As a retired Service Director in a Buick Olds dealership, I lived through seeing customers and technicians being tortured by the 3.0 V6, LK9. Can't think of anything positive to say about it. Didn't even make a decent boat anchor.

I was a mechanic at a Pontiac, then Buick dealer during this time. I don't remember ever seeing a 3.0 in a C body, and I know I never saw a 2.2 in an A body. The carbs were adjusted at the factory, and the screws were covered with plugs. Almost all of them were out of adjustment, but with the right tools and skills, we could get them running right. A bigger problem, that you didn't mention, was cracked blocks. The water jacket would crack along the bottom, usually near the front, usually on the left bank. Under warranty, we were required to replace it with what was called a "Fitted block". This was a new block, pistons, pins, and rings. That's it. That required total disassembly of the engine, pressing the old pins out of the rods, pressing the new pistons and pins on the old rods, then re-assembly. I did so many of them I used to be able to tell where every nut, bolt, clip and wire was supposed to be, and what order it had to be in.

I had an elderly neighbor that in 1983 bought a 6 Month old Cutlass with 8.000 miles with this engine. Living in the Northeast she had this Habit of starting the Car & to warm up the engine would Floor the gas pedal over & over for 5 minutes. I remember this so well cause in the Summer wen I was on School Summer Break she would wake me up as my bedroom was 15 feet from her Driveway. This was her 1st Non V8 engine & it only took about 6 Month before the engine made a Horrific sound. Luckily the Warranty Covered the Repairs. Halfway through the Brutal Winter & only 300 miles after Repair the Car was Flat bedded away to Dealership. After the 2nd Repair she Drove Directly to the Chevrolet Dealership just a few miles away & Traded it in for a Brand New 1985 Impala, the Bare Bones Model with the V8. She Continued Her warm up method Successfully until 1987 wen she passed away. Sadly she had no children & No Will. I remember wen the State came in to asses the asset's & I walked over to look at the car before being towed away & I saw the odometer was 919 miles.

0:37 Funny how much the hatchback version of the Pontiac 6000 looked like the Phoenix! ;-)❤

Adam, I hope you are satisfied with the job you have done retraumatizing all these victims of GM's mendacity

The 3800 is a beast. I'll keep having new metal welded into my 2008 Grand Prix for as long as the motor keeps running. When I was a dealer tech I saw many with close to 300,000 miles on them still running fine.

My parents had a 1983 Buick with the 3.0 V-6. I remember my dad being so proud of purchasing that car. He was a Methodist minister so we didn’t have much money but he loved that Buick. He kept up the maintenance on it because I remember it being a good car. He drove like a grandma so he was always gentle with every car he drove. If I ever drove it above 60 he’d flip out.

I was a Buick Heavy Repair Tech in the 80s and 90s. We had 2 techs at a large dealership dedicated to 3.0 engines. We loved them. Many failed just outside warranty and we made money on them. We had a repair lot with dozens stacked up waiting for us. Under warranty, the most common issue was loss of coolant caused by seeping metal one piece head gaskets. We often used 2 head gaskets stacked and copper spray on them to resolve. Cracked blocks inside the lifter galley were common on earlier models as stated in other comments. Connecting rod failures were second most popular as you stated. You made it clear, but commenters are still somewhat confused. This 3.0 has nothing in common AT ALL with the 3800. In my 10 dealership years at GM, no other engine failed as frequent or catastrophic as the 3.0 Junk.

My Mom had a 83' Century and it drove fine until the 1st cold snap. It wouldn't stay running after it fired. The dealership mechanic came to the house with another guy. He said, "Here we go again with the 3.0." They couldn't get it to run and ended up towing it in. They had to adjust the throttle body to run for the higher elevation. It ran fine after that. It was a nice car from what I can remember.

That 3800 was and still is BULLETPROOF ! I've known several at well over 300,000 miles and higher that are still going strong !

My grandma had an 85 Cutlass Cierra brougham. Harmonic balancer came off the engine when the car was about 1 year old. I'm betting it was the V6...

