My day was terrible. My IROC developed this ticking two days ago whenever I started the engine cold. After the car warmed up a bit, it would go away, so I thought maybe I had a sticky lifter. I figured I would bring the car in to my mechanic this week. Keep in mind this is my first sports car, never mind my first IROC.
Well today, after work I went to start my car, and the ticking wasn't totally going away like it usually does after it warms up. I got a bit nervous. I started to try and drive home, and the car stalled a few times, and then I noticed the oil guage. A big fat 0. I looked under the car and saw a puddle of oil. The ticking had turned into clanking. I had the car towed to my mechanic to hear what I expected. I guess the ticking was going on because my oil pump was probably going. Today the oil pump probably failed which led to the blown engine. From the sounds it was making, my mechanic thinks it was either a rod blown into the pan or a crankcase bearing. I have the car in my garage bleeding out oil. I really am upset, because I have come to love this car, and I feel it was carelessness on my part that led to the situation at hand.
I think I am going to talk to this engine rebuild mechanic tomorrow, to find out what he thinks the going price might be to fix my beast. I won't be able to fix it anytime soon, it will be stored for the winter and maybe next summer I can afford the bill. The car only has 104,000 miles, the tranny is real strong and the body is immaculate not counting the dents and dings here and there and the faded paint on the hood. The interior is in decent shape too. Any suggestions on where to go from here?
JCRULZ

Ummmm.... get another car? A winter beater maybe?

Oil pumps don't "go" like that. They either work, or they don't. More likely, it spun a rod bearing, which introduces a massive leak to the pressurized oil system; which is why the oil pressure plummets. I'd be inclined to suspect that that was the actual genesis of your problem.

Not much to do now, except to pop the motor out of the car, flip it over, and see what's trashed. If you had looked at the oil pressure gauge at the first sign of trouble (after all, that is what it's there for...) and quit driving it IMMEDIATELY, there's a good chance you could just slap a new crank and set of bearings off in it; and for $300, it'd be near as good as new. But if the bearing actually spun in the bore of the rod, then it damaged the rod, and that rod will have to come out and be repaired or replaced, and that means the heads have to come off; and of course it will have shed metal shavings all in the engine, which will have to be completely torn down and a rifle brush run through all the oil passages in the block to get all that out. If that is not done, then there WILL be metal left in the block after merely vatting it; and that stuff has ONLY ONE WAY TO GO, and that is RIGHT INTO YOUR NEW BEARINGS which will of course immediately destroy them too.

But, sounds like one way or another, it'll have to come out, and then you can look at it and see what's broke, and maybe it won't be so bad after all. Whatever you do, DO NOT let somebody install a "rebuilt" motor in it, and take yours for a core; you'll lose your good head castings, probably your roller cam, and end up with some low-compression garbage in it with TBI or 70s smogger heads and a 929 cam, or worse.

First thing to do is inspect the damage. Don't just jump to conclusions, look at the parts and see what's really wrong, BEFORE spending money or any of that.

I would go to GM, buy a Crate 350 TBI engine for a Caprice and be done with it. 3yr/100k warrenty.

It will be more fun to drive with the caprice engine than the stock one. The TBI cam and heads will really pick up the torque without killing HP too bad, if at all.

You could look at this as an opportunity to upgrade.

I rarely replace back to stock spec- the hotrodder gene in my DNA won't let me.

How about a fresh GM short block (~$1000) plus Scoggin Dickey's Vortec heads and Vortec TPI conversion kit along with maybe a slightly hotter cam?

I like the Vortec idea. Yeah guys, I am a total moron. If I had just parked the car when I heard that tick the first day, I could have avoided this altogether. I was stubborn and stupid, and now I will pay for it by not being able to drive my pride and joy. It will just sit in my garage for a winter or so waiting for the funds to be built up. I am having withdrawals or something, it's weird. I just want to go in the garage and start her up. Surprisingly the car will run for a while when started. I had to move the car into my slightly inclined garage. Maybe that means the damage isn't as bad as it could be.

