I'm new to the GM 4 cylinder. I mainly bought my Cobalt simply because I needed a car that would be good on gas, as well as reliable. Not just reliable, but have some strength as well. I already can tell it's good on gas, but I haven't owned it long enough to determine it's reliability and strength. Can I drive it without worry about blowing an intake gasket or head gasket? Can the engine endure the occasional spirited driving without the driver worrying about whether or not he's breaking something? Sorry for asking this, but most of the GM cars I've driven were all V6's; and while they make good power, they seem to wear down quickly when put under pressure. I need to know if the L61 is considered a strong engine.

 

well, do you plan on doing any mods to it?

 

No. Just leaving it stock.

 

then you should be fine, ive heard of blown engines due to mods because of internal stuff but you shouldnt have any problems. just keep up with normal maintenance ie oil change, fuel filter, air filter and stuff.

 

If you're doing nothing to it, you'll be fine.

L61 is a great engine.

 

yea,
if you are keeping it completely stock or even lightly modded (intake,exhaust, tune etc.) than the l61 is extremely reliable. it has been perfected since the cavalier started using it in 2002. spirited driving really isnt going to kill your engine life but the base model is kinda slow and the handling is horrible so i dont see how driving with spirit would be any fun. expect breaking 100,000 miles without any issues.

 

LOL ya it is slow, but it has plenty of pep for what I need. I don't mean I'm going to be out street racing or anything like that. I just mean, if I do a WOT pass every so often, I don't want to worry about blowing a gasket or seal somewhere. I've always believed that an engine SHOULD be able to endure whatever amount of power it's been rated for, even in the higher RPM range, but for some engines, it seems this isn't the case. It seems some engines will reliably deliver low rpm power for a long period of time, but it will only take x amount of high rpm power and then it starts breaking. Of course, I can acknowledge, that it's a matter of course simply because parts are moving faster and generating more heat, BUT that's beside the point. There are engines out there that will reliably deliver both low and high rpm power for a long period of time. I just was wondering if this included the L61.

 

gm took away a good thousand rpm's off the l61's true redline. it's always really that last lil bit of rpm's that's the risk area. with it set @ 6500, the engine really ain't pushed to the extent you'd think. then you combine that with lower flowing parts gm included to really drop power off @ 5500, they knew nobody would really wind it out so often. aka they made a great reliable econobox

that's why with things like the 2.4 mani and such, the engine is brought back to life and making the power they could have released it with. only prob is, we then get to actually push the engine into those riskier rpm's and we're makin power there so we feel rewarded revving it out lol.

 

not too much, even with all the work ive done there is no need to go past 7000k....you may still have a little bit of power up top there, but its more benefitial to drop down a gear and hit your peak tq area right on and build it back up again...no need for any higher

 

yeah gm made a few lousey v6's, especially the 3.4L, normal/ spirited drioving will have no adverse effect on the l61 as long as you keep up with the matence and be reasonable with it

 

there was a saturn that had 436k miles replaced the battery alternator and fan. he finlay gave up on it when his head finaly cracked.. also was on stock clutch.. it was a delivery car but he drove it and treated it nice.

 

The 2.2L is fine as long as you don't let it overheat.

 

if ur talking about the 3400 v6 that they put in impalas and grand prixs...3400/3800 actually it was voted world wide as the 3rd most reliable motor in the world in a production market...that includes weed wackers and lawn mowers and stuff like that
GM actually lost money from that motor because of how reliable it was and they never got any repair done to it...and yes the l61 r pretty much bullet proof unless u mod it up way out of its element

 

well. the only thing I worry about at the point im at are the rods. I've been driving it for about 2k miles @ 10psi on a crapy tune and its still running strong. We shall see how long this lasts. 2.2 = extremly reliable

 

speaking from experience, the OTHER GM 3.4l, the Twin Dual Cam v6, was fun, but sucked as far as reliability. dropped a timing belt on that one at about 45k. had a small leak that would have required tearing the manifold and other parts off, just to get at the plug in the block where the distributor used to go. it was a perfect example of why you don't take an OHV block (based off the 2.8/3.1l designs) and convert it to a DOHC configuration.

 

talk to vince...get a good tune!

 

where did u get this crappy tune? just wondering

 

SCT tune

 

ecotecs are work horses.