My new to me 01' SSEI

Short side story on life lately for the folks who enjoy my posts and content.

My 03 trailblazer if anyone remembers had a good stout built 4L60e in it that I built.

It had an electrical pass thru connector leak like a year or two after the build, so I dropped the pan like hours before a beach trip to fix it (bad idea) and caused it leak enough on the way to the beach it hurt the converter and 4th

That was like June of this year and fast fwd to about 2 months ago, it started slipped 4th eventually. I pulled it, took it to WHO I THOUGHT was a reputable builder friend, he refreshed it for me because I didnt want to this time, charged me 1100, and it broke the front pump IMMEDIATELY upon turning it on.
Took it back out, brought it to him again, 1 week later he "fixes it" after i both supplied a new pump AND machined it.

That trans lasted about 1 month with a bunch of violent shifting, and finally **** the bed about a week or two ago.

I got pissed, and gave up on it for now ..... so I began looking for another daily beater.


Found a bunch of good leads on marketplace, including a 03 singl3 cab silverado s c h l o n g bed 4.3 v6 , a 01 ssei with a cyl 4 misfire, and a Honda civic with a manual trans that wouldnt crank with the key but would clutch dump start.


The 03 silverado had a broken steering wheel, broke passenger door, flaring 3rd gear and leaking rear main on the 4.3 , smelled heavily of g a n j a lol. I had to let it go. The sliding 3rd only get worse from there on a 60e. .... while in charlotte I tried the ssei...... went and looked at it and pretty much loved it immediately. Ive always wanted one.

So I got the 01 Pontiac bonneville SSEI today with the higher output s/c 3800 or whatever. 4T65e-HD trans. Fully loaded interior with all the luxuries. Dual climate control, power seats with presets, power windows, sunroof, HUD (wow), traction control mode, a nice stereo head... yea its not too bad in there. I loved it. But when he pulled up it was misfiring so badly on 4 you could pull the 4 plug wire and it wouldnt change anything lol. The motor was jerking at idle, but I decided to test drive it with hptuners in my lap, and see what it could do.

It built some boost misfiring, has 65psi of oil pressure, the trans is nice and firm in 3rd or on the converter. Owner was a kid. Scared to death of me and my 1911 on my side. Very polite, seemed very honest about it. I didnt get any bad vibes.

He said the head gaskets were replaced, it had the misfire on 4, and it had some bad fuse that might be leeching power related to the turn signals.

Cars got 126 on the clock, and it drives and runs great.

I bought it, and took the gamble. I drove it to oreilly while my buddy followed me, and probably spent 2 hours in the parking lot going in and out of the store buying tools or loaning them as needed so I could change the sparkplug wire, sparkplug, and coil for cylinder 4. As well as fixing a MASSIVE vacuum leak on the blower for the crank case ventilation manifold.

Misfire was solved, and I drove it an hour home down hwy 85 running 75 mph on the converter.

Blower sounds like its got rocks in it (plastic coupling ring that costs 20$), and all the plugs and plug wires are OEM, and some misfire when you give it the beans.

I intend on doing a full tune up and fluid change on the components, and maybe tuning the transmission a little, and enjoying this thing.

By the way this forums censorship is communist horse $hit.

That is all.

I always liked those cars. They were a nice evolution of the previous generation. Except for the change to cheezy cable style window regulators, lol.

They were also often victims of uneaded repairs (like all the 3800's) such as head gaskets, when all they really needed was intake gaskets. Not that big of a deal, except it opens up a lot more chances for hack mechanics to fock something up.

Also, when you change the coupler in the supercharger snout, be prepared for the oil in there. It can be very stinky.

I always liked those cars as well. have fun with it and keep this updated!

Today I did a full service on it.

Dropped the trans pan, drained all the oil, purged the trans cooler, replaced the transmissions cooler line O rings, put a new filter in, cut the old open and inspected (couple small brass specs, a little ash, no chunks) *thumbs up*

Drained the motor oil, did a new filter and oil.

Did all new 6 plugs, new plug wires, blew the air filter out, and its now sitting on jackstands while the RTV on the pan cures..

OEM pan gasket on the trans i believe lol
Fluid was brown, but not burnt smelling. Considering how well it hit 3rd and lockup, im hopeful the trans ought to be strong.

I gotta go on ZZP's website and get the blower coupler and oil, but that can come a little later.


My hope for now is just to unlock the PCM, firm up my shifts, change the shift strategy so it quits going to 3rd as quickly as possible, and DD it for now.

Later ill install a wideband O2, drop some Deka 60lb injectors i have in, put some E85 and the old lumina's walbro 350 LPH pump in , maybe get a smaller blower wheel, and see if we can crank out more than 8psi.

Its a p04 ecm... same as my old turbo lumina. Im very familiar with tuning those. They can support up to 2 bar of boost if you know what youre doing.

Last night I finished torquing the trans pan down, added some fluid. Let it sit. Doesnt appear to be leaking today.

I also did some.... modifications last night... dont say the word lest the communists have me "commit .....suic..." or something like that.

Cylinder pressure looked to have gotten hot enough to blow a certain something's gasket out... probably why I heard it thumping under there when I bought it. And it evidently got hot enough a few times to melt that something on internally.


So that certain something fell off somehow into the trash, and I cant recover it now. But I can at least put this weird square shaped RESONATOR back in there.

I also dug the wideband o2 sensor setup from the trail blazer, and stuck it in the pipe right where the old one used to go after the RESONATOR


And then today i made this awesome art project


That should keep intake temperatures cool

Well, ive been doing little stuff with this thing as I drive it.

