Yeah. I made a mistake. The automatic version of the GTO had the gas guzzler tax. The manuals like mine, didn't.

 

600-800 is normal for idle.

Your engine has twice as many cylinders as you're used to, which means there are twice as many combustion events at a given RPM, so I can see how it would sound higher to you.

 

mine might have skip shift tuned out. I've driven it about 100 miles so far, and the light never came on, and it always let me shift to 2nd. Maybe because i normally shift out of first really early, so making me go to 4th would be stupid...

 

youre right. i figured that out after i got it to around 5k and it didnt blow, lol. and sorry about this, but another potential problem. The car came from the dealer with ~10gal of 87 octane because he said it runs fine on that. It did run just fine to a gas station for me to add around 6 gal of 93, lol. So then I drove for ~80 miles, not that nicely, so i added another 3.8 gal of 93. All was well in the world, until today, when i went to Speedway, and added 5 gal of 92 gas. Upon startup, the engine stumbled a little bit. It drove fine, but at idle, it keeps dropping revs a bit, then picking back up. It normally goes down to ~400, then goes back up to ~700. I dont think it did this before...

 

GM, in their cheapness, attached the torque arm from the rear axle to the rear of the transmission. All the acceleration and braking torques from the rear go to the back of the tranny, not the best solution in my opinion. One of my first mods was to replace the stock torque arm with one that puts those loads into the unibody, not the transmission. Made the car quite a bit more solid-feeling, and the shifter stopped wagging around every time I went on or off the gas.

 

Do you have a rough estimate for the cost of doing that? I might get around to it, but for now, the car is such a huge improvement over what I had, that it seems like its perfect.

 

Use up all of the gas you've got, preferably without any high-RPM shenanigans -- take it for a road trip or something. Get it as empty as you're comfortable doing. Then go fill it up with premium, and let us know if the problem doesn't go away.

 

Thats the plan. What worries me is that as far as i know, this is the highest octane thats been in the tank since i got the car (maybe between 90 and 91), and it hasnt done that before 0.o. Ill see if it goes away after i get it to 93. Thanks

 

Sometimes you just get some bad gas. I generally avoid gas stations where I've had that happen more than once. Eventually you'll find out which stations you can rely on.

 

UMI, BMR, and Strange Engineering all make versions that I know of- probably more out there. Not cheap, but not super expensive either. If you are concerned about performance and handling, I would think it would be a worth-while modification.

http://www.umiperformance.com/catalo...m4ttrc2lbucjm2

http://www.bmrsuspension.com/index.c...6&maincatid=55

Looks like maybe around $250-

 

ive actually only ever bought gas from one station, and this is what happens when i try a different one . on the bright side, the idle was much smoother today. speaking of gas, would you say i should run some fuel system cleaner through? the car has 43k miles, and i have no idea if its ever had any...

 

Yeppers, I filled at a station once with my 03 truck that had enough crap in their tank that it took out my fuel pump.

 

Yes and change the fuel filter too.

 

it might have it disabled but I think you have to rev it slowy to 2500 rpm with less than 1/4 throttle in first gear to get the shift light to activate, you almost have to be doing it intentionally, that's what makes it nice is that it wont interfere with normal driving, but it's nice to use sometimes,

and that funny that an idiot salesman told you to use 87, I think he lied to you on purpose just to sale you the car, he thought he might lose the sale if you knew gas would cost you 30 cents more per gallon.,

that was one of the reasons I traded for a v6, also cheaper insurance, better mileage and better performance in the winter weather.

 

well, youre right about the skip shift. it activated once on me. pain in the ***. also, he put 87 because apparently thats all they have at their gas station. i checked the owners manual, and it says they recommend 91+, but itll run fine as low as 87. and about the insurance, i traded up from an old POS saturn, and it went up $15 a month. not much of a problem...