of these guys.

Ride...The GAGT looks GREAT...And with the lucky streak you got going I would greatly appreciate the lottery numbers for the next large Powerball Jackpot. The streak you have working is once in a life-time...Hot Girls, Fast cars and Freebies what else coulld you ask for?

Knife...you are reaching back for the tunes...you have really pulled some good names, bringing back some memories. I also wanted to say thanks for your back-up on the posts, no one in specific, but
"Thanks".

Sorry to ramble on there, just some things that needed to be said.

You guys have a good night, catch ya in the AM.
Dan

Glad to hear you guys concur with the OT thread :thumbsup:

And the member of the month thing, is actually a pretty good idea. I think I may bring that up in the mod corner. Like maybe a member who gets voted in gets special stars and a sub tittle that says Member of the month. Huh, let me mull this over. Great suggestion :iceslolan

Jon,
I'm glad you like the idea...I think it would be pretty cool now that I think of it as incentive for the members to take pride in the Forum. Where else can someone go to get high quality information about their GA's for FREE.
When I first threw it out there is was meant to be a compliment to Knife and Ride, I would love to see it as a regular monthly item. And who knows maybe one of the Forum sponsors would like to participate by offering a gift certificate or something. You may even be able to get an advertiser to sponsor the whole thing.(IE: Company "X" Presents this months Grand Am Member of the Month).

Just some more ideas for you.
Thanks,
Dan

AAAWWWWWWWWW, GGGGGGEEEEEEEEE, but seriously, I think so many folks lend good advice and information that this forum is one of the most team-efforted pages around to help other's with their ride's problems.

Dan, you should have included yourself in any mix, your help is invaluable [and actually very easy for me, in that you and ride and others lay out the prob. and all I usually do is just make a few clicks for a minute or so to give a link that further backs up what all you folks are trying to help with.]

Kudos to the GA'ers.

Tam, I agree with you in regard to the team effort approach we take around here, I would be very supprised if there is another forum that runs like the GA Forum. Some of the other Forum sites I have visited and even posted in do not even come close to measuring up to what we have here.

It is so easy to throw in your two cents worth when guys like you and Ride have already set the ground work for the response.

Hey...I didn't go back but did you mention Steve Miller, Bob Seager, Triumph, how about The Allman Brothers, the Doobie Bros. Man this could go on forever. I pitty the kids today, they have no clue as to what they're missing. My son is getting into some of my stuff and introducing it to his buddies, It's something to see these kids asking each other if the had ever heard a song that I listened to way back when. Right now he and his buds are getting into AC/DC, they asked me if I had any of their stuff on CD/cassette, They could not grasp the idea of vinyl records. It gets funny at times.

Well, I gotta run, catch ya later.
Dan

Well, how about J. Geils Band, Herman's hermits, Dave Clark Five, Monkees [yeah, I know, but they did have some catchy tunes], all the bubblegum era, [Ohio express, Nancy sinatra and her "boots", Neil Diamond, Sly and the Family Stone, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Wild Cherry, Hot Chocolate, Jackson Five,] Bobby sherman, Fifth dimension, Bette Midler, Streisand, the Archies, LMAO, Rod Stewart, Genesis, Mamas and Papas, Doors, Babe Ruth, Bad Company, Def Leppard, Pink Floyd, Montrose, Humble Pie, Boston, Yardbirds, Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep, Dire Straights, Rondstadt, Carpenters, Cat Stevens, Cream, Iron Butterfly, 3 Dog night, Gladys Knight and the PIPS, Jethro tull, Grand Funk Railroad, Deep Purple, Spirit, Elf,

All off my vinyl collection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LMAO

Man you laid out a bunch of them that I was going to throw at you in my next post. Hey there is nothing wrong with the Monkeys they did have some good songs. Don't forget about Chicago, Stevie Wonder, Edgar Winter, Rush, Deep Purple, Black Sabeth, How about Nielson Schmilson, ELO and so many more. I think we're starting to show some age now.

Subject Change: I took the daughter to PennDOT to apply for her learners permit, In PA you have to answer a series of questions to get the permit, then you have to log so many hours of driving with a liscenced adult, wait 6 months and then you can take your drivers exam. Well the poor kid failed the questions yesterday ao I'm going take her today I hope she passes. Although I'm not looking forward teaching her how to operate a vehicle...she doesn't want to drive the GAGT because of the manual tranny so I have to teach her in the XL-7. She wants to find a GA for her own car, I hope I can find a good one in the price range. I should be able to being that there are so many out there.

Got to run again...I'll try to post again tonight...too much going on.

See ya later,
Dan

Wishing daughter well on the test, I think????????

w00t!!!

New job. But training sucks. Back to modding my 'other' car. :icon16:
The last month or so sucked. I lost my 'secure' job April 1st, and haven't really worked since then. Money got REAL tight. I have some serious, serious mods for my T/A, and I almost had to start selling them. Glad that is over. Now I need to catch back up, so I can finish it up.

Hey, also....anyone ever try Seafoam in their GA's?

Jon, I agree with Knife, This thread was just what we Grand Amers needed. It has become the place to go to see how the others are doing, it has also given us a place to get to know each other a little better, aside from the car talk. I can honestly say since I came across the Forum and joined back in Jan. I now have something to look forward to when I am having one of my "Bad Foot Nights" and when sleep doesn't come easy. The Forum itself have also given me an oppertunity to learn more about my GAGT than I ever could have. But I think the best thing to come out of this has been the chance to meet some guys that I can call friends. I have a great deal of respect for Knifeblade and Ridenour these two are a great asset to the Grand Am forum. Their knowledge has helped me and so many others save alot of $$$ when it came to making repairs. If we had a place for "Forum Member of the Month" I would have to nominate both of these guys.

Ride...The GAGT looks GREAT...And with the lucky streak you got going I would greatly appreciate the lottery numbers for the next large Powerball Jackpot. The streak you have working is once in a life-time...Hot Girls, Fast cars and Freebies what else coulld you ask for?

Knife...you are reaching back for the tunes...you have really pulled some good names, bringing back some memories. I also wanted to say thanks for your back-up on the posts, no one in specific, but
"Thanks".

Sorry to ramble on there, just some things that needed to be said.

You guys have a good night, catch ya in the AM.
Dan

Awww.... jeeeez.... :grinyes: :) - Dan, and Tam, you guys flatter the shit out of me! :) However, you both happened to forget yourselves - Dan and Tam, you two are priceless assets to the Grand Am community here at AF! :biggrin: You have helped countless hundreds. - And like Tam said, it's a huge teamwork effort. There's so many people here that help to build the grand am network - thanks to all the people who give so much. Hmm.... this kind of reminds me of our "warm and fuzzy" thread we had a few months back... - so much love! :) LoL.

Dan, I'd like to add another good-luck point to your daughter on her test.

Mr Lous, good luck with your recent financial quests, and especially with your latest greatest Trans am mods. And yes, I have ran several cans of seafoam through my GA within the last few months. I've ran a can in my tank, one in my oil, and about 3/4 in my tank again - the other 1/4 I attempted to feed into the intake manifold via the PCV valve, however I only succeeded in stalling it out on every attempt before I got the feeling of the flow. The car will raise the idle enough to keep it running if you pour slow enough, however I couldn't get the pouring technique down right. I'm sure I'll be able to pull it off on my next can, however. I just need to try it again.

