Hi folks, I posted yesterday re. buying a '95 Buick Century wagon. 3.1 SFI, 85k miles, $2500. I've put down a small deposit on the car but haven't paid for it yet.
Some helpful folks on these newsgroups have since told me that the intake manifold gasket tends to go bad on these engines, about every
40k-50k miles based on what I read on newsgroup archives.Should this pretty much be expected of almost every GM vehicle with this engine? It's a $500-$800 job from what I read. The car's seller is a very honest retiree who bought the car with 66k miles 3 years ago from a Cadillac dealer, and he himself has not had problems with the car (I completely believe him).
The '87 Chevy Celebrity it would be replacing is very rusty, but the
2.8 MFI in our Chevy has never given us any trouble. I figured that the 3.1 SFIs would be as good, but I'm starting to have doubts.(if these engines always need a $500-$800 repair every 40k-50k miles, then it would seem almost as much of a gamble as buying a Ford Taurus wagon of the same vintage and keeping my fingers crossed about the transmission!)
Any/all thoughts greatly appreciated. My positive experiences with the Chevy 2.8 encouraged me to look for another GM product, but I just want to make sure that I'm not looking an an engine that's generally considered inferior...
Pulling my hair out now, John