New member from West Virginia

[JoshParsons84]

Hello everybody and thank you for allowing me to join this forum. I hope to start everything on a positive note. My name is Josh and I'm from Charleston WV. I've only had my 2002 Alero Sedan 3400 4T45-E for bout 2 months, but so far I love it! First time I've owned an Alero. Had Cutlass, Grand Prix, Malibu, Monte Carlo...now Alero. My Grand Prix was supercharged and for that fact I believe it was my favorite car. But my Alero is quickly becoming my favorite car I've ever owned.

I only gave $1,400 for it and everybody tells me I'm stupid that I wanna put money into a "junk" car. Why not sell this car and buy the car that already has a 3500 LX9 and F40 6-speed? Well why put an LS1 in a 69 Camaro? I mean cause it's yours and that's what you wanna do. You can't explain a love for your car. But anyways I've done a lot of research since I bought it. There's a lot that can be done to these cars if you got deep enough pockets for it. It's not only the performance side of it, it's the complete package though. It's gotta look clean and sleek with you only knowing the beast under the hood pushing 400 horses with a stereo louder than a concert

With all that said maybe I can get some advice on build? I hope to be here for a while!

[That01Olds]

Welcome to the forum! Happy modding! As far as a build goes there's a number of different ways you could go. It just all depends on what you want to do.

[Papa Rad17]

Your in the right place. Pretty well everything you'll need to know or want to know can be found here. Welcome!

[Oldsnut]

Welcome to our little slice of heaven.

[JoshParsons84]

Thanx everybody. I would love to have a motor and tranny swap. But I'm old school. I'm more of a numbers matching kinda guy. So, against everybody's advice I've chosen to keep the 3400 in and 4T45 as well. I know a lot of you may hate the 3400 because of gasket issues and I agree. I personally like the looks of the upper intake better than that of the 3500. PCM tuning is one thing but I don't wanna go start ripping motors and transmissions out unless I have to.

That being said has anybody else had transmission problems out of theirs? Or know common problems with the 4T45? Maybe I could start my build with common problems. It has hard shifts I know that much. And if I can find somebody worth a damn I'll have all my gaskets replaced all the way down to the heads.

I think for myself I wanna take it all the down to the block and work my way back up. I think in the end I'll have better results that way. If nothing else everything will be brand new and it'll be a much more personal experience.

[zzyzzx]

Originally Posted by JoshParsons84

That being said has anybody else had transmission problems out of theirs? Or know common problems with the 4T45?

I have less than 50K miles on my 1999, but from reading here there doesn't seem to be any real issues with this transmission other than lack of a dipstick or drain plug. Supposedly there is an aftermarket drain pan available that does have a drain plug, but nobody here I think has tried it. It's made by Dorman, which almost everyone here (including myself) hates, but supposedly this pan is OK as long as you add in your own high quality drain plug gasket before using it. I might give it a try if I ever drop the pan to change the filter.

[sleepyalero]

Welcome

[wrestlingandrunning]

Welcome!