Oh, and to update you all on my latest greatest car stuff besides my new hood, I have also switched to synth-blend, and finally installed straight-coupling on my intake where it's ribbed rubber stock. And I also had my front fascia arrive off ebay (I will be replacing my front and back fascia). My front fascia (though you cannot see it in either pic) is chipped / pitted substantially and has several cracks in it. My rear fascia has a gaping 4 inch hole in it from when I hit a reflector back during the winter, and is severely cracked around the area. So after I get my new rear one off of ebay, I can get them both painted at a local body shop which I trust extremely (as they did a perfect job paint-matching on my car back in the day), and then I will also need to install new molding strips on them, and a new pontiac emblem. While I'm doing that body work, I will also attempt to fix the minor scratches on my new hood using some rubbing compound. After all that, my car will be free of any cosmetic defects :) :smokin: :grinyes: - wish me luck :). LoL talk to you guys later.

That hood looks buissnass (idk, cool word to use in this time of you glory).

sry about that, sorta late on that post. i didnt know i was on #7 instead of 8. Yes, that is a great idea about the award thing. and all of you guys have been great help to me. Im a new car dude and i guys are getting me more and more into it and i love knowing these things because i will need them in the future. Thanks guys.

LoL no prob driver. Thanks for the compliment :) - I'm totally lovin this hood so far. It's a dream come true. - and I'm glad you've enjoyed your time here on AF so far.

yes, i love using AF because i know more and KNOWLAGE IS POWER!...haha, but i like to hear about other peoples grand am's, how to fix them, and the exeriances they have had with them. im glad i joined it.

Ride,

Thanks for the kind words, I don't think of myself as an asset {maybe if you drop the last 2 letters it would fit me better LOL.}, I am out here doing something I love to do, I love talking cars and it gets even better when you can talk with a bunch of people that have the same car. As for my know how it has just come from good old fashion experience. I only know abotu the stuff that I've been through, when it comes to mods and new technology I'm limited to my 96 GT. You youger guys are the technomods [NEW WORD I THINK, i kind of like it...]
TECHNOMOD: Tek-no-mod-...One who knows the techincal aspects of the upgrade and after market parts required to increase and inhance the horsepower and performance of the Pontiac Grand Am SE and GT models, but not limited to the Quad 4 and/or the V6 (with or with out the Ram Air option).

Sorry, way off track, any way like I was saying, I just do this for the fun of it the part about helping people is a great benefit to the fun. But just the same than you for the kind words.

Tam: the same goes for you, thanks for the kind words, this would not be as enjoyable if not for your wit and humor that you send my way. [ example: your intended sarcasm in the PM from the other day.]

To any others that are becoming regulars on the GA Forum: I'm glad to help with any problems you may have to the best of my abilities.

SUBJECT CHANGE: My little girl passed her Drivers Learners Permit Test, she is however a little hesitant about getting behind the wheel. But Thank you to all who have wished her the best, she thought it was great, that people we don't even know wished her good luck. I explained to her that the group of people on the GA forum are a great group that get a lot of enjoyment from helping others.

Thanks you guys,
Dan

That sounds great. It's cool that you can feel that way about other people that you dont really know that are helpping you in anyway they can. And that is cool that your daughter permit. When i got my permit all i thought about and wanted to do was drive, now im just looking forward to getting my license in july so i can power around in the time of my summer vacation with my friends.

Grandam, that sounds like a great plan, When I got my permit at 16 (A LONG TIME AGO), in Pa you only had to wait 30 days before taking your test. My dad used to be a driver training instructer and taught me how to drive in about two weeks, it helpped that I used to take mom's car around the neighborhood when I was only 15 yrs. old, I think the old man knew about it but he never said anything about it.
It was great getting the liscence in the summer, being able to cruise around with out having to worry about slick roads made it a lot easier to handle the bad weather when it finally came.

Talking about people you don't really know...please do me one favor...when you get out by yourself in July, just be cool for a while, I really hate it when a young person gets in an accident shortly after getting their liscence. You will be driving for a long time so don't rush into anything. [ Sorry, fatherly instinct kicked in].

Well, I gotta run, I'll post at you tomarrow,
Dan

How long ago, Dan????????? :p Glad the daughter got her permit, now get ready for the insurance, sigh :2cents: :banghead:

But, I sure with your guidance, she'll be a good driver. And, it is always my opinion, start them with an auto-trans first, so they get the bugs of new-driver stuff worked out, then put their hands on a standard. Everyone should know how to run a standard. [And, my opinion, they not only more fun, they allow ya to stay "in-tune" with the ride, though they sem impractical for start-stop daily-daily inner city driving, sigh]

Brings memory of last ex~~~~~~~~ I bought a Jeep, 5-speed standard, thought I'd treat myself to some 4wd capability, and surprise the ex. She looked at the shift lever and knob shift-pattern, then at the clutch, like they were alien creatures come to spirit her away from earth. Priceless!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, after a clutch replace, she was hopeless, and I divorced her, LMFAO. J/K, guys, J/K, though not about the clutch. :banghead:

Anyhoo, the Jeep lasted longer than she did :lol2:

At least my current Lady knows how to run a stick, no, [well, maybe so, hehe] pun intended. :tongue: Take that, Ride, you ain't the only buck in the woods, LOL, buddy.

Hoo boy, I shouldn't come in here on no sleep, sigh.

New meaning to Grinding Gears !!!!

Hey, Ride's not the only ladies man around here... I'm not one I've been with my sweetie for 21 years, August marks the 18th annaversary.

She too can run a stick...The damn GAGT gets more hand shaking than I do. I think I gave up too much when she took over the car. Maybe that's why it's running so freaking good!

Tam, I too need some sleep, going on about 1 &1/2 hours last night, (foot kept me up...it really sucks at times.), but I am getting used to sleeping 1 to 2 hours a night, sometimes 3 to 4 if I'm lucky.

See things have changed so much...I think I'm getting lucky if I get 3 to 4 hours of sleep. Man am I twisted?

Nah, Dan, I emphathize with your physical hassle. Understood.

I had a chance to drive the GAGT today, the wife took the XL-7 because she messed up her shoulder and was having trouble shifting gears. I forgot how quick that car can be. It has given me an urge to make some modifications to squeeze out some more performance, but I then realize that with the boy wanting the car when he turns 16 I do not want to unleash too much performance on a new driver. That's OK it is still a bunch of fun to drive.

JEEZ what happened? I go away for 2 days, and now it's two pages later? Now i have to play catch up and read all the posts!!!

haha, yea. i got the car takin away from me cause i got a bad grade in one of my classes but im bringing it up but either way i lost it till sometime in june...it suck cause i cant work on it.

Ride,

Thanks for the kind words, I don't think of myself as an asset {maybe if you drop the last 2 letters it would fit me better LOL.}, I am out here doing something I love to do, I love talking cars and it gets even better when you can talk with a bunch of people that have the same car. As for my know how it has just come from good old fashion experience. I only know abotu the stuff that I've been through, when it comes to mods and new technology I'm limited to my 96 GT. You youger guys are the technomods [NEW WORD I THINK, i kind of like it...]
TECHNOMOD: Tek-no-mod-...One who knows the techincal aspects of the upgrade and after market parts required to increase and inhance the horsepower and performance of the Pontiac Grand Am SE and GT models, but not limited to the Quad 4 and/or the V6 (with or with out the Ram Air option).

LoL - right on Dan! :) Haha I love your deffinition of Technomod - great word to use from now on.

At least my current Lady knows how to run a stick, no, [well, maybe so, hehe] pun intended. Take that, Ride, you ain't the only buck in the woods, LOL, buddy.

Hoo boy, I shouldn't come in here on no sleep, sigh.

