AaronGTR

Welcome to the forum. Don't see too many gold Grand Am's around anymore. Looks good!

I thin it looks neat. Front isn't too bad but could be a little better. The rear, to be honest kinda reminds of the Lexus LFA, but I def like it!

It's definitely unique. And yes, those pics are awesome! Purple wheels aren't really my cup of tea, but it doesn't look too bad on a silver car and at least they aren't bright yellow or neon green or something. It just really screams of the JDM drifter/ricer fad that is going around and doesn't really fit on something that isn't a competition car and isn't Japanese. Over all though it's a nice looking car.

Welcome to the forums. Feel free to ask when you have a question on something. Most people here are happy to help.

Yeah, when you are having that many major problems and stuff has a lot of miles on it, sometimes it is better to just replace a lot and rebuild it like that. That way you know stuff is good. Hard to tell from the pic but i don't see any actual failures on the head gasket. Just some gunk around the ports which is a coolant/overheating problem and not a gasket issue. But anyway, GM has improved their gasket material since those stock head gaskets were installed, as well as the water pump design, LIM gasket design, and several other things. So it was a good idea to replace that stuff anyway. i never need to take my hood off to do that though. Might give you more light, or a tiny bit more room to work, but then you have to align the hood when you put it back on. Should run better with the heads cleaned up and rebuilt though. Let us know how everything turns out.

Eh, I wouldn't worry about it too much... Len barely has enough money to buy his crack much less hire another lawyer. lol And AED is now defuct so...

Car's looking good David. The drop definitely is noticeable isn't it?!

WOW!!! That's the nicest lookin' Bonnie I've ever seen. nice work man!

Still one of my favorite cars!

lol, now see... I think the exact opposite. And I currently have both body styles right now. I think the grand am looks sportier. Anyway, great pics! Fixed that for ya.

hehe, yeah... I didn't get any pics of the charger, but it's the same kit as mine. Just minus some of the modifications I've made to my setup. But yeah, he had someone else do the install up in Georgia that someone recommended to him. Guy did a hack job. Lot of the vacuum lines and coolant lines weren't hooked up properly or routed properly, and a few weren't hooked up at all. Plus some holes weren't plugged causing un-metered air to be pulled in. And they swapped in the injectors first and drove down with the fuel trim maxed out on -29. lol We took care of a lot of that stuff, and Matt is taking care of the rest right now. Coolant flush to take care of some nasty dirty coolant. Changing out a "homemade" ported MAF with a damaged screen for his original one. Stuff like that. He was only running 89 octane too and we were getting a lot of knock, so I made a list of stuff to fix. I wanna see that thing running strong!

Had sort of impromptu meet and photo shoot today. My buddy Matt from another forum came down from Georgia yesterday to get some work done on his car. He recently picked up one of the rare magnacharger kits for his Grand Am and the guy that did the install messed up some stuff that needed fixing. Also they installed 36# GTP injectors and he needed the PCM tuned for them. After a bit of work and some swearing we got things in decent shape. Not perfect but much more drivable. David who lives by me came over to hang out while we were working on it, and this morning we went down to the causeway to get some pics next to the bay. Enjoy! http://community.webshots.com/album/579063735RaMdyF PS: we are thinking of organizing a southeast region/Florida meet sometime in the spring. I was thinking it would be cool if some of the other members in the area wanted to come and we made it a Pontiac meet rather than just a grand am meet. Let me know if anyone's interested.

About as accurate as for any other drive system. I've done quite a bit of reading on dyno testing. There are different amounts of drive train loss between manual and automatics, 2wd whether is front or rear wheel drive, and 4wd drivetrains. Usually you can calculate pretty closely what the engine HP is using some standard percentages and based on other peoples experience. Engine HP, and really even peak WHP, is not whats most important though. Even how close to accurate they are to the actual HP is not that important, because numbers can differ from one dyno brand to another, and even between shops depending on correction factors used and how the operator sets up the dyno and runs the car. The MOST important thing, is the improvements made during tuning... you want consistency and repeatability. Almost every article I've read has said the best thing to do is, if you start with one type of dyno at a shop with a certain operator, stick with the same one throughout the process. IE find a shop that you like and trust, then only use them when you start making mods and tuning and going back for more testing. That way you know any differences are the result of the changes you made and not from switching dynos.

