Hey guys I thought since you have helped me so much with my third gen problems that someone might be able to shed some light on my truck problem. My other vehicle is a 96 GMC Jimmy that has the 4.3l Vortec v6 which I am sure some of you guys are familiar with. The truck has 165,000 miles and runs like a dream until today. I was taking a trip to visit some family and all was well until a stop for gas. After filling up the truck seemed to have a tick in it which seemed to settle down as I got back on the road. After cruising about 35 miles at 70 mph the tick came back stronger and once I kicked it out of cruise it just started smoking and died on me. Once I got it to the side of the street it was leaking a small amount of oil then stopped. I had a local body shop tow it and there initial thought was that the timing chain needed to be replaced as it had skipped a few tooths. He did get it started again but said it had no compression. His intial guess for repair was $350-450. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem with this engine and could shed some light on if the mechanic is right or what could have happened. Truck was fine with no lights or overheating before it killed and the mechanic said the oil level was fine when he got it to the shop and clean as I had just changed oil about a month ago.....

 

ya id say that would be a fair esimate and a some what common problem with the jimmy's. could also of eaten the dizzy drive gear and then jumped timing as i just had a similar problem on a 00 silverado with the 4.3 in it that came into our shop yesterday. but with no compression my moneys on the timing chain. If thats the case you may need a cylinder head or 2 depending on if the pistons met the valves....

 

Well I got a call from the shop this morning and the intial estimate of 400-450 is now almost 1100 for the same thing. They said since it was a 4wd they would have to drop the axel or pull the engine to change the timing chain. I only payed 1600 for the truck and the body is still in great shape but what could be another option I mean I could probably drop a different engine in for a bit more couldn't I....

 

I just found a price of 1500.00 for long block from power source psengines.com that's just the first one I found .good luck

 

Yes, being 4 wheel drive you would need to pull the front differnental which is very labor costly, but they wouldnt have to pull the engine, most likely pull the pan tho as the pan sits over the bottom lip of the front cover. but yes dropping in a newer engine could be cheaper but also depends on how fast you need the vehicle back. Id start calling junk yards if i were you, if the timing chain is broke and depending on how many teeth it may have jumped, you will most definetly need a new cylinder hea dor 2, which is another 700-1000 to your bill. Take it from me as im a GM mechanic, just get yourself n engine from a junkyard with low miles n get her back on the road.

 

Is there anyway I can tell if anything else happened to the engine where I wouldn't need the cylinder heads. I could probably change the timing cover myself but do not won't to go through all of that if I would have to do heads also...