LoL! :biggrin: - Ohh.... It's ON Tam!! LoL - that reminds me of a thing actually I saw somewhere on AF a long time ago. Some dude was talking about how his girlfriend "beat a stick the other night" LoL and then some guy said "Yeh,... it was mine." :icon16: LoL that cracks me up.

New meaning to Grinding Gears !!!!

Hey, Ride's not the only ladies man around here... I'm not one I've been with my sweetie for 21 years, August marks the 18th annaversary.

She too can run a stick...The damn GAGT gets more hand shaking than I do. I think I gave up too much when she took over the car. Maybe that's why it's running so freaking good!

LoL - oh my gosh you guys crack me up :) :lol: - hey congratulations on your long marriage, Dan. In today's world of divorcing and shit like that, It's great to here about relationships that have held that long. I'm very lucky also - (not married obviously) - but I have parents that have been married 27 years.... or oh shit, maybe it was 28?? I don't remember o well LoL

Hey dan I wouldn't worry about getting too much horsepower into the GA for you son to handle. You can have the power be there, but take him out and teach him how to control it. I mean, you probably won't get huge amounts of uncontrollable power, it's not like it's enough or rear wheel drive or anything where he could loose control just by getting on it (unless you were to consider wicked torque-steer on gravel) - he will still be able to go fast in the car, yes - but the main thing is being able to control the vehicle. Take him out on a skid-pad if you can find one (wet parking lot works) and teach him skid recovery, stuff like that. Snowy / icy parking lots are a great way for him to practice winter driving reaction also. I've learned so much shit bombing around in parking lots, it's saved me a couple times on my 60-70 mile daily drive. He'll go from being a white-knuckled "oh-shit, I'm gonna crash if I hit a sliver of ice" to being a relaxed, alert, responsive, confident driver who knows that he knows how to control his car if something happens. Obviously you don't want him to get a big head thinking he's a badass driver or anything, but I think you get my point :) - good luck with the young-un.

Grandamdriver - that kind of stinks. Just hang in there though pal, it's part of their parently thinking. They want you to associate the absence of your cool car with bad grades = your mind wants better grades to get car back. Just hang in there, do better, don't worry about your gone car, and you'll get it back eventually. Shit like this happens when you're in high school - in a few years, they won't be able to do a damn thing to you. And someday you can pull up in your fully-modded GTO (much like myself in 3 years :smokin: ) and be like "yehh... what now parents? Go ahead and try to take away / stop me from moddin that!! LoL good luck to you man

Oh hey, on a side-not, I just finished my last day of my Senior year yesterday! Whoopy!!! :) I still have LAMP (that GM class you guys have probably heard me talk about before) until early June, however. Blagh. It's worth it though. Good luck to you all, I should be able to increase my forum time now that schools over... for good :evillol: Bwahahghgh!!! .... well, until July 1st that is :( LoL. Talk to you all later.

Ride: Congrads on finishing up your senior year, it's a great feeling to know that your are done with the required education, from now on your education is optional.

As for the Car-Woman thing I have a feeling it could get pretty ugly. I just hope that we can refrain from from using the real nasty stuff.

Grandam: that's too bad about the car...Good luck getting that grade up. June's coming quick and with any luck your mom and dad will let up on you.

Well, I gotta run, I'll catch you guys tomarrow.

Just a gggrrrrrrrr, I don't care if flatrater gets ticked, I will not mention a "certain" FREE site that can be of immeasurable help to drivers anymore. But it is OKAY that so many pay-to-get-information sites get listed here. Just scroll down, see what is FREE!!!!!!!!!! Not knocking those sites, if I had the bucks, I might entertain the idea of $30 for a subscription. Sadly, $30 for a site that gives essentially the same as a certain site I offerred to members for free, was chastised.

That's cool, but I can use those $30 to fill my tank, or buy a part to install myself, not a labor fee for a certified master mechanic to work on the ride or giving someone I really don't know money for "hopefully" good repair information. I in no way disparage the person, it is a tremendous accomplishment, and a damn good living, but some of us can't fork over the $$ if we can avoid it , by doing our own repairs. And while that may threaten the livelihood of mechanics in dealerships, don't fret, you have enough people who will bring their rides in to be repaired no matter what. GM has seen to that. I know, I have buddies behind the counters, and ASE mech.'s who have stated to me so.

my rant, I do apologize, I mean no offense to anyone, just my practical view of things, so I will shut up now.

For $30.00, you are not even going to get a full hour's worth of work from a certified machanic. I know for a fact that the dealership's in my area are getting $60.00 to $75.00 per hour.

Unfortunatly, you are right about GM seeing that there are " DEALER ONLY" parts and repairs. Heaven forbid if I run into one of these repairs, I just can't afford it. Someone ripped off my winshield washer nozzle, probably because it's a dealer only item, who wants to go through the hastle and expense,

Dan, much as I'd like to respond, I said I'd shut up, buddy, and I try to be a man of my word, NET or otherwise. I think you will understand.

U still da MAN!!!!!!!!!

That's cool ! As far as I'm concerned YOU ARE THE MAN. Any way...Subject dropped!!!

the dealership i work in gets $78 an hr :eek:

the dealership i work in gets $78 an hr :eek:

I'm definetly in the wrong profession.....:banghead:

hey guys, still waitin to get my car back, but im getting new rims. Me and the old man talked about it becuase mine are getting bad but he wants them stock...as well as me too. I was wondering, i found some that i liked, 16"x6.5" and om pretty sure they will fit becuase that is the same size as my other ones. i was lookin at them and they said from 01-04 rims. will they work even though they say its for a 01 and newer?

Yeah they'll work. You should have any problem with them fitting your car. Hopefully your getting the chrome one, cause with your car being black, if would really set the rims off.

haha, not black, but dark green

yea, it will be awsome when i get my gto, im already saving for a month or two and have made over $900 and i get more hours in the summer so i will get a big increase of money, i just want it really bad because i love driving a stick. my dad has a 95 S-10 with a 2.2l and i love driving that and thats a little thing!

haha, not black, but dark green


sorry in the picture you have it looks black. My bad

yea, i know, its too dark to see. yea, im gettin chrome and it will cost me 450. it is a major steal because each are like 150 but they are selling a set of 4 for 450. it will take me a bit to get them tho. somewhere in the months range. will have to show you pics when i get them.

is any one else ticked off about the g6 replacing the grand am i heard about it awile ago and now that i am seeing more and more of them driving around i cant belive how plain they look, granted the retracting roof might be cool but havent seen one of those yet, my feelings anyway i might be bias being my 99 grand am is the second car ive owned i love the looks of the 99 and later as well as the power in them, correct me if i am wrong but i read an mag that was raving about the g6 and how it was faster than the grand ams they replaced but if i remember right it only beats the grand am by like .1 sec in 0-60 and i think .2 sec in the 1/4. i just had to let off a little. maybe i get a chance to race one some day

Well Mcbeefer, all I can say is give it a chance. I have grown up around Pontiacs, ever since I was little I have been into the new Pontiacs. I can rember the days when GM would kep the new models hidden untill " New Car Announcement" it used to be a celebration. The biggest drawback to that was you never had a chance to see the replacements until that day. My point being, you never had a chance to get any info before the car came out, unlike today where you get all the secrets before the car hits the ground. I liked the old days, even then you had to " let the car grow on you". I think one of the models that was hardest to get used to was the 1980 Firebirds/Camaros, going from Burt Reynolds and the black/gold bird to the Night Rider, I took a long timefor me to get used to that change. As for the G6, I want to wait to pass judgement.

I'm glad some one finally asked the question.