Well, look at this this way, your engine was getting pretty old, that wasn't brand new you know, regardless of how you took care of it, that's a lot of wear, and you had your money's worth, do what i did, turn that frown upside down and instead of worrying about sinking money into something you already had, turn it into something more. Store it for the winter, then Upgrade in spring, while you have the engine out of the car, instead of buying stock parts, put some upgrades into it. Hell, get a brand new shiny modern crate engine if you want that'll really pump juice into your car and you'll enjoy her a lot more.

Another thing is that instead of taking this as a pain in the *** and waste of time, turn it into a learning experience and see what you can do with that car now that it's time to do so. Really, i'm not just saying this, in my opinion, it could be a good thing.

The damage still could be pretty bad. A friend's car with a straight 6 burnt up the engine driving down the highway. (kept driving it with the oil light on and making some horrible noises) It actually drove itself onto the car trailer but it was running on 1 or 2 cylinders Tore it down and the camshaft came out in 3 pieces plus some bits of rod. What really killed it was the inch of sludge in the pan, just blocked up the oil pickup.

Hey Prophet, you're right, as stupid a mistake I made, this is definitely a learning process. I will never take an engine knock lightly again! I would love to upgrade the car. I have thought about my options, and it seems the cheapest thing to do is to rebuild the existing block, as long as the block received no damage. This guy I talked to that has been in business rebuilding engines for 25 years told me that the 350 in those cars is one of the most difficult engines to remove because of it is "crammed way back in there." I think it would be cool to drop an LT1 in there, but that will cost me a pretty penny. Does anyone know how hard it is to transfer an LT1 into a car that had an L98? Do you have to swap the tranny too, or can the original tranny handle the added HP/torque?

There is a wealth of info on this board addressing the LT1 swap, but it is not trivial, and the basic engine will be a bit more pricey. What's not clear is your experience level. a crate engine is probably the easiest learning project for the relatively inexperienced. Use the winter to plan the project & details. Board members are happy to provide advice as well as opinions. Whichever way you go, include at least a tranny rebuild -- 104k unit will not stand up very long to a fresh new powerplant.

Good luck to a fellow sojourner, & keep us posted.
kk

I'll keep you guys posted for sure if anything changes, but put it this way, the only reason that car will be leaving my garage is if it is heading to the shop to be rebuilt. I refuse to get rid of such a great car, and a specimen in such fine shape (not counting the engine obviously). My regular mechanic pointed me in the direction of this engine machine shop right near my house. The guys who run it have been in business for 25 years now, and are highly respected for their quality of work. I talked to the guy on the phone a few days ago and he came across very honest and respectable.
So, now I am hunting for a new car desperately, because my wife and I go the complete opposite direction when it comes to work and it would be nearly impossible for us to share her Alero for any long period of time. I found this great deal on a car in the paper yesterday, and I decided to call because it was a local number. The number seemed really familiar. When I called the number, I realized that the guy selling the car was the same guy I had talked to at the machine shop a couple of days ago! I found this to be a really strange coincidence. I went down after work, and checked the car out. It's a 93 Grand Am SE Coupe with the 3.3L V6 (not that 2.3L Quad junk engine). The car has 85,000 original miles and looks great. It's also this really unique blue color I have never seen before on this model. The only issue it has is the right window needs a new track for its manual window, and the left coupe door leaks a bit in heavy rains. No big deal. It has a few dents and dings here and there, but other than that the exterior looks great. He wanted 1500 for it. The car books at 1650 at KBB in the shape its in. I got the car for 1400 with 14 day plates. I'm totally psyched, the car runs great and surprisingly has decent power, (160 horses with 185lbs/ft stock). This is a good step in the right direction guys, I just landed a decent winter car from the guy who will probably be fixing my IROC, and the guy is about as honest as the day is long. It's looking pretty good for the future of that car now.