23 Mar 12 14:24, Mark Hofmann wrote to Roy Witt:   
      
      
      
    RW>> In a 145k car, that would take it into the next stage of the engines   
    RW>> life.   
    RW>> By then, in that overhead cammed engine, it will have already gone   
    RW>> through   
    RW>> at least three timing belts/chains.   
      
      
    RW>> Only if you used cheap plugs to replace the factory plugs.   
      
    MH> GM (at least in my car) uses Platinum plugs from the factory.  I   
    MH> remember them saying I wouldn't need a tune-up for 100k miles when I   
    MH> bought the car.   
      
   Everybody does that now days. Your wife's Dodge is proof of platinum plugs   
   going the distance, even when they're 45k miles beyond what the factory   
   recommends. It would be interesting to know what brand they used back in   
   2000.   
      
    MH> Little did I know, at 66k I had a major antifreeze leak on the lower   
    MH> intake gasket.   
      
   Since they haven't used gaskets (per se') for over a decade, what exactly   
   was it that failed? i.e. Since 1997, LS engines use o-rings on a 'gasket'   
   carrier look a like.   
      
    MH>   70% of the problems I have had with my car since purchase have been   
    MH> either antifreeze/gasket related or wheel bearing related.   
      
   That engine was also used in the Lumina and Malibu, and they haven't   
   faired any better. Malibu's can be picked up cheap these days and after a   
   head gasket job, they can last longer than they originally did.   
      
      
                   R\%/itt   
      
      
     ... Only those who will risk going too far can possibly   
     ... find out how far one can go ~ TS Eliot   
      
      
   --- Twit(t) Filter v2.1 (C) 2000-10   
    * Origin: Roiz Flying \A/ Service * South Texas * USA * (1:387/22)