I do agree with McBeefer, the G6's are very plain looking... I have seen them with the pano-roof, very hot looking with dark tints. I keep going back and forth on them, sometimes they look great others, it looks very plain. I'm waiting on the G6 coupe gtp to see on how it looks, the only thing is they are too pricey... I'm getting discourage with these price tags constantly going up.... Not to bash American cars or anything but they are starting to out price themselves, over the foreign competitors which you can get more for less.

I am sad to see the G/a leave the line up, as most can tell I'm a G/A fan just by looking at my signature...

SUBJECT CHANGE: Continuation from a different thread...Up Date for other members who are interested...Forklift guy and I were talking about crotch rockets (CR) and the high speeds they can obtain. Forklift guy was telling me about a TV show that was telling how a certian CR was reaching street speeds of 190 MPH, I said that that is nuts, it all started by a speed war by the manufacturers.

Forklifts last comment was to the effect that even the speeds that they reach now the newbies cant handle the power they put out.

New comment: I personally know of one young guy ( 19 years old ) ended up in a box because he lost control of the thing and over reacted with all of the power he had. What really gets me is these guys that are out on the highways putting on their own stunt show for their own enjoyment, at some point a front wheel stant is going to go wrong and some one is going to get butt slammed and end up as road pollution.

SUBJECT CHANGE: Continuation from a different thread...Up Date for other members who are interested...Forklift guy and I were talking about crotch rockets (CR) and the high speeds they can obtain. Forklift guy was telling me about a TV show that was telling how a certian CR was reaching street speeds of 190 MPH, I said that that is nuts, it all started by a speed war by the manufacturers.

Forklifts last comment was to the effect that even the speeds that they reach now the newbies cant handle the power they put out.

New comment: I personally know of one young guy ( 19 years old ) ended up in a box because he lost control of the thing and over reacted with all of the power he had. What really gets me is these guys that are out on the highways putting on their own stunt show for their own enjoyment, at some point a front wheel stant is going to go wrong and some one is going to get butt slammed and end up as road pollution.

i guess yoiu guys are right, the g6 might turn into somthing after all, guess i didnt think of that if we look back at what the grand am has done, i guess i am just too much of a new driver. ive just seen cars like the astek that putter themselves out.

As far as the crotch rockets i dot see the need for that much speed, for a while i wanted to remove the speed limiter on my ga but after a while i relized there is no place in the US other than race tracks that you can legally go over 75 i belive so whats the point of being able to go 120+ unless some world crisis requires us to do so.

i dont wanna see THAT world crisis! The fastest ive gone is about 105 in my '95 GA SE on the interstate at 3AM...as i was being smoked by a Lancer i might add haha. Thats the only time ive ever come close to that speed and i dont care to go that fast in a street car ever again. Id love to get into stock car racing tho.

Unfortunetly even during crisis, you can't go fast either due to traffic or the fact there are more cops out then ever before, I tried during 9/11 to get home, not knowing what was gonna happen next, in NYC. Moving off that subect...

I would love to get into Nascar or race my G/a once ( legally ) ... and just once i would love to do a Demo Derby... nothing like beating the crap out of a car!!!! HAHAHAHHA

My wheels locked up and my 95 grand am gt shut down. somebody help me

blue beast, you will be better off starting a "New Thread" in the main body of the forum. Alos try to list a few more details about what the car was doing at the time it locked up and died. Just click on the New Thread button and follow the steps. This thread is mainly a BS thread to talk about other subjects that come up in other threads or for general conversation. More members will look at a thread in the main body with a title that refers to your problem. By the way Welcome to the Forum.
Like I said give as much detail as you can, it will help us to help you.

Ok you guys, I too would love to drive fast in my 96 GT but I have found myself turning into my father...I have been listening to AM radio to get news and listen to talk radio. I'm getting old! But I am not going to go quietly, I still love to ride the dirt bike and I will wind up the GT on the Interstate, average speed on the interstate is about 80-85mph, I just like to get to where I'm going. I do not recomend that you guys follow my driving habits. Especially you younger guys...the cops love to pick on you guys.

As for the demo derby...I would do it in a heart beat, after driving on the defense most of the time it would be a blast to go full tilt, balls to the walls on the offense and slam all of those drivers that have cut me off or have gotten in the fast lane and slowed down, or even the old fart that has left the left turn signal on for the last 7 miles.

You know I think I may need professional help!

Just Kidding!!

Be Cool.

Your'e only as old as she feels.

Knife,
What would you say if I told you that the condition I have is deteriorating the nerves in my arms as well and I am loosing the feelings in my hands?

Then fake it, hehe.

Point well taken!!

Another sleepless night over here.
I should change my screen name to Insomno :sleep: -maniac.

wow....well, i really want to see how fast mine goes. im not sure where tho. there are some dead roads but still, im just nervous of doing cause i think that there is always a possibility that there could be a cop somewhere near. i will just have to take it to a long strip....legaly though.

That's your best bet, Public roads aren't made for racing. Who knows what you could encounter. Take it to the track, I think that would be more fun any way.

Be Careful.

http://www.kalecoauto.com/

Found this in the off-topic forum, might put a grin on your face, just hope no one takes any of this stuff seriously!!!!!

Knife, That's some good stuff, I can imagine where that is going to lead to. Thanks for the link, I knew that there could be some fun to this car stuff.

Have a nice Holiday Weekend.
Dan

hey guys, i did some better wireing on my car yesterday (just hooked it up with wire to wire for temporary uses til i got the real deal). i got a connector and snapped it on, i still had to do some wire cutting and wiring tape to it and now it works again, but while i was back there i added a mp3, cd, dvd hookup. it will work for anything now, so like i can go out and buy any sound source i want and hook it up to my receiver in my car and i got sound!. im buyin a seprate mp3 player than the one thats in it already cause thats just mp3 cds. this one, has a little card the size of my thumb nail and i can save over 400 songs on it. its really cool. have a safe weekend guys.

Holy shit - I've been slacking off around here. I've missed alot! :(. THat's a funny link Tam - I've seen it before. There's some great knee-slappers in there :) it had me crackin up. Grandamdriver, it's good to here that your car's comin along good. Keep up the good work. I've been having a kickass memorial day weekend so far, and I hope that everyone else has the same. Everyone have a good time of what's left of it, and be safe.

Oh almost forgot to mention - The Grand Ma is finally having some exhaust done this Wednesday. I'm having a custom downpipe installed (the stock one is restrictive as hell), as well as my resonator removed. The great thing is, it will only cost 80 $, and should be good for a 8-10 hp gain at the crank, I figuire. And it won't sound or look drastically different, which is something I still deal with on the parent front. :)

yea, thats sweet ride. there is a guy in town who has a grand am like mine (four door, white, no spoiler, "hubs" not rims, and in very tough shape. he has an exust tip on it and he put it on wrong (he dosnt know it) but it is suppoed to face town cause the tip is a sorta down exuast tip on it....meaning it is supposed to curv down at the end but he put it so it blows exuast up onto his bumper and now that area is all chared and black from the exuast. we see hi drive buy once in a while and my dad, every time he goes by, says "that guy is a "e-fen" dork (said it like that cause im not going to swear on the forum). thats like the only time my dad uses the f word. but to me, yes that guy is a dork to. i sorta know him too and he talks about hi car all the time and its like.....ok shut up!...haha, i dont get these people who think that they have an outstanding lookin and fast car because of "homemade parts" they put on. hhahaha, it reminded me of this ride when you said down pipe, so i was like....that sounds like this guy but i know that they are totaly different. its just the name. thats really sweet tho of what you did ride, im doing well on mine also.

forgot to add....my car isnt in bad shape...it has rims and a spoiler...the way i said it, it sounds like i was sayin mine was as bad too.

