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I have a '95 and '96 Century each. The '96 I bought new back in .....1996. The '95 came along later when we needed a 3rd car, and I thought "Man, we need something reliable like the Century. Hmm, maybe I can find one..." So I found the '95 with 62k on the clock, and it now has 126k on it. Yeah it was reliable.
In my experience with both cars, the quickest, and easiest mod for these cars to keep their cool with the 3100 is a replacement radiator. A new replacement radiator from Spectra Premium or another good rad will come with a core that about 75% thicker than OEM. This makes a very significant difference in the car's ability to keep cool, especially on the highway.
But, climbing flights in a parking garage on a nice day when the A/C is turned off, the fans won't run until the needle is one tick away from H, then the fan(s) come and the temp quickly drops.
My primary concern isn't the piston slap; it really isn't too bad. I've always made it my SOP to let the car idle a bit, and then drive gently for the first mile or so. After that they are very quiet.
My primary concern is the LIM gasket. I certainly don't want any more heat or pressure than the LIM can handle. The '95 is still holding with the factory LIM. The '96 is ready for it's second gasket (external leak thankfully). This time I will do that job myself with a Fel-Pro metal gasket.
Getting back to the ECM. I have a spare ECM I pulled from the junk yard while getting a ABS Controller module (Faulty ABS Controller was disabling the cruise control). I suppose I could use that a test mule. But did someone mention that you could get a new chip to program on? I think that would be preferable.
"Something you should do on your 95 is replace the vacuum "harness", part of which plugs into a T connection on top of the intake, next to the throttle body. That T fitting hardens and shrinks, allowing unmetered air in, which will lean out the fuel mixture, helping the engine to run hot."
This is very interesting. I've been chasing an uneven idle that afflicts the car once in a long while on dry cool days. If I didn't know better, it felt like a vacuum leak. I'll take a look!
On the thermostat issue, I think I'll stand pat with the factory setting. Run too cool, you can actually increase wear in the cylinder as these things are designed with certain tolerances. A good example of this is that you'll always see the most taper in the coolest cylinder. Ask anyone who rebuilds inline sixes, and they'll tell you #1 has significantly more, it's at the front, and gets the cold water charge from the water pump. Might be apples and oranges with the 3100, but I think with the larger radiator and fans set for a lower temp, I think I can get what I want.
...and that '95 can turn in a nice 31 mpg any time I put it on the road at 65 mph with A/C, and has done more up to 34 mpg on one tank (and yet I fill the tank FULL every time).
Thanks for the quick replies guys!
Ken T.
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