Hey, welcome to the site! Love those GTO's. Love me some Supra's too! Cocoa Beach is almost directly across the state from where I'm at.

Cool. So the only one with the border is the huge one? lol I like that design the best but wish I could get it a little smaller so I could put one in each side window. If I decide to get that size it will have to be just one in the rear window.

Sorry, but I don't buy that. Plenty of people make $14 an hour or less and still are able to buy a car. I don't make $14/hr. The biggest problem is there really is no need for unions any more. They served their purpose in the day, but they got too powerful and now only serve to support themselves and make profit just like a company. They are a parasite feeding off the company and the consumer, cutting into profit margins and increasing the cost of the vehicle. Cars would be cheaper if they weren't paying $28/hr to people with no college education to build them. And then they had all the pensions and health care for life etc etc... those people demanded way more than they deserved when they should have known there was no way the company would be able to cover those increasing costs indefinitely. They were greedy though and only concerned about right now, and didn't understand they would end up hurting the company that supports them and therefore themselves. Basically GM was undone by three things. The drain from the Unions, bad corporate leadership, and just random bad luck with timing and the economy. They can't do much about the economy but they need to do something about the other two. They need to restructure the corporate leadership and how it works. They need to get rid of the union all together. They need to pay they people a reasonable wage for the job they are doing (and that means everyone, no grandfathered in BS), and restructure the health care and retirement plans. No more pensions. They should have a 401k and have to contribute and save for their own retirement just like everyone else in the country. That would be a start. One other point, they shouldn't be projecting car sales on how much their own workers make... you can't depend on your own workers buying your own products to keep a company afloat. It can't be self sufficient like that. They need to build and market products to everyone in the general public, and sell to people in all areas of the country and from all different types of businesses.

I would only buy GM stock if they did something more significant and permanent about the unions. They are still a drain on the company and going to cause a problem again in the future IMO.

It should have been called a tribute to the GTO... that's about the only car they really spent any time on, and only the old ones. Barely touched on some of the others.

Nice pics! I know what you mean about rice too... see a lot of that here in Tampa, but there are also a lot of nice cars floating around.

I like the white/black S2000 and the black STI with the gold wheels.

yeah, I just read another one today about Pontiac specifically. goodbye Pontiac Definitely sucks, but you could see it coming a long time ago with the way GM was treating the company. I still think the brand had something special and could have been something better than it was the last two decades, but we'll never know now. Goodbye Pontiac... you will be missed!

When did you go? I love it up there... I'd love to move closer some day. Been there twice, but only once with the grand am, and it's a 10 hour drive or so for me at least. My brother actually got married at Fontana dam a couple years ago (divorced already though, it sucks). He runs a company called Detroit tuned that specializes in Mini Coopers and he co-sponsors a meet called "Mini's on the dragon" every spring.

Hey, welcome to the site. Nice G5 ya got there. I actually think it looks decent in red, and the wheels, tinted tails, etc you got go along with the color. As for shows.... eh, I have a love hate relationship with them. I've been in my fair share of them. Won some big trophies at some and lost at others due to BS judging. And it really does depend on the judges. Some shows they just give you points for any and every modification done, even if it's tasteless. Other shows they look at the overall quality and scheme of the car. If you want to make just a show car, then lambo doors might score a few points at the right type of show. Personally I think they are played out and unnecessary, and they are not practical for most cars. Plus they can cause fitment and sealing issues with your doors. That said, if you like 'em and that's the style you want for your car, then do what you like! Just do yourself a favor and spend the time/money for a quality kit and proper install.

Hey, welcome to the site! Are those the stock headlights? They look sweet on a black car. I like the mod list too. Moooooore Poooowaaaaa! lol

Hey, welcome to the site. More GTO's the merrier I say!