LOL! :) - Oh yeh I gotcha grandamdriver. I see how "downpipe" could bring that to mind - that guy is, in fact, a "e-fen dork". LoL. Oh and we know yours isn't in bad shape, either. We've seen the pics. I'm curious, how's that guys exhaust sound? I always heard that for exhaust tips:

down = lower / rumble
straight = poppier / mid-pitch
up = whine / high pitch.

Does his sound whiny and high pitch?

um....its up but it sounds like a rumble...sorta...well it sounds like my car would sound if you cut the very end of the stock tip of my car off...it gives it a sorta little rumble, very little tho

Having your exhaust tip go up towards your bumper seems to be a common trend among VW Jettas I always see them around here like that... there's a problem with that though, your bumper gets so much dirtier with it. Honestly though, I like the dual exhaust look coming straight out of the back.

Grandam, I have to tell you about my nephew, he had a Ford Ranger pick up when he first started driving. He has always been into computers, so he built one from a bunch of spare parts and mounted it in the pick up, he put in wireless internet and had access to all of the net for tunes and had the capability to store over 600 songs on the hard drive as well as full net access. He did it as a class project and needless to say, he got an "A". The only broplem was the 5" monitor it was a bit hard to see. But it was Cool.

>cough< Why not Sirius or the other one, or just an mp3 patch in?

However, kudos to the nephew for his creativity!!!!!!!!!

That's awesome! :) That kid's a genius. So he can just drive around and get into other people's wireless hot-spots, right? That'd be awesome to be able to drive around and get free internet.

wow, yes, it would. i need to get like an ipod, serius, or XM portable radio but why do the XM if i have XM ready on my CD player?...hell i dont know. i will just have to see whats the best and what i can buy for a good price. i probably get some type of mp3 player, thats really good.

wow, yes, it would. i need to get like an ipod, serius, or XM portable radio but why do the XM if i have XM ready on my CD player?...hell i dont know. i will just have to see whats the best and what i can buy for a good price. i probably get some type of mp3 player, thats really good.

If you go with the Ipod deal you should check out Alpine decks. They have a device that hooks right up to the deck that has a cradle where you sit the IPOD in and it allows you to control the IPOD through the deck. It is pretty need. One of my friends have it for his bug.

He did this about 5 years ago...prior to Ipods and the satallite radio. Kid was ahead of his time. That is when Napster was a No-NO.

I hope everyone had a safe holiday?

Well I got some good news. First of all, my weekend was awesome. Second of all, I took my car to the shop. They were unable to fabricate a down-pipe due to the damn flex pipe at the top - if I bring them an old stock one (from a junkyard) they can make one off of that one's flange, but I don't think I'll mess around with it right now. But they did, however, remove / pipe my resonator. (pretty restrictive, I'd guess that the resonator squeezed the air flow into a space about 1/3 of the size the rest of the pipe. And they only wanted 10 $!!! :) I refused. I paid them 20 - ten bucks was way to cheap for what they did, this shop was the best place I've ever been to - they left me as one hell of a satisfied customer. I haven't really gotten to try it out yet. Any gains will be in the upper RPMs, and on the way home it was like 85-90 out, and my car was dogging it / I had on the A/C, so I sure as hell wasn't going to womp on it. I'll try it out tommorow when it's cool out. I also had tweaked my ever-changing intake a little more about a week ago, and never let it re-map, so when I got home today, I unplugged the battery to let it learn the new air flow maps. I'll let you know how it runs tommorow.

Ride,

It sounds like you found the pot of automotive gold at the end of the rainbow, as garages go!!! The fact that you have been one lucky son of a b*tch lately, free hood, pipe work for $20, what else can possibly go your way? How about sending some of that luck my way.

I hope it continues for you! I love to see a young guy get some breakes once in a while, especially when it is someone who has a total appreciation for what they have received.

Be good, I'll try to spend some more time on the forum tomarrow.
Dan

LOL I know it, Dan. I am one lucky dog! :). Thanks a lot for the wishes too - I can only hope that this kind of luck will come your way. However, sadly, I broke my streak today. See, 2 days ago, I had gotten a white AF t-shirt w/ pocket logo :) - I wore it, washed it, and it shrunk horribly. It is very tight. So I might be 16 bucks down the hole, but o well. If that's the worse thing that can happen to me, I can't complain! O hey, another story in automotive news, I got to try out the exhaust "tweak" today, and I actually think I might be just a little slower off the line (due to reduced backpressure) - but the top end gain outdoes it. My car already had good low end, but needed better top end - so all around it was a worthwhile mod. Better top end response, and it sounds great. If you put your ear right down by the exhaust, you can almost hear a little cam-like "wup-wup-wup-wup-wup" below the rumble. LoL sounds grrrrrrrreat!!

Oh, today, I made a revelation. I noticed that lots of us call each other by our first names. And then I realized... I don't think I've ever told you guys my first name! :( LoL sorry about that - It's Lee. I'm indifferent as to you calling me Lee, Ridenour, Ride, or in Dan's case, "Sir Ridenour" :evillol: :) LoL. So call me whatever you guys feel like calling me - I just thought I'd throw my first name out there so you guys can use it if you want. I don't have any preference.

Oh hey - almost forgot (just in case anyone actually cares :) ). I finally graduated from the LAMP program - which some of you may have heard me mention in the past. I graduated from high school on the 22nd, but I was in LAMP until today. It's great to be done - and was quite possibly one of the best experiences of my time. I learned an incredible amount about business, manufacturing, principles, teamwork, project coordination, production, and tons more great stuff. I also made tons of connections and got tons of in-plant experience - without LAMP I would've never been able to get that co-op Job. It was worth every minute of it. "Thanks LAMP!!!" :) LoL.

Yo, Ride {aka Lee} [U still rock, but I still the bad buck in the woods, LOL]

U and I should stir something up in the OT forum, hehehe. Let's drag Dan into it, he can use the fun, heehee. I such an instigator, sigh.

Seriously, though!!!!!!!!!!! Great Accomplishment!!!!!!!!!

:cheers: Well done and well deserved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Guys, has anyone looked into that new promo that GM put out for the employee discount?? it has some awesome deals going on....A brand new 05 G/A GT will only cost 19,000 instead of the 24,000 sticker, I'm keeping my options open now for a new car even though i said i wouldn't.......

Hey Ride, congrats on graduating...

Yeah i looked into for my girlfriend because she is looking at a new car. They are some really great deals. I'm lucky to because where is work gets another discount off on GM cars (i believe that program is called GMSC) i could be wrong on the name. But anyways i can use it on top of the discounts that are currently going on and it will save me a couple of thousand more on any vehicle

never knew about somethin like that. yea i got an mp3 player for my car and stuff and it works perfect...im not going to buy a mp3 holder for it cause i cant find one made for the LIRA mp3 players so im going to custom make one....it will be pretty easy cause its such a small machine. just wanted to throw that out there cause i havnt been on the forum for like a week (comp. monitor went out and have gotin back into Alundra game again....its so adicting.. ttyl guys.

I have the stock stereo in both cars. YES!!!!

Working again though, thank god. Still in management though, damn it. Need something new. Working on getting the Trans Am done, taking some time though. I need to hit bonuses. :lol:

Thanks Tam and Paul.
Mr. Lous - good luck with your work. Glad to here the TA is coming along. Wow - I checked out some of your videos the other day. They're incredibly badass. I've got 2 downloaded and watch em occasionally - nice work.