Today I got it inspected and got a tag for it.

I still had a persistent high load misfire on cylinder 2.... replaced THAT coil too, and the misfire went away, and then another appeared on the final coil... for 3 and 6 lol so I guess all 3 coils were tired.

But thats what happens when you dont replace plugs and wires. Resistance increases, amperage increases on the coils, they wear out prematurely.


I was able to finally get in it a little and dayum does it move. And I was only giving it 45% throttle according to my data log i took.



So im working out another issue it has... back lighting on the instrument cluster, and the turn signals not flashing.

Well the inspector i spoke to (lol, ironic i know) told me the hazard button is known to crap out on those, which the flashing part of the circuit runs thru those apparently. Not like a relay like we are used to. He said just replace the hazard button and i'd get flashing back.


The instrument cluster backlight issue is another... I took the instrument cluster apart today, and probed all of the bulbs for continuity and they all passed. I probed all of them to the power source on the dash connector at the circuit board as well..... all good.

I put 12v to the circuit and the lights light up.

I checked continuity across the DASH side that feeds it, and over to a ground, and I have no crazy resistance

Yet when I flip any of the things you'd think that would power the dash's backlighting, nothing happens. No 12v.


Im at a loss.

Ive back probed all the fuses but havent physically checked any of them ... so im not sure where to go from here.

Ideas ?

So ive been fixing little things here and there with my car. Its got two electric issues that im working out. One is ironed out.

The first is, none of my WHITE backlighting comes on at night or day, so I cant see gauges and stuff but the HUD is there so I can see my speed.

The RED backlighting works though.

So I cant see HVAC buttons or instrument panel controls or speedo, oil, boost , etc

I can see driver information center, climate control display, and the couple red things like gear indicator on the dash.


Ive confirmed they light up with 12v but havent gotten to the bottom of why they wont recieve 12v



Second issue was the turn signals. They would stay on, but not flash. And on really cold mornings, not even turn on at all!

Thru learning I found the flashing function goes thru the hazard button on the dash.

I go searching everywhere on the web and apparently the ssei's hazard button is basically no longer made.

Maybe special dealer part?

So i was doom scrolling the bonneville forums and found someone say theres a 3.7uF capacitor in there that dies.
I put it all together and thought on it. Heated the capacitor up, and the turn signals flashed for a while. That was my sign.


So I soldered a new capacitor in and now my turn signals function

Ive got the dimmer switch apart next. Wondering if thats whats killing the lights. It dims the red as it should and turns domes on at full CW but no white light control

Sweet ride with many years and miles remaining…great find! 275k on my 1999 SE 3.8, mostly a winter beater daily driver and pet transporter now though. Still like driving it but the highway wind noise is getting worse, EVERYTHING else still works as designed.

I forgot to tell a story .. so yesterday going down some highway i wont name, I may or may not have exceeding the speed limit by a large amount , not sure cant say

I was "fleeing" from a 90s cobra mustang by 3-4 car gaps that was vigorously trying to pass me

Here's the kicker, I havent replaced the LAST and FINAL bad coil (cyl 3 - 6) so it breaks up above approx 50% throttle BADLY
You gotta build boost slowly..

That ssei is a rowdy sob

Plus, you know me, ive done some parameter changes, things like boost ramp rate I turned way up so the BBV doesnt open, adjusted fuel targets, airflow parameters.

I havent gotten to the meat and potatoes of tuning the fuel and airflow maps from TOP TO BOTTOM and I wont until I fix the misfire, but simply changing some parameters and getting the transmission shifting like I want it has made it rowdy, even on 4.5 cylinders

So yesterday on the way home from work the coil finally decided it had enough and wouldn't let me build boost anymore. And misfired badly on cold starts.

Went to the store and got another coil, put it on, the misfires got worse lol , steadily missing!

Moved that coil over to 5-2 just to see if it was the socket and then the misfires moved there.. BAD COIL.

Went back out. Swapped it out. Got a good one.
Took it for a drive and WOAH does that thing set you back in the seat now lol

Not a lot to tell on this one. Shes been daily driven everyday so far.

Trans temps on the full size 4 door GM cars with a 3800 were notorious to get high. Ive seen mine as high as 205° and we havent even reached summer yet.



So i added a gmt800 cooler. I had to do a new PS hard line anyways which was a PAIN to snake over the sway bar, behind the motor, and from pass to drivers side.

That cooler so far hasn't let the trans temps exceed 160 and thats with me standing on it making the temps go up


It was easy to patch in with the factory radiator thru cooler. Shes happy as can be now.

Also found a rusted off sway bar link which I replaced. Now it rides real real smooth

These have my attention



For that price, thats justifiable to spend. Especially to get intake temps post charger as low as 160° from final temps... why the hell not?

I developed a post boost IAT calibration in my hptuners scanner and at peak boost, optimal afr of 12.5 with reasonable 60-80° ambient temps, the post charged air can be as high as 200-250° which is ROUGH since pump gas isnt too nice at 120° lol

Looking at potentially <100° air. That would be awesome

It comes as no surprise GM made em from the factory with low 7-10° spark at peak, and 8:1 or something compression.

Non intercooled, overheated, hot air coming in, and to make matters worse GM has it factory in the calibration where it holds stoichometric air fuel ratio forever (14.7) even in boost to a couple psi which is rough on pistons and head gaskets

They definitely didn't intend on these lasting and thats why theyre all blown up or whatever.

Ive obviously retuned it, now cooled the trans. All thats left is an intercooler.