Part 1 of Performance Demod Complete
On 12/22/2007, I took a giant leap back with my drivetrain mods. I tore my motor down and reinstalled the stock cam, stock valvesprings, stock intake manifold, stock supercharger with a stock pulley, stock throttlebody and stock MAF sensor. A lot of visitors to my site are probably wondering "WHAT THE HECK?!". Well, let me explain.
First, I didn't use the approximately 375+ horsepower I had. Having that kind of power and loads of torque on a Front-Wheel-Drive car just doesn't make sense to me anymore. 99.9% of my driving is below 20% throttle, so I'm really not losing much at all by doing this. I learned that I shouldn't have taken it this far with a daily driver. In my opinion, a daily driver should stick to bolt-on mods and my next car will be that way. I'll pick up a "fun" car to do more elaborate mods in the future.
Second, the money that I could gain by going back to a stock drivetrain can really help right now. Keeping that kind of power would also require a stronger transmission to the tune of $3-4k.....again, money that I do not have.
Finally, I'm setting myself up on a nice debt-pay-off plan that will help Courtney and I prepare for a kid in the near future.
I'm holding out for a G8 GXP with the LS3 in it, but that may be 2010 or so when that time comes around. I need to keep the Grand Prix as reliable and as economical as I can with today's gas prices. Before with the mods I had, I was able to get 33-34mpg on the highway which is VERY good considering what I had under the hood. In the city though, it left a bit to be desired.....16-18mpg. With going back to a stock cam, I think I will be able to keep the highway MPG's and bring up the city MPG's a good bit. If the tranny craps out while I have it (hopefully not), I can replace it with a lower-mileage stock transmission instead of having to get a stronger one.
Also, the recent hash of "kids" getting the Grand Prixs and doing stupid stuff with them is also a turn-off for me, so I'm not into the ClubGP scene as much as I use to be since it has become more immature.
I learned a lot with the 3800 and I continue to do side-jobs for local Grand Prix and Regal owners.......cam swaps, header installs, LIM gasket repairs, etc.
So anyway, on Saturday, December 22nd, I started at 9am and by 1pm I had the valve springs changed back to stock and the stock cam in the car. I proceeded to reinstall everything and I put my stock L67 Intake manifold on and a 30k mile Gen3 M90 supercharger and throttlebody that I bought. The MAF sensor on this throttlebody is intermittently failing, so I'll need to replace it. I still have the TOG headers, 3" downpipe, and GMPP cat-back on the car for now. I will remove the TOGs and downpipe in early January to be sold as well. I'll keep the cat-back and all the appearance mods on until it's time to sell the car and move on to something bigger and better.