Ahhhh! :) Yet again more good new breaking news on Ridenour's Grand Am! Today, with the help of my friend, who is an electrical genius, I succesfully installed / hardwired 2 red neons into my car, with a badass switch in my cubby with a red LED on the end - the neons and switch work great / look awesome compared to my previous setup. I also replaced my stock bulbs with Sylvania Silverstars - they look damn good. My passenger bulb was fading, so it was a good time to replace them anyways. They look a hell of a lot better. A few weeks back, I had removed the metal thing that goes around the light to deaden it, and it made it about 20 % brighter. It compliments my new bulbs nicely. And to top it all off, I am finally getting my new rear fascia this weekend, should have it painted within a week (my brother-in-law has a gun, saves a shitload of money) and get that installed - I've also got some new overlays on the way. So within 2 weeks from now, I should be able to get some pics on here of the latest and greatest version of the Ridenour-Mobile. LOL. Everyone have a good night.

Oh, I almost forgot, sometime this week I'll be getting a high-flow cat installed, so I'll let you guys know how the gains feel. July 1-3 I'll be able to take my car back up to the Stanton Track to get some new times. My last 1/4 mile time was 15.5 - I'm guessing that the reduced weight of my SCT hood, the added air flow from the vent, my last intake tweak, the better top end of my resonator removal, and the gains from my high-flow cat should put me at about 15.2 or maybe even 15.1 if I'm really lucky :)

Ride you just helped me out with your post about the headlight, I was wondering about that metal piece.... I am in the process of making more aggressive looking headlights, but time and money the normal factors....

Oh yeh I thought it was deffinately a worthwhile mod, Paul. You just remove the bulbs, pull the headlight assembly, and then you have to try to remove the metal piece. On my passenger sides, I was able to cruch is flat in just the right spot to allow it to slide out, but on my driver's side, I crushed it into the wrong shape, and it wouldn't come out of the damn hole, so I ended up sticking a pair of tinsnips up through the hole, and cutting it apart, and letting all the pieces fall out through the bulb hole. It might be a pain in the ass, but it's worth it. A mod I would highly reccomend.

wow ride, you need to play the lottery some time soon. haha, ttyll guys.

Well, yesterday we on our way to jackpot junction (its a casino, hotel, restaurant.... you should have heard of it before.... hope u have anyways) but we went in my car and it was a good day to go so we went. My rents were sort of in a hurry and i was driving so i was doing about 62, 63 mph which is a bit over the speed the limit but they told me to slow down a tad bit to about 60. Well, we got behind people that were doing 40 mph and there were people that passed them and i was waiting till i could too and the no passing zone was coming and there was a car ways away and a few cars behind it too. So i had to really hurry up and pass them and my dad is like go faster.... Faster. FASTER!... cause at the point i was getting really close and i told him i had it punched. He was like.........ok.......um...just keep going and i made it.....After i got in front of the car about 2 and 1/2 seconds after that the car came so you know how close it was to me. I tell you this story cause at this point, i was very, very disappointed in my cars performance....I mean our trailblazer would have eating up that road, and my grand am. Even my dads 2.2l s-10 would have done the same thing...so what I’m saying is that i guess i really thought that those 3.1L had some balls to them but i kind of lost that feeling to them. I know one thing, if i don’t do that 3800 swap, i am for sure doing a 3.3L in it. We used to own a Buick century a while ago and my dad has hit that before and that was a frickin power rocket compared to what i found out of my car.... I really feel sorry for people that have the older grand prix with the 3.1L. I mean they are a great motor and stuff, nothing wrong with them i just don’t think they have the power.... Or the power to meet my standards

More snake oil?

http://www.innovativebalancing.com/

Grandam: the 3.1 have decent power, but nothing crazy, i do agree... but try Driving a 2.5L and the 3.1L will feel like it'll eat the road or at least that's how i felt when i drove my friends 93 GT. I've also found it's a matter of finding the "power highs/lows" of the engine for higher output. BUT to put a 3800 in would give you the power. It's like the guys that put the 3800's or caddy engines in Fieros...

If anyone is dealing with the heat today like i am try to stay cool....another mindless day at work.... :bricks1:

yes, thats true. i really want to keep the 3800 in mind but im having my doubts now. it sounds like the after work of springs, bars, and other things will cost more than putting in the motor itself. i mean the trany (4t60E from my 3.1 fits with the 3.8) but it would be cheaper to put the 3.3L in them. they have more power and rap at such high RPMS its crazy. i will just have to see though.

Hey Guys, I have a Grand Am story for the day.

I just took a Infinity G35 off the line. HAHAH I was just coming home, when i got to the traffic light before my house, the light was red so i stopped, well this G35 decides that he doesn't want to sit behind me and rather try and get in front of me, so he goes around on the right to pass me at the light (which is illegal in NJ by the way not sure about other states.) So he pulls ahead by a good car length before the light even changes, So i just simply turn off the a/c since it's hot as hell here again. The light changes and i completely just take him. He tried to keep up/catch up but I got a good car length ahead over the considerable lead he had. I will not be passed at a red light. All i know it was some "youngin" probably in his parents infinity, definitly didn't know how to drive.

Enjoy your day guys

haha, wow. thats funny. yea, i know some kids here in town who think they got it all and dont know crap about their car...or how to drive it.

Hey Knife I've been dragged into all kind of stuff in the past so why mess with a good thing...Start dragging I'm up for it.

Ride... GREAT JOB!!!! Good luck in you future, It's nice to see a hard working young man go after a goal and actually achieve it. That doesn't happen much these days...so my hat's off to you.

I'll catch up to you guys later, I told knife (in a PM) that I hope to have some time later in the week to get back in to the swing of things.

Catch ya soon,
Dan

That was a nice kill Paul. And thanks alot Dan for the encouragement Dan :).

...now on a sadder not... :( I will not be frequenting this forum as much until June 30th. My 1/2 year old, top of the line's display adapter shit itself, and the display won't work, so I have to send it in for repair. It will be back on the 30th. I am having to use my dad's computer, which I will only be able to get on once a day, if that. On a good note though, I finally got my new fascia and all that other jazz. I had something interesting happen too the other day - while listening to an AM station and driving, I noticed that the higher my RPM's, the more static. Anyone have any ideas?

Electrical interference like that, Lee, isn't unusual on the AM band. Does it also show up on the FM stations?. Do you have some kind of radio power signal booster inline with the antenna? Does it show up when the station gets weak?

I've used a filter in the past, got it from radio shack, non-powered, plugs inline between antenna and radio in the antenna line, that helped. I also hear that some guys have used a capacitor/filter in the power source wires to help filter out the RF interference. Other than that, I haven't much idea.

Ride Knife is pretty much on track, The easiest thing to do is to go to radio shack and pick up a filter it will hook up to the acces. power wire.
In the past, on my older cars, IE: the old V8's I would begin to get static when the plug wires were getting weak, you could try to re-route the plug wires. Some times it can be directly related to the alternator, but that usually comes out as a whine rather than static ans gets worse the more you boost the radio output, you may also want to check to make sure that you still have solid grounds on any of your after market sound components. It may start to work its way to the FM side of things in the future. I hope this helps, it can be quite annoying after a while.

Sorry you are going to have to take a break from the amount of time on the forum, hopefully I will be able to pick up some of the slack later in the week, I'm almost done with my mother's deck and should be able to get back into the groove and help out on the other side. I really miss being out there every night but I wouldn't be able to give a reliable answer to some of the questions, tough to do when you are so tired that you can't think straight.

