Highest mileage 3800?

[luke_dubs]

Hello all.

I saw a video on youtube today about the "10 most reliable engines running beyond 300,000 miles" and the 3800 V6 made it onto the list, of course. After watching this video, I did a quick google search to see if I could find the highest mileage 3800 on the road still....with most of what I saw being in the 200k range.

So, with that being said, what's the highest mileage you've ever heard of with the 3800 V6? The video said one was able to reach 565,000 miles or something like that.

[MattStrike]

The motor in my '93 came from a '98 SSEi that had 310k on it, and I put another 40k on it before needing a rebuild (which was caused by me anyway). My '92 is also over 300k.

It's fairly common to find these cars in the salvage yards well over 200k miles, usually it's either a transmission issue or frame rot (for those in the salt belt) that kills these cars off prematurely.

[dougtoth]

My brother in law's 2001 SLE has 354,000 miles.
Motor has never been touched.
Transmission was rebuilt at 99,000.

[J Wikoff]

We have a 92 sitting out on the farm with over 400k.

[SSEiMan01]

Most of the 3800s I've had have been over 150k, the lowest was my 01 (44k when purhcased sold with 87k) and my highest was 255k on my red 96 SSEi. Next runner up was the Olds 88 at 216k, I kept that engine for racekar things... My Ultra is just about 10k shy of 200k, and I intend to double that car's mileage before it leaves my possession.

[RJolly87]

If treated nice, 300k isn't irregular. As mentioned, usually either the transmission or rust kills them, or an unfortunate UIM/LIM gasket failure that goes undetected and leaves the crankshaft swimming in an ocean of coolant.

I looked at Copart, and there was literally 10 3800's near or above 300k miles, nearly all of which had crash damage, which means it was in operation at the time in order to be crashed.