my "new" 03 GX sedan
 

2003 GX, 125K miles, ecotec, 5 speed. needs some work, mostly small things like bulbs and fuses that need replacing. other then that its a pretty solid car. so far.

well theres a start. when i get a chance to get it cleaned up a little and its light enough out i will get some better pics. till then, this is all you get.

nice car i want a 5 speed with my 3.4 xD

im getting a 6 speed at the beginning of march in my 3.4 :P

nice ride. cant wait to enjoy a manual like you have, even though ive got the v6 lol

...... ill trade you my soul for it...

There, finally a good picture of my Alero. keep in mind she was pretty dirty and i didnt have a tripod with me.

looks good.

:agree:

thanks guys. it doesn't help that i am trying to be a photographer. so i have no choice but to make my pictures look good. LoL.
but yea its all i have until summer when i can actually work on the car and not get snow up my pant legs. i plan on doing something different for my tail lights. not to sure about cleared corners. i would like lowers and some good looking wheels. anything else will be dumped into the motor to beef it up a little. until i decide to take it to milzy motorsports to get a 3900 swap or something crazy.

just curious to what your ideas are for the tails... there have been many different things done, just wondering what you are thinking...

oh, i dont even have an idea yet. i wont until spring comes around and i can get out there and try different stuff. haha. i dont even know where to start to be honest. i want something different, but i dont want to spend money doing it.

looks clean, but needs lowered like crazy!!

i want lowers. but right now its a bad idea. pregnant girlfriend + low car = complaining about not being able to get out of low car. LOL
okay so i now need to know how to get rid of oil/grease or any other contaminants on engine parts. i have a new valve cover that i would like to paint BUT it has some oil on it and i cant afford a steam cleaning or any of that stuff. i probably couldnt even afford a dip in a hot tank. >_< so what do i use to get any contaminants off the surface i will be painting? and what is a good paint to use on valve covers? i am going with blue because i think red is to over used, and black would be to dark for me. i will be going with a blue/siler theme on the car given that it is already silver.

you could just use water/soap and then sand it down.
I used a steel brush.
Also I used engine enamel to paint it

^yup. I just sanded then cleaned mine with soap and water. I used caliper paint on mine though.

i tried soap and water. dish soap to be exact. my results were not as expected. i used Gunk™ engine cleaner to get mostof the oil off. but now water still beads off the surface as is a thin layer of oil or wax is built up on it. So, i will need primer, color of my choice and a high heat clear coat correct? i have the clear coat already i think. Also- sanding, how would i sand it when there are so many tiny areas that i can not get my hands into? haha i have a Roto tool (Dremel) but i dont see myself being able to get everything i need to get. when i do this, i want it done right. not half As*'d haha

well heres my progress on the valve cover
this is not what it looked like when i primed it. i had the entire cover sanded before i even thought about primer. it almost looked polished but not quite.

Attachment 10905


this was before i threw a quick coat of primer on to see how it would come out.

Attachment 10906

and there is a primed valve cover. i used rustoleum engine primer on it. next coat will be FORD engine blue. yes ford. because i like the ford blue, i think the GM blue is to light. but before paint i have some spots to clean up still and i have to sand a couple small spots that got to much spray.

I taped off a few spots when I did mine

i just wanted to make sure the entire thing had a good coat to keep it from corroding or rusting. so i hit the hole thing. im still priming though, because i went to get the underside a little cleaner and the "Gunk™" took some of the primer off. then when i washed it again with soap it took more off. so now i am going through and getting two coats of primer on then i will be hitting it with blue. and i will have pictures of my finished product. however with the snow being as bad as it is, i will not be installing right away.

Announcement! i have decided to purchase the Cosmoracing SRI for my car. go big or go home right? I just didnt see the point in having a full 3 inch intake from ebay when that big of a pipe will do nothing for performance. i learned that with my integra. and i have had a good experience with cosmo intakes before so i made my choice.

Cosmo intake will be here by the 22nd. i cant wait

my cosmo intake install
 

it did not go as planned. i figured it would just kinda slip right in but i was wrong. i had slight fitment issues. one of these is that my battery must be to large as it is in the way. the second issue is the little bracket that bolts to the power steering pump. i could not bend the damn thing and when i tried it make cracking sounds. i looked at the weld and saw white lines around it so i stopped right away figureing it would probably just rip a hole in the pipe. the intake is on, but not bolted in fully. Attachment 10920
this is how it looks now. i would have to either get asmaller battery, or move it to the trunk in order to line this up a little better. not only that, i wuol have to twist the bracket a little.

the intake looks great but the fitment was not as expected.

other then the small issues here is my finished product. hopefully it will not create problemsAttachment 10921

that being said, this engine did come from a saturn so maybe it would have been a different manifold design and ,aybe it would have fit better.