My first car was a 1983 Cutlass Ciera with the 3.0L engine. Worst. Car. Ever. That thing had so many issues and caused so many headaches that I practically did a happy dance the day I got rid of it. Not to mention the electronic carburetor was a joke and no tech who looked at it could figure out how to fix it or why it would only run normal when the check engine light was illuminated. But on the flip side, my folks purchased a 1986 Olds with the 2.5L 4 cyl and that car was an absolute gem with never any issue.

Well now I didn't know that a Pontiac 6000 was actually a Pontiac Phoenix..... [Sorry Adam, just cracking on you!] Great video!

Here are my memories of this engine in a 1985 Cutlass Ciera I drove in the late 1990s. A friend owned the car and asked me to do some repairs to it. The car had just over 100,000 miles, and it did not run well cold. My friend gave me the car to repair but also let me use the car for several months since they did not need it back right away. What I noticed was the oil had not been changed in a very long time and was black - the way oil gets when people neglect to change it. I changed the oil, the PCV valve, and PCV filter. I remember the PCV valve must have been stuck, because the crankcase was developing pressure and would push the oil dipstick out an inch. As far as I was concerned - this was due to owner neglect, not a fault of the engine. The cold running problem I solved by rebuilding the carburetor on - which was the Rochester DualJet (E2ME). The main issue was that the choke angle was too wide when the vacuum break pulled the choke off when the engine started. The engine ran too lean and the car would stall out when put into gear unless it was warmed up for several minutes. I fixed this - but decided to do a full rebuild on the carburetor anyway since the car had 100,000 miles and the carburetor had never been rebuilt. I remember on the mixture control solenoid you could adjust how rich the rich setting was by adjusting a little screw on it, but the lean setting you could not adjust. I remember thinking this was not a very difficult carburetor to work on, it was just different in that it had a throttle position sensor and a mixture control solenoid, which older carburetors did not have. After making these repairs, I drove the car for 10,000 miles over the course of 6 months, so it had 110,000 miles on it at that time. I don't remember any strange vibrations at 1200 rpm or anything like that. It was actually a smooth and quiet engine. It didn't have a great deal of power, but it seemed acceptable to me. I enjoyed driving the car in the time I had it. I believe I also changed the transmission fluid in it, which again had never been done in 100,000 miles. I returned the car to my friend, who had it a while longer. I don't remember hearing what ultimately happened to it. I think they were surprised I was able to get the car to run very well again and they were able to use it again regularly without having to warm up the car for several minutes each day. Since you mentioned the even firing 3.8L V6 in your video, we had an 81 Buick Century Limited (which was rear wheel drive) with the 3.8L V6 which we bought new and drove for many years. We really liked that car. It was smooth, quiet, it rode well, and was very comfortable. Definitely no vibrations from the engine. It ran smoothly at any rpm. My recollection is the car had good off-the-line and good mid-range power, but if you really pushed it, it didn't have good power at high rpms. But this was common for cars during that time period which had so much emissions equipment at the time. We drove it until it had 125,000 miles on it with very few problems. The timing chain eventually stretched enough that it finally broke and needed to be replaced. I don't recall it breaking a tooth on the cam gear - the timing chain itself broke. We got it fixed - but what I can't stress enough is - when the timing cover is removed to work on the timing chain, the oil pump is disturbed because the oil pump is mounted on the cover. When everything is put back together, you have to prime the oil pump before you start the engine! If you do not, the engine will not build oil pressure and you will damage the engine! Maybe some technicians out there do not/did not know this. As long as this is done you'll be fine. But again this is on the 3.8L V6, not the 3.0L V6. The engines are related but they are not the same - the 3.0L V6 may be different. In general, the cars, American and foreign, simply got better as the 1980s progressed and fuel injection and distributorless ignition were introduced, and emissions controls improved (fewer were needed as we moved away from carburetors, and more were electronically controlled and were not vacuum controlled any longer). I have driven X cars, rear wheel drive A cars (1978-81), front wheel drive A cars (1982 and later) with the 2.5L, 2.8L, and 3.8L engines - they were all fine. By 1989/1990, the A cars (Century/Ciera) had the 3.3L V6, which I drove and found that that was an engine with a LOT of power - much better than the older ones with carburetors. The 3.0L I had the one experience with for 6 months/10,000 miles - it seemed to be fine to me - though I did not drive one for 100,000 miles. I do not think people in that time period followed the "change your oil every 3 months / 3000 miles" mantra like they did years later. They waited until their cars broke down and then they got them fixed rather than being good about maintenance. The 3.0L may have had problems, but a lot of the problems with the cars also came from owner neglect and lack of care. I can say this because I worked in an auto shop at a community college in the mid to late 90s and I remember the cars that came in, the problems they had, how the owners did not take care of them, which resulted in various problems. It isn't clear to me why the 2.8L was offered only in the Celebrity/6000 and the 3.0 in the Century/Ciera early on - why not just offer the 2.8L V6 in all of them from the beginning - which is ultimately what happened after 1985 anyway? My philosophy was, and is, if you take care of your car, it will take care of you. So I always did things like changed the oil in my cars, changed the coolant, filters, tires, brakes, etc - and I never had many problems with my cars, even during the time period of the 1980s when people were complaining. Maintenance does go a long way - it's your choice whether you do it or not. Just sayin'!

