Vehicle Owner

Member ID: XTRKestrel

Location: Loves Park, IL

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Vehicle Info

2000 Oldsmobile Alero

Bragging Rights

  • 1/4 Mile15.08 sec @ 89 mph
  • 0-606.7sec
  • Top Speed140mph
  • HP220
  • Weight3300lbs

Major Upgrades

  • turbo
  • nitrous
  • bore increase
  • port and polish
  • supercharger
  • extrude honed
  • stroke increase
  • engine swap

Modifications

Performance Parts

Interior

  • Recaro Seats 

Exterior Styling

  • Razzi Body Kit 
  • Goodyear Tires 
  • Kosei Wheels 

Car Audio & Video

  • Kicker Speakers 

Ratings

    • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.

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Last updated: Dec 16, 2009

Hits: 10,688

Matt’s Oldsmobile Alero

  • Currently 3.4461538461538 /5 Stars.
29 guestbook comments

What my wife (not-at-all affectionally) refers to as The Money Pit:

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero  

Yep, it's an Olds...

I need to confess that have a sickness....I keep changing spring and damper combinations (long story follows).
It started with custom-built double-adjustable Koni Yellows with H&R Sport springs, which were then converted to coilovers with Eibach ERS 2.50" race springs (300#F, 200#R). They were horrendously stiff on the street and way overkill for a daily driver, but were glorious on the track.
Then I went to Intrax springs with KYB GR-2 struts, which I didn't care for. Then, I had another set of Koni Yellows fabbed up and paired them with Eibach Pro-Kit springs. For about 2 years thereafter, I was using a set of ACDelco RPO FE3 "Sport" struts which were a bit more forgiving for daily driver duty. The latest iteration (since I acquired a Civic for DD - gotta love 41MPG!) is a set of KYB AGX dampers with H&R Sport springs. Like I said - a sickness.
I've gone back-and-forth between various combinations of GM and aftermarket anti-roll bars more than I care to admit. So as not to completely bore you, here's a shot of the front suspension: 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

A 28mm solid Speedbuilt front bar is installed, along with a set of aluminum front lower control arms, fortified with poly bushings. Up top is a strut tower bar from MRZ Performance (a very nice billet aluminum piece) and out back there's a SLP upper strut tower brace. Rounding out the suspension mods, I have installed a set of Energy Suspension polyurethane end-link bushings for the front anti-roll bar, with custom-machined billet aluminum spacers. (WHEW!)
The brakes are Baer's Track+ system, using 13x1.1" 2-piece rotors, twin piston calipers (you'll find a very similar system on the last generation Mustang Cobra), with Hawk Ceramic pads in front and HPS pads out back. Currently contemplating ditching the Baers in favor of a complete swap to the brake hardware from a 2005-era Pontiac Grand Prix GXP - 12.7x1.25" vented and drilled front rotors with twin-piston aluminum PBR pin-drive calipers, and 12.0x0.8" vented and drilled rear rotors with single-piston aluminum PBR pin-drive calipers. I'll probably get the rotors cryo-treated and use Carbotech pads.

ATE TYP200 brake fluid flows through braided stainless steel lines to each aluminum caliper.

The mill (old picture)....

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

 

