so im 17 and my dad is buying a new car for himself so he said i can have the 98 chevy malibu that he has right now. So my questions are is it a good car to start out with and maybe upgrade it and make it into a project car. Next is it worth doing that and are the parts cheap or expensive for this car. since im saving up money getting the car for free would be nice and then i can hook it up a bit and also are the parts easy to find for it or would i have to get them online?

thanks and let me kno wat u think

 

1.) Is the car a V6?
2.) How many miles does it have?
3.) would you say it runs well?
4.) Parts are decently priced. I wouldn't call them expensive.

That being said... You are going to have to make some of your own parts. There really isn't anything out there for these vehicles. They are not race cars, though I am sure they could be pretty quick if done right. In my honest opinion, unless you have the mechanical know how, a welder, expendable money... choose a car that has more available to it.

As a first time tuner car, I would not recommend it. Though, that is not to say that you cannot make them go fast. As a first time tuner yourself, it might be easier to follow in the path of someone else's foot steps. I say this because if you hit a snag with the build, I am afraid that there probably are not enough people on here who know enough about the car in order to help you.

My little idea was to take a 1992 3.1 V6 cavalier transmission and put it into my malibu. Thus, making the malibu a 5 speed. Then from there all I was going to do is make/buy a couple of bolt-ons, put coilovers on it and some rims and call it a day.

 

It'll be a great car for you to drive for all practical purposes, just not as a tuner like OnDaGround said..

 

no its a 4 cylinder has like 130k runs pretty good. but i would like something that i can work on and learn some stuff you know, hands on experience. But i think we gonna sell it and ill buy a car for me later. To make it look nice theres quiet a bit to do to it which is probably not worth it. So thanks for everything guys.

 

They are reliable cars (well I cannot personally speak for the 4 bangers). Yeah, I would sell it and buy something else. The 4 cylinder is definetly not the car you want to tune if you decide to tune a malibu. They don't make enough power as is and they are rediculously heavy.

The 4 cylinder is a turd, no offense. Seriously though, that car is way to heavy for that engine. You should talk your parents into trading it in on a new Chevy Cobalt SS. Now that is a car worth tuning.

 

Once drove a Grand Am with the handling package (3.4 RamAir). Was real impressed and all they did was stiffen the spring rates (according to my research). Always wanted to do the aftermarket springs and urethane bushings with a larger sway bar too. The cars are small enough to be nimble and fun to drive. Could you install a 3.4 or a 3.5 motor? Just ideas. I see them as having a potential as a modern-day "sleeper".

 

I don't know if you could do that swap or not. Might as well just stick with a grand am gt with the high output trans. It's much much faster then a malibu or impala. The mounts are different for the GT engine. Not sure off the top of my head it has been a while since I have seen one. My friend had one.

 

If it was the 3.4 swap v6 it would be an awesome project car, the parts are kinda expencive and hard to find though, but its worth it. It keeps up with my rb32 swap 240sx se so its def. pritty quick. The bad thing is you will have to buy damnthere everything for the malibu online, but other than that once fixed up it will out perform alot of other typical performance cars out there no problem.

 

I was looking at one the other day. The seem to share almost identical components. I'm almost positive it could be a straight drop in. Atleast from the top. I would have to see the bottom to be 100% though.

 

If I need another engine I'll give it a try. I don't know that it would make that much difference though. They are faster but not that much faster. They're about the same reliability. I don't know about the 3.5 though. My friend had one with a high out put tranny and that thing was really quick when it was stock. Again, I'd have to see it though.