After searching for over a month, I have purchased a 1997 Oldsmobile 88 "LSS".

My wife likes the color (metallic teal) and I like the 3.8 V6.

Searched far and wide for a 1995-1999 Olds 88 and this was close to where we live. Second runner up was a 1994 88 that had 62,xxx miles. This car has around 122k miles.

Oil pan gasket is leaking, trans as well. heater will not blow through the vents.

Tie rods on passenger side replaced.

Oil change, wiper blades and air filter done as well.

 

Gas guage show empty some times, then goes where it was.

 

Body and interior in good shape. Some scratches in paint.

 

Nice car you found there, ours is a '97 also. 1997 was the last round of updates until they ended production of the base 88. Did you get the supercharged or standard V-6? If it has the plastic 2 piece intake manifold, remember to keep an eye on the gaskets and EGR port. I also flushed the Dex-cool out of mine and began running the yellow Prestone coolant. Good luck with yours!

 

oldsonharmont:

Did not want a supercharger- it would just make my wife drive faster into another telephone pole!

If my financial status was better, I would have purchased a car with less than 100k miles.

Did you change your intake gasket to the "supercharged" version?

I plan to switch to yellow prestone this summer/fall. Anything special to keep in mind from running dexcool?

 

From what I understand, the intake manifold for the supercharger is aluminum, while the regular fuel injected intake is a 2 piece plastic set up.
The gasket between the 2 plastic pieces is prone to leaking. (more so with Dexcool) I drained and refilled the cooling system until I no longer saw a trace of the orange Dexcool, then refilled with the yellow Prestone. (be careful not to mix the two) The 3.8 V-6 is a strong motor that will give you plenty of good miles, providing you keep an eye on the intake manifold. The upside to the supercharger is no leaking manifold, but the down side is it requires premimum gas. Still, yours looks like it's in nice shape. Enjoy your new ride!

-Mike

...and yes we did change the intake gaskets twice, and replaced the upper intake when the EGR port failed. (supposedly the gasket has been redesigned)

 

Congrats on the new purchase, hope you can get all the bugs worked out.

 

Car is at my mechanic and he says upper and lower intake gaskets are "going" bad.

I never heard of a lower intake gasket!

 

Thanks.
Just hope the wife decides to take better care of this one.

 

Great looking car! I love all 88s..

 

There's a gasket between the cylinder block and the lower intake, and a gasket between the lower and upper intake manifolds. Ask if the gasket is the updated design, then check the EGR port while the manifolds are off to see if it's getting brittle. If that goes it dumps coolant into the block, and you end up with a condition called hydro-lock. We've been through all this, and the car runs fine now.

 

My favorite is 1965 88's, but the 1997 is for daily use.

 

Ah grasshopper, I had that issue too. Does it have automatic AC? You might want to check out this thread. It's about the same thing - my 98 dash is basically the same car. https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-location.html
I managed to find 2 things that cause this. 1. faulty programmer (weak solenoid that moves the controller to the vent position) 2. plastic vent nozzles have rubberized and collapse when vacuum is applied. Read through the thread and see if it describes your situation. Working on this isn't all that hard, it's just time consuming. NOTE:I know you don't have auto AC, but the way into the programmer and the replacement are the same for both models. If you have a faulty programmer, you can use pretty much anything from Buick (park ave,LeSabre) , Olds (98 or 88 from 94-97) or Pontiac Bonneville of the same body style without automatic Air. Chev isn't interchangeable.

Also had to redo the intake on my car, but my mileage was around 160K at the time. My oil pan leaked too. Never enough to warrant fixing though. As for scratching in the paint? It's BC/CC. Go over it with some 1200 wet sandpaper, then power polish it or have a shop do it. Should come back to a brilliant shine. (Assuming the scratches aren't down to paint or metal). Hope your car doesn't have the rust mine did. BTW, I still have some interior trim pieces from that car. LMK if you need anything and I'll check. My interior was blue.

 

As always, Thanks Allan.

I believe I do have the automatic air, I will post pics of the control when it comes back from the garage.

Oil pan gasket, trans pan gasket and filter, inner tie rod end and some other things being done.

Mike

 

GM had a lot of problems with late 90's intake gaskets , from what I heard , you have to get the good replacement gaskets and do not run Dexcool antifreeze like the manual says .... bad stuff !

 

Is this the "automatic air"?

 

Yes, that's it. The only difference between the face panel you have and my old 98 is that I also had the digital dash, so there were also some extra buttons on the left side. Note: the 'auto' feature is on the right hand side. You will also notice on your upper dash there are 2 black little black bumps by the front windshield. Those are 'sun load' sensors that help the system know when its in a hot or cold environment.

If you have no 'vent' air flow, it's either the solenoid or the plastic air valve collapsing to a rubber like state. My thread about changing it will help you access the unit. If the plastic air valve is solid, then it's the solenoid not having enough power to pull in the circuit and hold it. You may notice that if you bang the dash a few times the vent will start functioning. If that's the case, it's definitely the solenoid. Better to replace the module than hunt for the weak solenoid.

LMK what you need to work this out; having been through it already may be able to help you get yours working.

 

I did read your thread and will gather the guts to tackle the job soon.