1993 Oldsmobile Achieva SC review from North America

My achieva has been a very reliable car for me. It's fairly cheap to run and insurance is cheap. The car itself is very reliable however the engine tends to need frequent attention to keep it going for the long haul. My car was in an accident before I purchased it and need a lot of time put into it to get it back to were I'm not ashamed to drive it. The engine's cooling system was very poor and needed a new thermostat, a radiator flush, and a new fan motor. The paint was still pretty good, it needed a buffering, but after that and touching up some missing paint looked great with a coat of wax. It's a very sharp car. About a month or two ago my engine finally gave way. At 118,000 miles the timing failed and the engine was in very bad shape. It was pretty apparent that the maintainence schedule had not been followed. That was partly my mistake, I should have done that when I purchased the car two years ago. I'm convinced that it would still be running today if I'd had that checked by a dealer at 100,000 miles.

This car has a large amount of potential. At the time of my engine failure I decided to go with a performance rebuilt motor from Mantapart.com. They hooked me up pretty good and now with free-flow intake, a 60mm throttle body, ac eliminator pulley, and big bore exhaust manifold is very quick. I'm considering adding a turbo running between 10 and 20 psi and am currently installing a new ECM and fuel management with a larger fuel pump and injectors. I feel after the upgrades are installed I'll be running in the high 13's for 1/4 mile and 13 flat or faster if I buy my T-3 turbo. Stock the car ran 15.8 with just under 190 horse. Right now it should be around 235 and up close to 250 once my fuel management is in place. Even stock the SC is a seriously quick car with a top speed of around 125-130. With only slight airflow modifications it can dominate stock V6's and some V8's. It handles great stock and has a perfect transmission for my driving habits. (lead-foot)