Car has 122k on it, new supercharger cone, and some misc new stuff.. problems is ac has no freon.. susposed engine check light because of CAT will be including cat with purchase to fix it..

Besides that what should I be looking for?? problems and such and what mileage do these cars usualy get I worked on one at college and it showed 28 mpg on the computer thing..

Car has kn intake, sway bar, gauges (after market fuel pressure gauge, boost/voltage gauges) after market shift kit which lets you control the stall? don't understand this (iv installed stalls and shift kits) one said he ran 14's in the car when he went to the track once

God Im rambling on and on.. i wanna get the best gas mileage out of this thing really and for it to fly...thats probably all id really do in terms of preformance maybe a pulley but mileage

Thanks, Ryan

28 mpg is about what you should expect to get for mostly highway driving. As for city driving expect to get 18-20 mpg. If you can take a test drive in the car and really pay attention to the transmission, they are the weak link in our cars and at 122K there's a good chance it might be on the way out. A bigger downpipe with a U-Bend delete is probably one of the most basic mods you can do to add performance besides an intake which it already has. Good luck.

yeah 97 was the first year for the 4t65eHD so i'd watch for issues related to trany. One major issue these cars have are leaky Orings at the fuel injectors but most dangerous are the leaky orings at the fuel lines! all the 3800 SC motors i have seen at the junk yard are burnt to a crisp because of these leaky seals. with the car on i would have the hood up and look at the fuel rail on top and see if its leaking...

im not too well read up on it, but i know the SC oil is important to change and most people it prob never crosses their mind. as for a shift kit to change the stall speed... that is BS the stall speed is set by the TQ converter and is not adjustable. a S.K. however can be set to diff levels of firmness and with tuning you can change shift points and line pressure....

i would deff have the car looked at and scaned for codes. if you have access to a data logger i would take the car for a test drive and check for engine Knock. also when you pull the plugs check to see if they are black (rich) or gray (lean) if the car is lean... i would be cautious about it. lean causes knock, knock causes damage to the piston and heads. and that spells new engine.

well the tranny was changed at 57k he stated and the nose cone on the SC in 04 (so i imagine they changed the oil)? what kind of oil do they take btw

Just GM s/c oil. You can get it at the Pontiac dealership here on Valley Mills for like 7 dollars a bottle. It'll take almost two. If you end up getting the car, I can help you with that, it's kind of a funky process. It needs to be changed every 30-40k miles, but people have gone longer with no problems.

97s were NOT that bad of a year, I had a 97 GT and it had less problems than most of you guys come on here with, so please don't knock them unless you've actually had long-time experience with one.

The o-ring thing isn't as common as most freaked-out GP owners would lead you to believe, but it would be good to have them looked at. Fortunately, it's really easy to do, especially for mechanically inclined people.

I didn't see you mention a smaller pulley actually being on the car already, so I wouldn't worry about the piston-chipping that was mentioned, especially since it has supporting mods anyway.

Just go drive it, if it has problems, you'll know. The most common thing on these cars is the transmission, and if it's crap, it will be easy to tell. Other than that, they're extremely reliable and you can beat on them and they can take it better than most cars.

Long story short, don't let this crap scare you off, it's all car-by-car basis, and that GTP could very well be a great car.

I'd look for oil leaks by the valve covers, oil pan, and the exhaust manifold gaskets. What do you mean changed at 57k, the fluid or the whole tranny? Listen: Possible hub bearing noise indicating new hubs bearings. And what you mean S/C cone, the snout? I would make sure that it is running the stock pulley on the supercharger too.

the snout ya, whole tranny

even stock cars can have Knock. the only way to know is by scaning. 97's had the most issues out of the gtps you might just have lucked out with a good one, but if you counted up the cars that had reoccuring issues you will see the 97s (as with any transition year car) had the most issues. also we are talking 97 GTP not GT

isnt as common? sorry but Leaking GAS under my hood where there is electricity and Hot exhaust is just down right DANGEROUS. that fact that it is a reoccuring issue with other GTPs just makes it a Must check.there is just too much at risk not to take the 1-2 min to look.

No intentions to argue, so take what I have to say as my own opinion, and observations.

