Cutlass Kid
 

Hey fellow Olds fans!

My name is Jake, I'm 20 and I love classics. (No rice burners for me!) I am currently restoring a '63 Falcon Futura which I bought when I was 16, but decided I need a daily driver.

I bought the '97 Cutlass Supreme SL about a year ago, the 3.1 L.
So far its been a pain in the rear (i'm sure you're all familiar with the problems), but I love it dearly and its a 4 door with balls. (Honda Civics beware!)

Anyway, so far I've put a nice clean exhaust kit and an intake in with what money I have left over from all the repairs. I'm currently finishing up the bodywork and I plan on maybe picking up a ram air hood? (Not too big and bulky though, some vents would be nice) My old hood is rusted under the lip and i'm not sure if it is worth my time trying to grind out all the rust, plus I wanna keep my compartment a little cooler, and if there is even a functional ram air hood available that will fit the car I'd love to know. Would I be better off chopping a hole in my hood and fabricating one myself?

Also, I stumbled across a wrecked '00 Grand Prix GT with a 3.8L that would look lovely under my hood. Its going for $500 but I think I could turn a profit with the number of mint parts I could sell. I'm short on funds and would kind of like to see what I can stroke out of the original engine though.

Thoughts? I would love to exchange information with anyone with knowledge pertaining to the Cutlass, and I'll post some pictures eventually.

Regards,

jskaterson@hotmail.com

Hello Jake! And welcome!

Hello 97SL, and welcome to the forum!
I agree, the Cutlass was a great car, I had a '95 with the 3.1, and it was bulletproof. I put a tranny in at 130K, and it was still running strong at 188K when I traded it in for my current 01 Alero.
I'll also second your opinion on the 3.8, definitely one of the better engines GM had. My Impala has it, and it hasn't been any trouble at all, good power, and averages 25 mpg even with my S&B FWI setup and aggressive city driving.
Dropping one in a Cutlass sounds good, but I'm no expert on the Cutlass. Will it even fit w/o a lot of modding?

Hey Iflylow,

I actually just hit the 190k mark, and what I believe is my control arm just went out... I'm not driving it right now because if I turn the wheel my alignment locks in that direction, relocking when I turn the wheel the other way.. I'm kinda short on funds so I haven't gotten it checked out yet.

As for the swap, I was looking on another site and I found a couple of guys who did it without much trouble (or so they say), and I compared the mounts (without actually measuring anything) and they look pretty bang-on. $500.00 doesn't just grow on trees though so unfortunately I'll never get to find out, I just decided to stick with my engine hopefully it'll run for another few years (some guy my dad talked to was still driving his past 400k!!!)

CUTLASS EXPERT NEEDED!!! TEACH A YOUNG GRASSHOPPER!