Okay, so it's been an adventure building a new motor for this thing. After 8 years and nearly 120,000 miles, I did not feel comfortable with just throwing a cam in the motor and calling it a day. No, I had to go a bit overboard. So, I bought a slightly used '99 3400 longblock, and sent it to Mark at MP Racing. He tore it down completely and then sent it to LAM Engines in Kenosha, WI. LAM hot-tanked and magnafluxed the block, and bored the cylinders .040" over to fit new Sealed Power hyperutectic pistons. They also balanced the rotating assembly, installed new freeze plugs, and whatever else they deemed necessary. Mark got the block back and painted it a nice glossy black before assembling the short block. The rods were treated to ARP bolts to help everything survive at up to 7000RPM. A heavier-duty timing set from a pre-99 GM V6 was used with a nod towards the higher-lift, longer duration cam (.323/.337 lobe lift, 212/220 degrees duration @ .050") and stiffer Comp Cams 26986 valve springs. Speaking of the heads, they have now gone through several iterations. They started as a set of '05 3400 heads with maybe 100 miles on them. Ben at Wide Open Throttle Technologies disassembled and cleaned them before a labor-intensive porting, polishing, and flow-matching job whch also saw the combustion chambers reshaped for better low-to-mid lift flow. He shaved about .020" off to bump up compression a few tenths. In addition to the aforementioned Comp Cams springs, we fitted Comp steel retainers and locks, and specially-modified SI stainless valves. Due to several issues which crept up later in the build, the SI valves and Comp valve locks were replaced with lighter, better flowing valves and valve locks from a set of GM 3500 (LX9) cylinder heads. Incidentally, I use factory 1.6:1 roller rocker arms, which give a gross valve lift of .517/.539". Keeping in tune with a light valvetrain, we also replaced the steel Comp Cams retainers with titanium retainers of the same make. With all these new parts (some generously donated by Ben @ WOT-Tech), we figured it would be a good idea to have LAM Engines blueprint the heads, so that was done. Topping it off are a set of ported intake manifolds from Ben @ WOT-Tech, a 65mm billet throttle body from TCE Motorsports, and a ceramic-coated fenderwell intake from MP Racing. On the exhaust side, I have a set of S&S headers which were initially ceramic-coated by Bonehead Performance - but they started to show some surface rust after only 700 miles of light driving to break in the motor - so I had them sent to Jet-Hot to be stripped and re-coated with the Extreme Sterling coating. I do stay legal with a Vibrant metallic-substrate catalytic converter,and the rest of the exhaust is 2.5" mandrel bent piping from SLP Performance, with a Magnaflow resonator and transverse-style muffler.

Caught your breath yet? 'Cause the transmission didn't miss out on all the fun either. It has a set of Raybestos Blue Plate Special frictions and new steels, billet accumulator pistons from Superior Transmission, and a final-drive swap to 3.42:1.

I am in between wheel setups, so I'll get a new picture soon.......

And if I can figure out how to embed it into this page, an exhaust video.

So, it turns out I'm a slave to fashion as well. I kept it subtle with a Razzi ground effects kit and rear decklid wing. This photo was taken at the Oldsmobile Homecoming June 2006.

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

One unique change is a set of Euro-spec headlamp modules that came from the factory sans the ugly amber reflector (just to be different). To the uniformed they're hard to spot, but I have yet to see another Stateside Alero with them.

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

Not one to leave well enough alone, they have been retrofitted with 4300K H7 HID lights for the low beams. Natch, the factory projector foglamps didn't escape the HID treatment either, receiving a 3000K 880 retrofit.

I have upgraded my seating accomodations to Recaro Speed sport seats.  

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

The end.

 

 

XTRKestrel's 2000 Oldsmobile Alero

Be sure to check out a few photographs from the racetrack on Page 2.
Thanks for looking.

Guestbook Ratings

Displaying entries 1-5 of 29

joker69alero  

Posted by: joker69alero

07/27/2009 06:24PM

wow nice bro check mine out 5 stars

will8is9hot  

Posted by: will8is9hot

05/05/2009 08:11AM

Incredible car. I sent you a PM. Please get back to me.

FastGirl785  

Posted by: FastGirl785

04/29/2009 02:43PM

5*'s lookin clean

olds68  

Posted by: olds68

02/07/2009 07:55AM

5 stars and to my fav list. Olds Nat fo r2009 in PA, in Mass for 2010. Back in 1999 or 2000 Oldsmobile built tuner hot-rods for most of their line-up. The Aurora and Aelos protypes were super hot! darn shmae Olds did not bring their hot-rods to market. It was 50/50 deal(almost to John Q Public), but then Gm pulled the plug on Olds.

derekbuckner1  

Posted by: derekbuckner1

01/18/2009 11:07AM

where'd you u get your strut bar?

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Vehicle Owner

Member ID: XTRKestrel

Location: Loves Park, IL