From what I've seen, I don't think the '97's have any more issues than any other year.... The "problem" with the '97's is that they have parts that are different from other years because The General changed things for the next couple of years..... Not that you can't make newer parts work on the '97, but it seems like everytime I work on a '97 I run into something different from what I'm used to seeing.
Worst scenario I've run into is installing a Quaife.... The '97 has a C clip holding the differential in place. The '98+ has a spring clip. The spring clip allows the quaife to slip onto the output shaft. With the C clip system, there's no way to install the TBD with the clip in place, and with the diff. being thoroughly housed, there's no way to install the C clip after the diff. is in place. We discovered that a different output shaft was needed(which noone had, and had to put the car back together with the stock, differential..... Several hours spent accomplishing nothing but a tranny fluid change.

Sorry for the long post..... Just thought I would share.

Yes, isn't as common, and I did say it was worth a check.

And Crimp made some good points, 97s don't have more problems than other years. Some of their parts are different, that's about the only thing that could possibly be irritating.

You see more complaints about 97s now because they're the OLDEST, not because they're the worst year. And 97 GTs and GTPs were more similar to each other than later years since GTP was just a performance package that could be added to a GT.

I didn't say he didn't have to worry about knock. I said he probably didn't have to worry about knock DAMAGE, as the car he's looking at has a stock pulley from the pictures that I looked at.

Don't start pulling me down when you read what I said wrong. It makes it sound like we're both trying to get argumentative, and I would like to avoid that. Thanks.

If your looking at a 97 now I would'nt worry about the few problems that year had ,I'm sure by now any or all of them have been taken care of ,as Arc. mentioned they (97's) did'nt really have any more problems than later years they just used some different parts being a transition year.Chico(pops)

It sounds like a decent car from what you've said and what I've heard from Arcx.

As far as things to look for... I'd just keep an eye out for the things you look at for any other car. Check the fluids and make sure they look good and don't smell burnt. Drive it around and make sure it behaves the way it should and that there aren't any weird noises, etc. General condition of the car and so on and so forth. I'd say check the supercharger coupler for wear, but with a new snout on there I wouldn't worry about it.

Good luck with it and I hope it works out well for ya... These can be really fun cars.

In Atlanta I'm lucky if I get much over 12 mpg with only city driving.....if I do some mixed highway and city driving it jumps up to 18 to maybe 20, and if I do straight highway it gets between 28 and 31 depending on how it is being driven......and that is with a bone stock 98 GTP with 88 k on the clock.

Lance

been finding other GT's and such found some GTPs but they are sedans but it has 190k on the clock just had a new valve cover or something put on it.. i know these 3.8's last forever but is that to high?

Depends on how well it was taken care of.

Mine has 160k on it now and any trouble I've had was my own doing.

ya if it seems to run good and not knock or anything id think its good i just cant tell of any oil burning issues when I test drive the car unless they let me borrow it for awhile lol.. that GTP is 3k and that GT sold for 2.5k yesterday.. theres that white one in cove still for 2k with a engine/tranny with 50k /keeps pondering

Do'nt be afraid to ask to take any car to an independant shop for a once over or if you have a mechanic friend take him with you,a second opinion may well save you a heap of cash in the long run,good luck.Chico(pops)

well im back on a different computer dumb workers near our house cut our cable lines in the ground and its been down (still is) for 3 days now

I'v found a 97 GTP Red, 70k on the clock just had heads put on a few months ago.. tires are bald and the transmission whines owner said the mechanic said it would be a tranny filter to fix it (somehow I doubt that?)

although will a 2006 GTP tranny work? found one new for cheap so far I see all you gotta do is swap the valve body out

I would Chico if they where around or if it wasnt 150 bucks, iv taken manual tranny's, ac systems and electric for cars in school plus iv done tons of tranny installs, timing belts, intake/head gaskets so its no like im an idiot going to look at a car like I was a few years ago I just come on here asking because yall know whats prone to failure and such..

Yeah, if that tranny whines, it's staring death in the face right now and I wouldn't be surprised if it chucked in the towel on a test drive.

I'm pretty sure an 06 tranny will not work in a 97.

Why did it need new heads?

thats what im wondering havnt checked it yet.. his gf listed for like 3k but he said hed take 2k id give maybe 1-1.5k for it probably.. ill be looking for coolant in the oil, and oil leaks around the heads and such.. although some other cars just became avab this week like always so whatever is the best deal at the time i guess

even with valve body swap thats what some shop told me online but u know how they are just wanting to unload there shit? ill call john geobel and ask him how cheap he'd redo one of the tranny's for hes the shit i dunno if you'v used him yet arcxnus