I noticed that the 3.0 had ALL the weaknesses of the 3.8 with less power and worse serviceability because of the transverse installation. As you stated, the oil pump was notoriously trouble prone. When they got rid of the distributor in the 3.8 and redesigned the oil pump, it changed it from a 125,000 mile (if you were lucky ) to a 200,000 mile engine (provided you replaced the timing chain at near 100k) . This was even before they further improved it with the 3800. The redesigned oil pump was the SINGLE GREATEST IMPROVEMENT to these engines.

Many would argue that the 3.8 had already attained excellence, before it became the 3800. That Chevy 2.8 was a rather peppy engine, especially with the EFI. I drove an '87 S10 with one, and it was a ripper - at least until you crossed the intersection and it started running out of breath... I drove an early '80s carb'ed one too, and I don't remember thinking it was peppy, but it wasn't underpowered either. Hot Rod had a few hop-up articles featuring the Chevy V6 in the early '80s. I remember one host was a late second generation Camaro...👍

I think the LK9 was a 90 degree design, which means that it was part of the Buick 3800 program. It's amazing how much different two "children" from the same family can be-

I had an '82 Cierra with the 3.0. You are dead on about the cold drivability problems. Very hard to get out of my development on a cold morning. I was a field rep for Atlantic Richfield and In 5 years I accumulated 150, 000 miles on mine. I used ARCO Graphite oil and turned the car over to my wife as a grocery cart and sold the car with 175K. The tranny would no longer shift into lockup, but other than that, I had no internal problems with the engine. Enjoyed your video.

I remember that engine. It was in a 1984 Buick Century station wagon that my parents had. Very problematic engine at the time but who knew because the automotive world was transitioning to modern electronic fuel injection.

My friend had 3 Buick centurys in highschool. The rust is what took them but they always drove. I feel like we are in the 80s again. We are stuck with few choices. Even the cars and crossovers share the same engine. 3 cylinders today have power but are loud and vibrate everything.

Great video! Sometimes it's a good thing that they don't build 'em like they used to.

I had a late A body car (96 olds) woth a 3100 and 4 speed auto. What a fantastic car. It was quiet, comfortable, good on gas, cheap and easy to repair, and cheap to insure. I would definitely buy another in a heartbeat. I always wondered how the early versions of the A bodies were.

Excellent video!! When I built my first engine (1973Dodge 318) I had to order the printed factory manual to get the specs and was shocked as to the tolerances that were used to build engines that made it 100k to 150k miles without exploding. Even with just hand tools, a calculator, and calipers I realized how many engineered defects of the engine were easy to avoid. That engine made its way into three different vehicles before I retired it. And it still ran when taken to the dump. The GM3ltr could have been a good motor and the fact that it was built with so many side loads and offset center points, while still being an functional engine, shows that the engineers were sht but the craftsman that built the motors were very skilled. Very informative video, Thanks!!!