Any way, I'll catch up soon,
Dan

I've gotten major static on my radio on the FM stations... no ryhme or reason behind it, I may have to look into that filter at radioshack and see if that helps. Well hopefully some good luck has been passed myway.... i just bought a sc/t wing for $100! Already painted silver, OEM! NOW hopefully the person doesn't screw me on this...like i have had happend in the past...

I'm very happy to say that i did get my SC/T wing!! Looks great on the car...but my luck ran out very quick, just the other day got into an accident, in the driverside rear... Not too sure what's gonna happen now... the car is pretty banged up, back door doesn't work, and the trunk floor is crushed in and up, it could be a hell of a lot worse though....

That suck's i am sorry to hear that. But at least you are ok and it can be fixed

grfnkl, Man sorry to hear about the accident. Like the previous post...at least you are OK. And don't forget, these cars are made to crumple up like that, so it looks a lot worse than it is. That's the trade off for having a safer vehicle. The thing crumples to absorb the energy of the impact but it looks like hell after. I hope everything works out for you. Good luck and take care.
Dan

thanks guys,

I am very thankful it was the rear and not the driverside door, I think i would have gotten hurt if i got hit there.... I fully felt the impact on the side rear, down my leg, and had some whiplash on the side of my neck. If it had been the door, i more then likely would have gotten hurt. The current estimate is rapidly approaching $4,000. now this doesn't include any other hidden damages like the possibility of the door rail further damages of the trunk floor etc... In spots the back end was pushed in about 5 inches or more.... so hopefully it will all come out good in the end... and hopefully the guy had insurance...

I posted some pics on my cardomain page... pictures don't quite do it justice..

Actually i don't think that it looks that bad considering that you where rear ended by a Econoline van, i must say i am impressed that this all the damage that occured

dayum, grf, that sucks. Hope you are doing well, even if the car isn't.

Looks like the front drive-area of the ride is toast, huh?

Well I wasn't quite rear-ended, it was more of a t-bone, just more indirect in the rear....I would expect more also from a van though, but then again i don't think he could have gone more then 20-30 mph off a side street into me, from a stop.

Knife- yeah that front end accident was a nightmare, i broke everything wheel related in the front, and damaged the rear wheel too...

All i can say is ouch, and glad u okay.

I'M BACK!!!!! :) :) :) - God that sucked. I got my pc back 1 day ahead of schedule too, Woohoh!!!! - It really sucked not being able to be on here with you awesome guys. That was a long 2 weeks without AF. It's gonna be hard to get back in the groove. Grfnkl, sorry to here about your car - I totalled my 01 GT and spent 1/2 a year rebuilding it; I know how it goes. By the way, I speak from experienced as mine was rolled twice doing 70 mph - your's is very repairable.

S'up, ride aka Lee, long time no see buddy.

yeah i know.....havnt talk to you in a while...and what ever happened to hoags (dan)?

Thanks Guys

Welcome back Ride; I do realize the car is fixable, definetly compared to rolling it.... but hopefully those won't be the words coming from the insurance ( not my luck though!)

Grandam is right, where's dan? I haven't seen him on here much these past few weeks....

I'm still hear guys...my plates been pretty full lately. My mom had to go in for a hip replacement and between mom and my neighbor with lung cancer (I've been running them both to their appointments (Dr's & Tests/X-Rays)) I have been away from the computer and by time my day is done I'm too damn tired to try to help out on the Forum in an accurate way. I wouldn't want to throw out the wrong advice and end up setting someone back while they're trying to make a repair.
I am going to try to get back into the swing of things as soon as mom makes some more progress. right now she is starting PT 1 Day after the operation...She's kicking some big time recovery ass. Soon she'll be back to doing for herself, should give me more AF time.

Ride... I'm happy to see that you got the computer back. You are right in saying it is tough getting back into the swing, Every time I try to sit down and get on the forum somerhing always comes up, more so with the kids being home [I wish Sept. was closer] only for the reason of getting the kids out of my hair, but at the same time I am willing to bet they are wishing I was not at home all of the time (except cab service).

Well I'm rambling on here (Tired!) so I'm going to quit typing. But before I do...

HAPPY 4TH TO EVERYONE: HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY AND PLEASE BE SAFE.
Dan

HAPPY 4TH TO EVERYONE: HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY AND PLEASE BE SAFE.
Agreed.

Should be easy for me....just hanging out around the house for the most part. Grilling and enjoying the company of friends.

The Grand Am is doing alright....keyfob died on me, and the car needs brakes up front. But otherwise, she is doing me well. Mileage seems to still be where it should be for 69,000 miles.

Have a good 4th!! Blow some shit up for me!

Yes guys, Happy 4th...Havnt driven the GA much at all anymore (my mom hates riding in it) so i cant get out much till the 28th comes it....THEN I WILL BE FREE!.....so hope that the test goes well for me in three weeks.
Have a good 4th and a good week guys...
Cody

Well, I hope everyone is having a great 4th, I have been told that Pa. has leaglized some fireworks this year, and I can tell you that compared to last year there is more shit blowing up this year. I think everyone in the neighborhood is setting off something. It's pretty cool.

Be safe all, I'll try to do some catching up in the afternoon.

Hey Dan sorry to hear about your neighbor and mom - glad she's making a good recovery though. I hope everyone had a great 4th - I had an awesome time last night up at my sister/brother-in-law's cabin - totally worth the 2.5 hour drive :). Oh, and Mr. Lous, since when haven't brakes been an issue on grand ams?? LoL :)

Yeah no joke i went through 3 pairs in 2 years on mine when i had it

wow....what have you been doing?..hahaha

Hey, The brakes don't ware out if you don't use them! LOL. It is kind of nice having the manual tranny...helps save the brakes. I have mor trouble with the front rotors going out of round. They need to make a thicker rotor, You're lucky if you get one cut out of them.

Ride, Glad to hear that you had a great weekend. We usually go camping every weekend but we haven't this year...it's been geting to my foot, last year I would end up sitting on my butt because of the discomfort. But it is worth a 2.5 hour drive to get away.

Catch you later,
Dan

wow....what have you been doing?..hahaha

I never could say no to challenge

Wohoohhhh!!!! - :) I'm finally done moving into and getting settled into college. This is cool - just waiting for my massive 16 credit hour class load to start on Monday.

Congrats, don't party too much now :ylsuper:

Best of luck and, and stay with it, Lee!!!!!!!!!

Do Anyone Know Where The Fan Relay Located On A 1998 Grand Am

Wohoohhhh!!!! - :) I'm finally done moving into and getting settled into college. This is cool - just waiting for my massive 16 credit hour class load to start on Monday.

You're starting already?!!! WOW... i would have thought you wouldn't start until august.... Good Luck with everything!

Hey, Ride...glad to hear your moved in. I was doing the college thing about a year ago, (had to stop because of the foot thing). My best advice...Moderation...Do everything in moderation, with the exception of the school work...stay focused on that stuff. The moderation applies to the booze and the women. I told many people that it was a good thing that I didn't go to college right out of high school, (waited until I was 40 and married), If I would have gone at 19 or 20 I think I would have been lucky to get out fathering a small mumber of children. Those young ladies are too tempting. But I am a faithfull husband. Any way keep us updated on your progress {with the school work as well as the ladies}.

Good luck and Kick some Ass!!
Dan

With Hoags on the advice ^^^^

You generally only get one shot at it [higher education]. And my experience has been that it gets harder to learn from an academic or training standpoint as you get older.

Anyhoo, you will succeed, or Dan and I will be having words with you, LMAO!!!!!!!!

