I'm kicking myself right now. I think my uncle screwed the motor up pretty bad. I had bought a 89' GTA with a blown head gasket a few weeks ago for a quant $1,000. I just had it towed to his house, because I don't have the tools to work on the car. Well I got a call yesterday saying that he decided to "tinker" with it. The body was in excellent condition, along with the tires/brakes/upolstry. The engine was the only thing that really needed repair on it.

AHHGG, stupid old men and their curiosity. Well apparently he started it up and ran it for a bit to get an idea of what was wrong with it. When I first saw the car I had seen it run for a minute or two. Enough to know that the motor wasn't knocking and the smoke was pure white. Indicating water/anti-freese in the combustion chamber.

Now I get this call from him and he says the car has barely any oil, the smoke has a bluish tint, and he hears knocking. He also tells me he thinks it threw a rod. If my uncle messed that motor up beyond salvation I'm going to kill him! Originally I was just looking at a couple hundred in parts, now I'm looking at a new motor i think. I was going to send the heads in to be resurfaced, valves done, and checked for cracks. That was going to cost me between 200 and 250.

So, I'm asking your opinion. Did my uncle destroy what was left of the motor? Or can I still save myself the $$$$ of dropping a new reman/crate motor in it. *** help him if he just cost me 2 grand. I'll kill him then sue him for the money needed to buy a new motor. I won't really kill him, but if he just cost me 2 grand for a new motor I'm going to get that money from him.

 

If he ran it with no oil, yes he could have worsened the problems. But if it burns oil already I doubt the problems are his fault. Your uncle was doing a favor for you, and you don't really know what condition the engine was in before. If you really wanted to make sure it was done correctly you should have been there to help him. It may had been difficult to see the blue tint if there was a lot of coolant burning.

It never hurts to get a professional opinion.

 

Thats the problem. He WASN'T Supposed to touch it till I got there this sunday. But he couldn't help himself. There WAS oil in it, and it hadn't shown any inclination before to drink oil. Nor was the exhaust smoke blue. It was white. Pure, sweet smelling white. Antifreeze and water were the only things going through the engine. I knew the engine wasn't in the greatest of shape. But I had hoped to salvage it for a summer while I built the funds up to replace it with a completely new crate engine. Or even a remanufactured engine.

Thing is, now I probaly won't be able to drive it at all till I drop a new engine in it. Instead of the 200 to 300 in repairs I was expecting to run, now I'm probably about 2 grand in the hole. I originally bought the car for the body and options, not because the engine was a sterling example of how to care for a engine. If he threw a rod on that engine because he ran it without oil then he'd better spring for at least half the cost of a new one. I hadn't planned on a new engine for at least a year.

And the fact that the mechanic who had been the intermediary for the sale even said the car was burning coolant, not oil. I trust the man who has worked on my cars for the last 6 years without a doubt. he has always been straight with me. He has never made a mistake, and I've never needed the warrenty on anything he's done to one of my cars. I usually don't get into my cars beyond changing the oil, and rotating the tires when needed. So either my uncle is far less knowledgable than I thought, or my mechanic has made a mistake. I'm leaning towards my uncle being incompetant in this case. If the car had been in such bad shape that it needed a new engine than the mechanic would have never let me even attempt to buy the car.

 

Go to the top of the page and check out the adv. You can get a 350TPI for about 750. That is everything, computer and wires. The motor might need rebuilt, drop a FEW hundred into it. Not much just enought to get it on the road with no worries. Then save your money. Sorry to hear about your luck, but if you through a rod, trust me you will know.

 

If you are doing the work yourself you should not get anywhere near 2000 if you just plan on staying stock. A rebuilt stock L98 short block with a good core to turn in should only cost around 600 to 700 dollars. Even a long block should be under a thousand.

 

my 305 rebuild ran me about $900. this is with machine work figured in.

keep in mind a 350 will be cheaper to build than a 305.

might also look into crate engines. i think jim pace sells a basic 350 crate motor with warranty for ~ $1300.

www.paceparts.com

check it out, you have lots of options.

 

if it had oil in it and now it doesn't, i don't think its your uncles fault. I will catch flack for this but you can get an audible knock out of achevy v 8 with out totally trashing the motor. Go there, check the oil, make sure its not a chocolate froth. start the car and see if it knocks. is it billowing white smoke? or is there just some white smoke. I have used a product called zotite in the past to seal really bad head gaskets. you could try that for now. other wise just pull the heads, check them for straitness and put a new set of fel pro's in for now and see how it runs. A valve job makes no sense on an old motor you plan to change.

if your smart and frugal you could do a great rebuild ( key word is rebuild not hot rod) for around 700 bucks, maybe less.

cut crank, resized rods, hone and rering ( or bore for new pistons, not always necessary though ). thoroughly clean. change cam bearings. reuse cam and lifters and pushrods. send heads out for a valve job and resurfacing. you could put it back together in a week if you try, if you had experience 2 days to reassemble.

what you end up with is an as good as new motor, alot of valuable experience and piece of mind

 

If i have to rebuild this motor, it won't be stock. No way. I'll be looking for about 350hp to play with, maybe I'll even shoot for 400hp. I really wanted to work that motor up to 400hp over the next few years, but I didn't want to do it all at once. I just wanted to get the car on the road for a year and find out how it was in complete detail. Like i said, the body is beautiful, even though the paint is a bit faded its not anything to worry about. Any 13 year old car will show its age if it has not been garaged and meticulously maintained.

I haven't even been out to see the car again yet, so I may be in for some luck. I'm willing to bet that right now, I know more about this engine and how to fix it than my uncle does. Considering taht I've been reading these boards for the last few weeks, and I've been devoted to reading the Chiltons manual every day. Memorizing all of the assemblies and everything else. About the only good news from him is that he was able to track the short I had that was draining the battery. Seems the pass. head light pop-up motor wasn't shutting off correctly. So it was trying to pull the light down and it was draining the battery. Grrr, seems he didn't get the original message. He was there to help me fix the car, not fix it while I'm working on getting the parts. I'll have a talk with him this saturday.

 

From what you say it sounds like he is in over his head. However, it's difficult to ruin an engine just by tinkering with it. If it wasn't going to break or wasn't already broken, it wouldn't be burning oil now. Hope that your uncle doesn't know what burning oil smells or looks like and thinks some other sound is knocking.

 

Thats why I think he doesn't know whats wrong with it. Because when I saw it there OIL in it, a no knocking. There also was no stains on the ground after we moved the car from where it had been sitting. I had only seen some green anti-freeze on the ground, which is expected with a blown head gasket, cracked heads..etc.

So I don't know where he's getting this no oil thing. Its pretty hard to read a oil dipstick wrong though. Two marks for hot/cold, read accordingly. Grr...it just annoys me because the car is so far away right now. Its not like I can go out and check on it. I have to wait for a day to drive up.