As a former ASE Certified Master auto technician who was apprenticed and coming into my own at about the time these cars were around, I completely agree with this assessment. While not every one of these engines failed on people, they were very finicky and prone to mechanical failures. I agree that it was also depending on how hard they were driven, and how well they were maintained. Great video. 👍🏻

My Dad owned a junkyard which I worked at as a kid in the '80s, so these videos bring back memories. Escort 1.6 and 1.9 engines/heads, Cadillac 4.1's, Olds diesels, Chrysler/Mitsubishi V6, and these 3.0's. They were all moneymakers if you had a good one.

In 1986, I was shopping for 4 year old Cutlass Cierras. I wanted to get a diesel, but Dad insisted I get a 3.0 V6 because "it would be more reliable." I experienced lots of carburetor issues, coolant leaks, and ultimately a spun rod bearing at 99,000 miles. Guess i was fortunate to make it that far. Mine was a Broughm package. So comfortable, but the engine was truly awful. Only car I ever owned that didn't make it past 100,000 miles.

I seem to remember my grandfather talking about someone who bought one of the new downsized '85 Olds 98's with the 3.0 when they came out and couldn't make it run at all. I think the dealer blamed and kept working on the carburator. I also think she gave up and traded for a new '85 or '86 Mercury Grand Marquis 8 or 9 months after buying the Olds.

Back in HS in the early ‘90s, my buddy got his license and we were allowed to take his mom’s Century to the mall. We got halfway there, stopped at a light, and the car suddenly made a loud bang noise and stalled. We pushed it off the side, called his dad. He got grounded and we both got chewed out for hot doggin as his dad put it. Honestly, we weren’t, we were stopped at a light and it friggin blew. All I heard about it was they got rid of it, wasn’t worth fixing.

Thanks Adam for finally doing this! And you are totally right about the cold mornings, poor carb set up, nylon timing gear, oil pump clogging, and adding zinc additive to the oil! I rebuilt my entire 3.0 engine and it runs flawless now with no problems.

Hey Adam, thanks for sharing this informative video!!! 👍🙂👍

I had a 2.8 in a 1980 Citation and liked it, ran great even though the car gradually fell apart around it and the fins corroded off the radiator and the cooling system had a few parts held together with JB weld. The car lasted until 1999 and 200k miles with lots of downright neglect.

Interesting video, but there was an error in it. (A rarity; imagine that!) You mistakenly associated the X-body Pontiac Phoenix with the A-bodies. Pontiac's A-body was, of course, the Pontiac 6000.

Thank you Adam. Very educational and quite interesting information. I now know why this engine went way. I guess the later 3300 V6 made up for this engine. Too bad the 3300 did not stay around with the 3800. It was also informative hearing the connection to the 3800 V6. It would nice to see and hear the story on the 3300 V6 and the 3800 V6.

Cars from the 60's seemed so simple and EZ to maintain. We have a 65 El Camino that still has the original engine, it has never been pulled. Now engines and transmissions seem to come and go every few years. Thanks for another fine watch of American automotive history.

I had to chuckle to myself because a few months ago there was a discussion about the 2.5l iron duke 4cyl being perhaps painted negatively for some aspects on your channel.Adam , I do love the the history , I did get to to drive a rental Olds Ciera which was a pretty nice car (maybe an '84) with that engine.I was driving an '81 citation(in the shop) at the time.

GM really got the 3800 on point . . .then dropped it for some rubbish that hadn't finished alpha testing.

I noticed your picture of the 3.0 V6, fittingly appears to have been taken in a junkyard.

That's not a 6000LE, it's a Pontiac Phoenix X body.

I'm not an automotive engineer but that diagram of the offset connecting rod gave me the shakes. Then I can just imagine trying to merge onto a freeway and trying not use extended full throttle (when your nearly full-sized auto is being pulled by an engine transmission combo that at best you could call weak sauce).

Small correction: the photo you have when mentioning the A bodies is of a Pontiac Pheonix, not a 6000. I think you might have also referred later to the Pheonix when you meant 6000. Interesting video, though!

