To Mod or Not to Mod?

[TurboMinrbo]

I own a 97 Park Avenue Ultra with the supercharged series II, everything is completely stock and the car only has 55,000 miles. It was my grandmother's car and she only drove it to the grocery store and to get her hair and nails done. She is a little old lady and she's from Pasadena, go figure. haha.

Unfortunately the car has been giving me some trouble. The engine is running a little hot when idling and in heavy traffic, but is fine once moving and on the highway. I believe the stock t-stat on these engines is 195 degrees, but not sure. Anyway when idling the digital temp gauge goes all the way up to 210 then the fans come on and the temp comes down to 203 and the fans shut off. The temp then climbs back up to 210 and the cycle continues.

I had a mechanic take a look at it and apparently the upper and lower intake manifold gaskets are leaking coolant. As far as I know the coolant only leaks externally and it is not getting into the engine, because other than the temperature issue, the car runs great.

After some research, I learned that leaky manifold gaskets are common on these engines. Unfortunately I do not have the skill or the tools to do the work myself (I wish I did), and to replace the gaskets would cost me around $700.

Now the way I see it this provides me with an opportunity to mod. Since the blower and manifold are coming off anyway I was thinking about having some work done. I've heard about having the intake and blower opening (where the compressed air get pushed out of the blower and into the manifold) being "ported" for better airflow, and I have a few questions:

1) is this an expensive job? (again, I would be paying someone to do it since i don't have the tools or experience)
2) is this a worthwhile mod at such an early stage (my car is still completely stock)
3) is my money better spent elsewhere if I don't plan on heavily modding the engine
4) will this mod have any benefit with a stock exhaust system?

Basically, I don't plan on heavily modding the engine...I would basically want the engine to breathe better and maybe go down a pulley size or two, but not to the point of stressing the stock trans or upgrading injectors. Streetability and reliability are my main concerns and I don't want to throw too much money at modding the car. I'd like to get the most performance out of the limited money I put towards modding (no nitrous for me, thanks). The only reason I thought of the porting job was because the blower and manifold would be coming off anyway.

Sorry for the long post but if someone could help point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. I'm new to 3800pro but it seems like you guys have a nice community going here.

Thanks,

Daniel

[QwikGT]

so parked in the rickety old garage was not a brand new shiny red super stock dodge?....sorry man i had to. get the LIM's fixed and start to mod why not?

[wagoner2]

I say go for it! It can't hurt!

[TurboMinrbo]

Ok sorry my title was a little misleading, I was trying to be clever. My question is not if I should mod, but rather how I should mod and get the best bang for the buck

[fastech]

Start with getting it running in tip-top order. Then do the mods that you'll need later when you get serious (supporting mods as we call them). Most of these supporting mods help you make more power but also help you get better gas mileage. 3" exhaust down pipe, cold air intake, less constrictive exhaust, roller rockers, etc. For now don't mess with porting anything, you can always do that later as you'll have those parts off the engine many times if you get serious.

[freneticburn]

that sounds like the perfect candidate car for some mods. As long as granny kept up on all the fluids it should be mint.

[dreww]

Originally Posted by fastech

Start with getting it running in tip-top order. Then do the mods that you'll need later when you get serious (supporting mods as we call them). Most of these supporting mods help you make more power but also help you get better gas mileage. 3" exhaust down pipe, cold air intake, less constrictive exhaust, roller rockers, etc. For now don't mess with porting anything, you can always do that later as you'll have those parts off the engine many times if you get serious.

i agree with this. The only thing he could do while fixing the intake gaskets:
A. port the supercharger or replace it with a GenV or better - one is expensive and the other very expensive
B. could perhaps do rockers or a cam - first one is kinda easy the the other very difficult but both a little pricey.

[Louvered97GTP]

I would not port the supercharger as one of the first mods. The money can be better spent. Leave that for middle of road or end of your mods. First i'd suggest a scan guage. Then do exhaust and rockers, or exhaust, cam and valve springs. Followed by PCM and smaller pulley.
By exhaust, I mean headers or ported manifolds at least, and downpipe.

[n0dih]

What years did the SC engines have intake leak issues? I thought it was only the L36's...