:hail: Oh great and knowledgeable ones. I'm looking at two cars. One is an 89 firebird. It has 250K miles on it, runs well but blows black smoke on excelleration. Recent radiator, brakes, manual Trans shifts well. body very good. The lights are not coming up. I can hear something moving. Asking $1500, will probably take $1000 or maybe $800. He (neighbor) is trying to say black smoke due to lack of O2 sensor, but an older relative of his says no and they want him to sell us the car for less
The other is a 92, automatic 135K, other than the lights (won't even come up manually) and one of the power windows all systems seem to be go. V8 asking $2800, will take $2500 or less (car lot).

I have a price of $1000 (parts and labor) to rebuild v6 from guy w/good rep. I've heard the motors are about $250 a piece for the lights. Just asking your opinions.

 

as far as the light motors go i'd say hit a junk yard well before buying one from either a dealer or from autozone or some crap like that. I had a couple of motors go out on my bird, and all were replaced with bone yard pieces that worked just fine. The v6 sounds like it might have more problems then your neighbor is leading you on to, how's the body on the v8 car? just curious. Depends on what you wnat, can take the extra money and rebuild the six, and get the car looking just a tad bit better, or spend a little extra for a v8, 250 thousand miles is a helluva lot of miles (reason id never be able to sell my car, and it probably looks better then the one youre looking at...no offense) but most cars with that type of millage even if they're in good shape, aren't in "great" shape. neway. the v8 car would allow you to do a larger more powerful v8 swap in the future with less hassle, and carbed 350's are a dime a dozen. You could also take your chances on that 2.8L, pull it, replace w/3.4L and have the five speed. The car would lfy through the gears, and you'd be dusting that factory v8 all day long aslo, while still running times inthe 15's 16's. You're choice. good luck .

 

The v6 driver door sort of pops when opened full and has a minor (really minor)R fender dent. No rust that I saw at all.

The v8 doors fine, no dents, quite a bit of rust on the wheels, I need a closer inspection of the underside of the car, and small surface rust around edges around the rear windows.

We will know more this weekend. I like the junkyard idea. Thanks.

Both could use a paint job, but neither is too bad. The v8 looks better as is.

Another expense is the AC. The ac works fairly well on the v8, but the blower is weak.

The ac on the v6 isn't putting out any cold (maybe it sqeaks out a bit on the highway) but the blower is very strong.

 

If gas and insurance are not issues, I would pay the extra 1500 for the v8. Headlight motors can be swapped as well as the weak blower motor. At 135K the V8 has alot more life in it then a 250K v6.

 

Grab the entire headlight assembly, swap it in (4-5 bolts)
AC is easy, I just rebuilt mine. Cost is not to cheap, tho (I paid about $300 including R-12)
Grab the V-8 car.
Get him down to $1800, lots of miles!.
Blower motors are $30 I just did that too.
Two bolts are a bugger, tho (access, ya know).
Grab V-8 car worth more in future.

 

As to doors popping, they all will, eventually. The hinges wear out. You should see how far my passenger side one is out of alignment! It's about an inch lower than the door striker bolt. After doing the 1/4, I'll replace the whole door- it's rusted away (2nd door to do this to me) at the bottom inside, where the inner skin and outer skin are crimped together.

Yep, definately get junkyard lights. Save your old ones. A guy named lonsol on the body/interior board (Do a search!) sells kits to fix the headlight gear, which is plastic, and usually snaps. Problem is, if it's been snapped a while, the motors might be burned out. So keep the old ones for parts. (I have 3 assemblies in my basement, hehe... combined, they could make one- if you haven't guessed, they're all from my accidents.) Use the lights as a buying point, though- GM wants about $150/light.

It could definately be an oxy sensor on the V6 car. You could run a compression check to see how the rings are sealing. Actually, run the compression check on both. Sounds like you're not interested in having a project car, you want something that runs the best with less work, right? That already screams "buy the lower mileage car!" Both could have potential problems with fuel injectors and fuel pumps! Injectors aren't bad, but if you want new, they're expensive (just have 'em tested at http://www.cruzinperformance.com if you have to), and a fuel pump is cheap but trust me- you don't want to do the work.

The auto trans in the '92 has had all of GM's year-to-year enhancements, and would be better than, say, a 700r4 from '84 with the same mileage. Check the trans fluid's color... there should be old messages in the trans forum about fluid color diagnostics.