At age 47, looking back in hindsight- the most reliable engine I owned was A 1988 Chevy Beretta 2.8 multi port injection. Had it 2 years and changed the oil once or twice in 30,000 miles. Ran like a top. Hey, I was 22 years old at the time so I had other things on my mind besides maintenance. Nowadays, I change oil every 1,400 miles religiously.

Thank you for the informative video. Thanks for caring about 1980's cars. Can you do a video on the Cavalier Z24? That was and still is my favorite car.

Ok, now I want a car with this 3.0 in it. I'm fascinated.

What did consumers think about all this? Were they disappointed in the offerings and the small engines or did they not care. Seems like such a lost decade.

Hi Adam, I used to work as a mechanic at a Chevrolet dealership in the late 1990s, and the Chevrolet 2.8L 60 degree V6 engine had a major oil pressure issue. On a hot summer day sitting in traffic with the air-conditioning on, the oil pressure would drop to zero, or near zero. These engines did not last very long. GM came out with a larger oil pump that did not correct the issue. Most V6's do not last as long as a V8 does. My favorite V6 is a Chevrolet 4.3L which is a Chevrolet small block 350 V8, with two cylinders cut off. Please reply. Dave...

Was always curious as to why this engine existed with a fine 2.8 and 3.8 available. The later 3300 was a fine motor however

The picture you used for the Pontiac A6000 was actually an X-body Phoenix, 38 seconds

I bought an 84 Cutlass C with this engine in 1987 low mileage, beautiful car. Power roof and every bell and whistle. It was a night mare. I had bought an extended warranty but GM dealer would not honor it. Let it go back. Only drove it a year. Bad experience.

Had no idea about this. Nice to hear about this stuff.

Best advice in the 80's....buy a Camry or Accord😃😀👍

Dad had an 83 century limited company car. 4.3 diesel. Was reliable. Cold start cold morning would shake dash up and down dramatically. Same start would also try to loosen open door from hinges.

I had this same motor in my 1982 Buick Century. I could not believe how gutless this engine was. Hardly any passing power and had really horrible gas mileage. The 1.6 liter OHC for cylinder in my dad's 1984 Old's Firenza felt like it had twice the power of this V6 and got nearly 30 mpg. I was lucky to get 15 mpg out of that V6. Plus, I had to let it warm up for 20min on cold day or else it kept stalling out. One of the many reasons I got rid of that car after a few years.

Had an 85 v6 2.8 with port injection mated to a 5 speed. It was free revving and one of the best running engines I owned. I beat it to death for 155k miles & sold to my brother. It leaked from the seals but no indication it was burning any.

We had several a body cars . 2.5 ,2.8, and one 3.0 buick century. The buick would not run no matter how we tried. The others gave many miles of dependable service. I was especially pleased with the 4 cyl

Absolutely love your stuff all the time and I love it as well that you threw in that Pontiac 1000 photo while you were saying Pontiac 6000 so that all of us who grew up in the backseat of a Pontiac 6000 would instantly recognize it. You were right! Had to come back and edit because I called the Phoenix a 1000😂 I'm glad you're doing these and not me😂

I HAD A 84 BUICK LASABRA NICE LOOKING CAR BUT IT HAD ONE OF THOSE ENGINES UNDER THE HOOD. I DID A LOT OF DRIVING BACK THEN. ALWAY CHANGED MY OIL WHEN NEEDED TO GOOD CARE OF THE ENGINE, BUT I WENT THROUGHT TWO TRANSMITTION FINILLY BLEW A CYLINDER ,AND THAT WAS IT FOR ME ..TIME FOR THE JUNK YARD...THANKS FOR READING...TAKE CARE AND GOD BLESS..

I had a 84 buick century 3.0 years ago, didn't have a lot of problems, but it had no power, but was a smooth driving, I've also owned 93 century wagon 3.3, 94 century 3.1, 93 olds 3.3, 88 celebrity 2.5, 88 celebrity Eurosport wagon 2.5

Pretty certain that was a Pontiac Phoenix at the beginning and not a 6000. Enjoyed the video as always.

