New here, got some questions!
 

Hey guys, glad I found this place!
First off - I'm 19, from Niagara Falls NY, I'm a PHP Developer and in school. I'm going to be purchasing a 03 Alero GLS with 100k on it in March - it belongs to my mom and she's going to be upgrading to a truck, and since it was the car I learned to drive in and I loved it, I'm jumping at the chance to take it off her hands! I offered her $4,000 for it, as the trade-in value was around $3,000. She bought the car new and babied it, so I know it'll be a strong runner. Already had the intake gaskets done around 85k.

I'm new to the 3400s - kind of. I recently sold my 2000 Impala LS with a 3800, it was slightly modded :thumb: I also have a 1993 Olds Cutlass Ciera S, great condition with 45k original miles, 2nd owner. (pics at end of post) Since Impala's also came with LA1s, I learned a lot about them in the process of learning about and modding my L36 engine, however I never really cared too much to pay attention to them :coolio: (sorry guys!) I also have a 2008 Silverado LS, but it's my dad's - however he lives 1300 miles away in Florida and the truck stays at my garage in NY, so it's mine :beerchug:

I have some questions regarding the car, hopefully some things I can gather while I'm waiting to get the car (My moms in the process of buying a new house, going to sell it to me once finalized (1 week!) and settled).

First thing I wanna do it struts all around, and a nice drop on it. My first question is what is the best strut available for the N-body? Do we have an adjustable strut option? Best lowering springs? Any coil-overs? Not looking to bag so that's out of the question. As usual I'd like to keep the costs low but quality comes first!

Second, would be FI. Anyone had good success with a L67 (3800 s/c) swap? Or any good turbo kits available that are reliable as far as parts and straight forward to install? I'm quite comfortable with the 3800, so a swap would be my first choice, but I know people have had some PCM issues swapping them into Grand Ams - I figure an Alero swap would be more difficult due to PCM restrictions, but I'll leave it to the pros to tell me what's up! If all else fails i'll just 3500 top-swap and call it a day :cool:

Third - anyone done a HUD? I love the HUD in my buddies GTP, but in the Impala it was almost impossible due to lack of space behind the cluster.

Some things I plan on doing are LED interior. I'm quite handy with a soldering iron, did my whole Impala's interior and it wasn't as easy as the Aleros, the lights were non-serviceable, soldered straight to the boards. I also would like to tint the tail lights (I think it would compliment the black exterior great - if you have any pics of a black Alero with tinted tails please post em!). Would also like to do clear corners, HID's, and some other small modifications (suggestions would be great!)

Anyway, as promised, here's some pics of my other rides!

IMPALA






A little photoshop I did..


CUTLASS





SILVERADO

DUDE! resize those pics

Welcome to the site. Your other rides are looking pretty good too.

Haha I got right on it, I'm used to my other forum where it automatically does :cool:

welcome

Welcome, the Impala looked nice.

welcome aboard.... a local guy!

check my sig for led how to's and FAQs.

welcome to the party

Welcome to the site. Cars look great

First off, you'll want to clear those corners. You'll hear that a lot on here. It's not too hard to do and you can paint the bezels or leave them as is.

As for modding the 3400 motor, you'll want to check out www.wottech.com It's all performance parts for the 60* V6 motor that you have there. The guy that runs the site, his name is Ben and he knows his stuff. He's got performance parts for 60* motors as far back to the early 90's late 80's motors. I have his manifold set and just bought his 3500 valves. Going to buy valve springs soon too.

The lowering and suspension. KYB GR2's are probably the best right now. PFYC carries them in a set for $270 or Summit racing sells them singles and a set of 4 would be $238. I need new ones so I've been looking :p Give a pretty good ride. Been very happy with them. As for lowering, that's up to you. Eibachs give you a 1.2 inch drop. That's what I have because the roads in Philly suck and I bottom out sometimes. There are also Intrax which give you a 2.2 inch drop. I would suggest getting the camber adjusting bolts with lowering the car. 1 set for 1 inch, 2 sets for 2 inch.

As for the HUD, I don't think anybody here has tried it and HID's, some guys have them, I'll let them tell you about that ;)

Keep in mind that the L36 you had is a different motor than the LA1. The L36 is a 90* motor and the LA1 is a 60*

Welcome aboard!

Nice lineup!

hello and welcome from michigan

Yeah, 3400 guy here!

Wottech is a great place...

I had tint tails... i loved them...

SPRING SPRINGS ARE THE BEST SPRINGS EVER (and cheapest)

I think Nate meant Sprint Springs.

thanks...

welcome.

i'm also looking into the hud option. i've looked into it alot, i also want to get an impala dic and try to install it into my car

I had the DIC in my Impala - I am an active member on a forum called NAIOA - the owner, BBEngineer, sells a kit to retrofit one into an Impala. Not sure if it'll work in an Alero but I'm all ears if it does! In fact I'm going to shoot him an email seeing if he knows if it will be an easy install.


Thanks... glad to see some more people around here who own a snow blower :lol: I'll have to keep an eye out for your car, I work right off the 990 and North French, thats about the closest I ever get to Lockport so I might see ya out there if you are in the area. I have a buddy John who lives in Lockport, has a pretty built NA 3800, with a crazy top-swap coming - M90, full size IC, headers, all the bells and whistles. He doesn't know it yet but he'll be helping me install my struts on the Alero :lol:


Thanks for all the great info! Corners will be cleared along with a painted black bezel. I am familiar with WOT-TECH - I believe Ben (or someone from WOT-TECH) is a member on the Impala forum I frequent. I never checked out the site but now I will have to. I think I'll go with the GR2's on Eibach's - both familiar names to me and like you, I live somewhere with crazy potholes and don't wanna go too low. Quick question if you happen to read this - On W-Bodys we have GR2's and AGX's, which are adjustable - do we have an adjustable strut for N-Bodys? I'm currently running 4300k HID's in all my vehicles, couldn't imagine life without them! It will be the first mod I do other than sending my tails to FLIP (shameless plug: http://flipscustomtails.com ) for a nice tint coat - I've used VHT before with good results, but his work is phenomenal.

Again thanks for all the welcomes and answers guys, I'm going to get to know the search button pretty well over the next 2 months until I get my car!

Welcome Nice truck

welcome to the site.

Welcome aboard!

hey.. tinted impala tails > whited tails. and the rims you chose for the shop.. ugry.