Matt's Alero is sold

[dbral]

Made it back home this a.m. with a beautiful car and a trunk full of awesome parts to go with it. Great job with building and caring for that car bud. We love it!!

[dbral]

Obviously nothing for sale here. Just wanted to quickly confirm that Matt's car is still in the community and will continue to be well cared for and appreciated by us.

Matt, thanks again for your generosity and good taste in vehicle mods.

Moderators, please close this thread.

[tw0123]

Let's see some pictures of it!!! Glad you were able to make a deal with Matt... I've dealt with him many times over the years and know his quality and care for his parts and his cars... you got a good one!!

[dbral]

Yep, Matt gave us an awesome deal and can't say enough good things about the great condition he kept the car in along with the level of parts that he chose to build it with. It is a good solid car for sure. Also, the car is a lot fun to drive and is surprisingly well mannered around town but comes alive above 4k and is really in its element when you need to accelerate onto highway on-ramp....holy crap

My daughter drove it for the first time tonight and did well. A little different from her Alero for sure as the cam/tune requires some heel-toe action at low rpm occasionally but she managed to get the hang of it. Pretty awesome feeling for me to finally be driving together with her in basically the same set-up as what we were trying to build for all those years...and I could tell that she had fun with it for sure. I feel that we will make some good memories together with the car.

Will try to get some pictures this weekend.

[tw0123]

That's awesome!!! It's all about those memories... my kids are less than 2 years away from driving and they both want to drive mine... it'll be really hard to hand over those keys, but I may just do it to see the twinkle in their eyes and giggles galore that'll emit from them for days... it's all about the memories we create with the young ones...

[dbral]

Oh man! Y'all are going to have some fun together! Just about the best feeling as a parent when you can connect with your kids on something like that. Crazy how time flies though. Ours just turned 21. Kids grow up in the blink of an eye but like you said it's all about the memories we create together with them for sure.

Here are some pics. Really no way to improve on the looks of the car. It is spot on and it runs strong. Currently trying to get the erratic idle smoothed out for my daughter. She is of the post-carburetor generation and is a little concerned about keeping it alive at low rpm lol. Found the IAC was loose and missing a bolt. Repairing that helped a lot but it still is not quite right. Learning about HPtuners currently as Matt generously sent me home with his interface. Plan on doing some data logging and taking a look at what can be adjusted at idle. Maybe some new tables have been unlocked for our cars by HP recently that can help? The throttle follower and cracker tables look interesting.

[tw0123]

Jump on the hp groups you can find to learn as much as you can... there's a lot to know... I trust my buddy to do all my tuning, he's been in it for so long it's easier for me to just give it to him lol...

That car is still absolutely beautiful �� I'm glad it's got a good new home! Your daughter will have a blast once she learns it... I'm still debating on 5 speed swapping mine, but I've had no issues with the auto so it's hard to justify it when there's no issues lol

[dbral]

Manual transmissions in these cars are fun but it is a hard choice to change an already reliable set-up with your auto. Have ran across some horror stories from time to time about the auto in our cars but have had good luck with them personally. Our GA has over 200k on what looks to be its original auto and it is still going strong. If you do choose to swap though it will be worth it!

Yep, we have a very good tuning shop about an hour and a half from here. That is where the car will end up going as I do not have the heart to attempt any changes without a full understanding of the software and yeah, there is a lot to learn and much of what is over my head with it needs to be sorted out with experience. Trying to at least get to the point where I can gather some good data and possibly be able to communicate with shop meaningfully when the time comes.

If nothing can be changed then I'm fine with that as well. As it stands, she only wants to drive the car when I am with her so yeah that definitely works for me lol. It will be something for us to look forward to whenever she comes home from college.

[tw0123]

Originally Posted by dbral

As it stands, she only wants to drive the car when I am with her so yeah that definitely works for me lol. It will be something for us to look forward to whenever she comes home from college.

Definitely sounds like a win win situation there!! I know it's not the grand am you had always envisioned together, but this also should make up for that once she gets comfortable driving it, especially if you can have that shop tweak things more to your (or her) liking haha!!

[Oldsnut]

It went to someone who cares, that is all that matters. Good Luck with the purchase.

[dbral]

Definitely sounds like a win win situation there!! I know it's not the grand am you had always envisioned together, but this also should make up for that once she gets comfortable driving it, especially if you can have that shop tweak things more to your (or her) liking haha!!

It went to someone who cares, that is all that matters. Good Luck with the purchase.

Thank you all! We are very fortunate to be able to own this car and it is way better than our Grand Am could ever have been. It is pretty cool to finally see what these 60 degrees are capable of too. So much fun to drive

Good news! The stalling/erratic idle that the car has had since leaving MMS is repaired along with the 2-3 second wheeze noise that Matt had mentioned to me after the engine was shut off and stopped rotating. Will post a pic.

[dbral]

For whatever reason, instead of the crankcase fresh air tube being routed to the engine's intake duct as shown in photo, it was routed to a manifold vacuum port (shown circled in red in photo). The car now drives and behaves like any other vehicle at idle and low rpm even with the a/c engaged. Has not stalled in the 200+ miles I have driven it after I rerouted the PCV and shows no sign of wanting to either. Also the 2-3 second wheeze noise after shut down is gone. Sounded like a dog's squeeze toy lol. Guessing that the crankcase was turned into one big vacuum reservoir...with no check valve. Some interesting dynamics going on there at idle and light throttle....

This car was not easy to drive at low rpm on one of it's good days and on a bad day it would stall/die and buck/jerk the driveline, esp. with the a/c on..... but once you started pushing the accelerator down, all was forgiven lol

Here is a before pic of the PCV routing in this link before the car left MMS 3 or so years ago to show the differences.
https://www.aleromod.com/forums/show...=35412&page=91

[dbral]

Good news and bad news.

Good news is that our daughter feels comfortable driving the car by herself now that the idle issue is no longer an issue (and is currently driving the car as I type this) however another unexpected issue has popped up lol. Have a theory of what might be up but not sure. Will start a new thread and maybe someone will chime in with some helpful advice. Also, the fall autocross starts up next Saturday and we are planning on going.

DISCLAIMER: The quirks that the car has were fully disclosed to me at the time of sale and we got one he!! of a deal on this car. It is FUN to drive, has plenty of get up and go, gets a lot of positive attention, handles better than most modern cars, gets great gas mileage, and is beautiful to look at. In short, we LOVE this car. We have no complaints or regrets. //end disclaimer

[Oldsnut]

Awesome to hear