When me my brother and sister were little kids in the earlier to mid 90s my Dad had an 1986 Chevy Celebrity that was a gunmetal grey metallic with matching cloth grey interior. Was a more base model had the metal vented styled chevy hubcaps but had the 2.8V6. That car was very nice when he first got it and despite it when it was older and started rusting the car still ran and serviced our family good for its lifespan. The 2.8 was a good engine and no it wasn't the fuel injected one that came out as a optional engine for the 85 and newer Eurosports. This one he had was the carbureted version which our year was the last year that GM used it in as 1987 and newer Celebrities has the 2.8 Multiport Fuel Injected version.

Hi Adam. I enjoyed this segment greatly. I noticed the engines pictured were mostly taken a pick-a-part type salvage yards. I suspect most of those engines and the cars graced with them, have gone to "The dust bin of history", as you say...

Those damn Celebrities and their cousins were everywhere in NW Iowa where I grew up. Whenever I see one online, I'm immediately taken back to mid-80's small town Iowa.

My first car was a hand-me-down 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. One day while driving on the freeway, I noticed that the car was losing power as I continued to press the accelerator. After managing to make it home after putting a few quarts of oil in the engine, the car just gave up. Turns out there was a hole blown through one of the pistons.

Adam, the A body Pontiac pic you show in the beginning of the video is actually a J body Pontiac Phoenix 4 door hatch back. Although, you don't seem to care for 80's cars, I loved them! Jay

I guess it all depends on what day of the week it was built like they used to say... I had a co-worker with an 85 back in the early 90s and at that time the car was approaching 300K and it was still running strong minus a small oil leak

The 3.0 injected version went on to live in the Somerset/Skylark through at least 1989 which was the last time I had one - in a 1989 Skylark with the handling and ground effects package. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds I promise.

The later 3.3 was good. Felt like a revvy 3800.

Hi Adam, This is a really interesting post for me as an Australian as one of the little known facets of GM history is that its Australian Divisions 6 cyl engine had reached the end of the road due to its inability to be converted to unleaded. GM-H looked around world wide externally and internally for a replacement to power the Commodore. Your description here explains why the replacement engine came down to the Nissan RB-30 and believe it or not the Jaguar AJ-6 with the Nissan RB-30 getting the gong.

I compare the difference between the 3.8 and the 3.0 Buick to the difference between the Ford 302 and 255 v8. Similar but different enough to feel totally weak.

My Dad had a long list of cars with crap engines. 65 Corvair Monza with the low end engine, a 73 VW bus the that ate 4 engines during his ownership, the 2.8 Peugeot Renault Volvo v6, the 3L v6 in an 85 Buick A body, a 3.8 v6 in a Taurus....there was, at least, an indestructible 3l Vulcan in another Taurus.

I had a 84 Camaro with the 2.8 last year for carb. Random stalling issues from day one dealer never was able to resolve then at 65,000 head gasket blew. Traded it in on a Mazda and never stepped into a GM dealership again.

I had a 2.8 in my 82 Citation. Great little engine, my in-laws had Cimmerian. With a 4 in it liked the car not the engine told them to get one with a 2.8 they did love it had it many years

Your driving tips sound very similar to my little 21rc engine in my 83 celica. Really does not like to be revved out and I hardly push it pat 3k. It happily pulls itself along at 2k rpm all day.

Had one of these. Parents bought it new in the 80's. Had its share of problems. Luckily we had a good mechanic who recognized the timing gear issue and replaced it before it destroyed itself. Transmission was always a problem. I got the car as a teenager and always thought the engine power was strange in comparison to other cars I drove. It was a nice car, engine was very smooth, especially compared to the 4tech - iron duke i4. If you pushed it too hard, it almost started loose power vs pulling more - about 3/4 way into the throttle. It felt like hesitation, but it was not a hesitation like bad gas, it was just a noticeable power loss. There was a sweet spot to drive the car. The advanced carburetor system was crazy and the electronics were always a problem. I traded it in on a new car when it had about 187,000 miles. Nice car, great condition, full of electronic and mechanical bugs.

0:39 Not a Pontiac 6000 a body picture. But you know I loved the video. 🥝✅. How could the team downgrade the stirling, age old 231 V6 reliability?