Best to ya

The attack Pig

Do Anyone Know Where The Fan Relay Located On A 1998 Grand Am

Welcome to the forum, I suggest post this into a new thread of your own, so that more people will see your question. This specific thread tends to bury specific questions.

If ya need some assist on how to start your own thread, let me know, either Pm off this board, or email.

Tam

Lee,
Tam is right... I may live 4+ hours from you...but I will travel up there to kick your butt If I have too.

Do good.

LoL!! :) :rofl: - thanks guys, that was inspirational! You've only furtherly added to my drive to not mess up, due to the fact that I now must worry about you guys coming over here and kicking my ass! :) LoL - thanks a lot guys, and Dan, I've been keeping things in moderation so far - I have fun when I know I"m fully able to, don't drink too much, and don't spend all my time on chicks. The great thing is, when I mess up with a chick (yes, I know, it actually happens :) ) I just remind myself I'm there for the school, and I just get furtherly driven and determined. I just got back from the bookstore after buying like a 1/4 of the books I'm gonna need - total spent this morning: 113 $. LoL talk to you all later.

Yeah buying the school books suck they charge you out the butt for then and hardly give you crap back when you sell them back to them. You should check some online places and ebay for the books you need. You can end up saving a great deal of money by going that route, and you can still either sale it back to the site or your school when you are done with them

If at all possible, buy the used books over the new!!!

1] Better price, less negative equity at sell-time, sort like a new car at trade-in as cfi so correctly alludes to!!.

2] If you look through the used books, carefully, you may find one highlighted or notated by a student that leads off the prof.'s exams, hehehe.

3] Don't get too hung up if the used book isn't the current edition being used in the course. Great date-bait, "Hey, baby can I look at your text, mine is the old one and I wanna check the new model", >chuckle
snort,giggle< :lol2:

I so amuse myself, hehe.

Tam you amuse me too! I do however like your line of thinking.
cficare: you are right on the nose with the out lay of $$ for even used books and the buy back sucks. I never sold any of mine back but some of the students were bitching about paying $113.00 for a new math book and buy back was $5.00. You would be lucky if you got more than a $1.00 for a used book.
Lee, the net is the way to go...Keep the books relating to your major but sell the liberal arts booke on e-bay or the like...the new freshmen will snatch them up. You can probably make back at least 50% of your inital book costs.

One more piece of advice...Make sure you put a helmet on that soldier.

Be cool guys...Gotta run.
Hey I forgot to mention I just picked up a 97 Mercury Tracer sedan 2.0L (I believe) with 121,000 miles. It has a few bruises but all in all it is in great shape...I got it for my daughter, she won't drive the GAGT because of the manual tranny, And the XL-7 scares her, so we'll see how it goes, the fun starts tomarrow.

a Tracer?????????? a Tracer???????? Dear God, life has ended as I know it. may I be blinded to V-8's and superchargers for life, it has all ended for me, I no longer have a purpose, LMFAO.

J/K U , Dan, >maybe not< chortles here.

yeah but i probably will be a good car for her to learn in. At least until she gets use to driving. You should really encourage her to to learn how to drive the 5 speed through once she gets use to it. I swear now that i have one i never want another automatic. They are just so much funnier to drive. But anyways good luck with that Hoags. Don't forget the crash helmet and protective (J/K)

Ride, definetly get used books, sometimes depending on the class the professor doesn't even use the book, due to them just needing a book for a class requirement from a department chair. If you find that out early in the semester, sometime the book store will let you return it... Money in the pocket, which you will need.... ( one of the joys to being an art major, NO BOOKS! HAHAHAH)

Dan, A TRACER? Are you kidding me? are you playing a bad joke on her, you can tell us... J/k actually i think it's a good car for her to start out in, if she beats it up, (hopefully she wont) it's only for her to get around in and doesn't have to be perfect.

OK!,OK!,OK!...But I have to look at it this way...The 4 Cylinderserves me two purposes:

1. Good on gas, she will not be comming to me for gas $ everyday.
2. I will not have to be concerned with her driving to fast, although it is a peppy little thing.

It is a great little starter car for the girl, And the thing is in great shape both body and motor which means less work for me to do.

As for teaching her to drive the 5 speed it will only be done so that she has the know how in cans of an emergancy. I don't need her tooling around in the GT, it has been tough enough to give it up to the wife.

Ride, one last thing about the books, If you buy new, don't take off the plastic wrapper, you will not get a full return price if you do not need it.
Just had another thought for you...a lot of the new books come with CD Roms, even if the prof. doesn't reference the CD make sure you check them out they can be very helpfull.

As for you Tam...you should realize that sometimes you don't always have to make things better for the kids than what we had it. lol.

See ya guys,

Dan, just brought up a point about the books, those CDroms, make sure you return them with the books you'll get more money for them.

I don't blame you dan with idea of having a 4 banger for fuel costs... sometimes i wish i could drive my 88 G/A for that reason alone.

I still want a V-8!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL.

Grf does have very good point, the CD will bring extra back at resell, but of course I won't mention or even suggest that anyone burn a copy for private use, no I won't do that.:naughty:

The collge i was going to wouldn't even take the book back if it didn't have the CD

LoL hey thanks guys - I've already bought several used books - turns out frats are a great place to find guys who wanna get rid of their books. And dan, the tracer is a good idea for your daughter - it's rediculously underpowered, so she can focus solely on driving. LoL - I'm mainly glad it's American :)

I'm really bored, so I'll tug Lee's and Dan's chains for a bit.

Disclaimer###### This is in light-hearted spirit, and I in NO way am making any attempt to insult, disparage or otherwise provide any wrongful impression of these two fantastic members of this forum. If for any reason, someone feels that way, then you obviously didn't read this far down. :grinno: I am J/K re this, no offense meant to any of the guys. I just know these dudes, even if NET only, and feel like bantering with them.

Dan, okay a Tracer. The daughter will feel the need for speed, so you are obviously depriving her of her right to scream away at stoplights.:smile: What will she ever say to her girls?:lol2:

Lee, okay books. Save the $$$$$, find a hot chick to share HER text with you!!!!!!!!!!!! :evillol:

There's more, but enough for now, LOL.

For those that do not know by now there is a bit of inside joking that goes on between Lee, Tam and Me. We have been working together on the GA Forum for a while now helping in any way we can. So if there is something that is directed to one of us by another and you don't really get it don't pay any attention to it, it is usually some type of friendly insult that has some sort of meaning to us.

With that said, Tam we need Lee to concentrate on his studies, what sort of example would we (as the real world wise elders) be setting if we encourage the activation of his libido. He should realize that if he is having trouble with the ladies all he has to do is ask you and me we will have the answer. However I do like your idea about sharing the text book. That would not have worked for me, if my wife even thought I was "sharing text" she would automatically asume that "sharing text" would have a different meaning.

Lee, I have to ask...in which of your classes do you have the "Asshole" professor? Each semester you will get one, it is part of the liberal arts requirements, I do not have proof of this but it is an observation that I made when I was taking classes. I am sure some of the other members on this thread can verify my thoughts about this.

On to a different subject. I will most likely be starting a new thread in the next few days about an A/C issue on the GAGT, I am going to try to look at it this weekend and then I'll post what I have going on. So guys please watch for it and give me your input.

See ya later, gotta run, but I may be back later tonight if I can't get any shut eye.
Dan

Definetly agree with you on the asshole teacher. It seems like you have one every semister. I don't know if it is my natural bad luck or if every college student feels this way, but it always seemed like the biggest prick was the professor of the toughest class i had every semister.