I would like to interject a little information concerning 1982-85 Buick 183 C I 3.0V6 , this info would cover all front wheel drive Buick engines from 1982-92 includes early 3800sfi TPSFI 88-92 the 3.0 will have better oil pressure if you change the screen for the oil pump inside the pan the pickup screen used on early engines the screen has small holes that get plugged easily, to remedy that problem use the pickup screen from a 1993 and later series 2-3 3800 engines the new screen is has a smaller circumference but larger holes than the early screens,if you change the screen and have a good oil pump the engine will maintain higher oil pressure,P. S in early engines use a 4 quart oil pan 93-97 engines use a 5 quart oil pan series 3 use a 6 quart oil pan 1998-09.

Oh boy, you don't need to tell me about that awful engine. My grandparents bought a decently loaded 1985 Cierra. It had that awful 3.0 2V engine. When the thing was brand new it stalled about 5 times just getting it out of their garage. They gave me the car when it had 75k miles on it (they'd already had head gaskets done). It also had the digital cluster which was a cable driven digital speedometer and the speed would jump all over the place. I tried several different rebuild clusters from the dealer, and all had their own issues. Long story, crappy car. Too bad it didn't have the 3.8 and analog gauges, that would have been a step up. But on another note, that was one of the most comfortable cars one could imagine.

A client of mine had an 84 Celebrity Eurosport that had the 2.8, she put around 200K on it with very few issues. A neighbor had an 82 Century with the 3.0 engine, at a relatively low mileage, a spark plug broke and busted up the piston. Another neighbor and I helped with the repair and put the thing back on the road. I moved before I could find out how long it lasted.

Don't know that I've ever driven a 3.0 V6. I've had 2.8 V6 and 2.5 Iron Duke 4 cylinders and they ran great

Here in rust country the control arms for the rear axle rotted out of the unibody structure very early in life.

I had a 1980 Malibu with the Chevy 229ci V6 (a semi-odd fire V6 derived from the 305ci V8). That engine was such a pile... noisy, vibrational, couldn't get out of its own way. For years I fought with it to resolve the idle vibration, and finally someone with some GM dealer experience told me that all the 229s vibrated. It was just inherent in the design. Could not believe GM put that on the market.

Great vid!!!

In high school I had a 2.8 in a 6000, was a zippy little car until it blew a head gasket. I had one of the 2-door 6000's which was sort of rare.

My dad was a parts guy at a small GM dealer for many, many years. My first car was a 1-owner '85 Buick Century that was taken on trade with this very engine. I remember it was not that smooth running, and was utterly gutless, but we had great reliability, actually. Now, I was 15 years old, and I don't remember if my Dad already had the service records for this car, but he may have known work that had already been done. All I knew was he paid about $300 for it, the first owner(s) were a farmer and his wife, and the car had 165k miles on it when we got it. However, other than lots of sand/gravel dings in the paint from the dirt roads they lived on, it was an amazing car in great condition. For whatever reason, they ordered it with about every option, too (power windows/locks, tilt, big fluffy seats, level ride, vinyl roof, chrome trim, wire wheel covers, etc.). The only reason we got rid of the car was that is wasn't in condition and reliable enough to take on a highway road trip. It went on to another high school first-driver child of one of my Dad's co-workers, and I got the best car I've ever had: a 1988 Pontiac Bonneville with the amazing 3.8 Liter V6. In comparison, loads of power, and a joy to take a long road trip in. I cried when someone pulled out in front of me and totalled the car in 2004 with around 140k miles. Wish I could get her back.

As a mechanic who used to work on these cars, I would say the 2.5 4 cylinder was a much worse engine. And the carbureted 2.8 was also troublesome, with the main problem being it's variable venturi carburetor and all of it's vacuum hoses. Overall, this was a sad point in GM engine history. Luckily it got better once they started putting multi port fuel injection on the engines.

I rented a '83 Century V6 for a week while on vacation. One thing I remember is when I took my foot off the gas the car did not initially slow down. It seemed like there was a delay in the engine braking action. Overall it seemed like a decent car but not very exciting. Before today I did not know about the offset connecting rods.

This was also standard motor on the delta 88 and Buick lesabre 1986.

That was cool. I remember local auto parts stores, when they were independents, used to stock crankshaft kits for those. Those offset crank pins were pretty weak. Did the Buick 4.1 V6 have a similar crankshaft? I think it did but don't remember for sure.

My cousin gave me one of those cars about twenty years ago and we could not kill it, we drained the engine oil out and ran it for about fifteen minutes and it still ran so we put the old oil back in and run the crap out of it until we scrapped it.

Mid 90's I bought an '82 Chevy Celebrity cheap because it had an audible knock. I ran 50 weight oil in it, then 70 weight, then went to 90 weight straight gear oil. I never changed it just kept on adding. It lasted about a year and went 10k miles before it stopped. It was the 4cyl..

Those additives you suggested don't really work with today's oils because of the large percentage of detergents in the oil. These detergents will clean most of the additives off what ever the oil is lubricating.

Don't know I agree with you on this, the early 4100HT Cadillac was much worse, the 3300 Cierra with port injection was a real runner, fast as quick for the time

I guess I was a lucky one. Had an '85 Ciera with the LK9 from 2011-2018, and it was never problematic aside from occasional issues with the choke sticking. The car would probably still be running to this day, but it was wrecked then rigged back together by the next owner, then he passed on and it has likely been junked by now.

I drive a 1988 Chevy celebrity with the V6 2.8Liter. I've got plenty of stories about that engine and it only has 179,300 on it! When I bought it 14 years ago it had 98,450ish on it. My most recent project this last weekend was replacing the original heater return hose that recently burst. This beast best as I can tell was built in early September 1987 and entered service on 14 October 1987. I found the business card of the salesman in the glove box along with some of the original paperwork.

The 2.8/3.1/3100/3400 60v6 had a decent niche following. I did a lot of tuning on my modded 2.8 :) I even mapped out the $DF tuning file to like 99.9% completeness.

I legitimately chuckled at the phrase "downsized dinghies".

I have a 1985 Buick Century with the 3.0, bought at an auction some 7-8 years ago, was stored in a barn due to a bad fuel pump. It had the biggest mouse nest I have ever seen in the trunk but thats another story. I dropped the tank and replaced the pump, pulled the carburetor and rebuilt it, replacing every single electronic control in the carb with new parts. All new ignition parts at the same time along with a water pump. Got it running, tweaked on the carburetor some and replaced all vacuum lines along with the PCM and the intake heater (Early Fuel Evaporation). That was 40,000 miles ago, engine runs with 5w-30 synthetic oil year round and it starts down as low as -15F. It is a little cold blooded, usually let it idle 20 seconds before taking off with it, it surely isnt a powerhouse but seems to move the car along just fine. It now shows just shy of 140,000 miles.

You mentioned the 3.0 liter being offered in the C body cars for 1985 but you failed to mention is was the base engine for the all new redesigned Oldsmobile Delta 88 and Buick Lesabre for the 1986 model year only. I know this because it's first in the sales literature but also i had a friend of the family that had that engine in their base model Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale sedan in 1986. It might have been fuel injected at that point but it was still the standard engine in that model/year.

I once owned a 92 Cutlass Ciera S with a 2.8 i was working on my degree in electrical engineering at the time and i was fascinated with obd I at the time and figured out how to re-tune it using fuel pressure and adding resisters to the MAF i turned that little car into a rocket i called it cannon ball express 1.0 i currently own a very rare 1985 chevy durango it's basically a long box s10 with a 2.8l v6 and 5 speed trans i think gm's worst engine is the 350 diesel in my 79 riviera. but nothing is worst than a mopar 2.7l

Family had a new 1984 Ciera with that engine. Traded and got a late 1985 with a 3.8 V6 Fuel Injected. The 3.0 was awful performer and terrible mileage. Traded before 10k miles.

Aqui no Brasil não tivemos muitos carros da GM com motor V6, o 6 cilindros em linha foi fabricado da década de 60 até 1996.