I am in a little bit of a predickerment, well, actually, a big one. My car has been making a noise lately, sorta like a grinding, rumbling noise. I had first thought it was my transmission, because it sounded like it was coming from the front of the car.
Well, today, my uncle came down, and he looked at my car. He listened to it, he even had the stethascope tool on it to find out exactly where it was coming from. He told me that one of the main bearings had been spun, and that the engine was no good. If I keep driving, the engine will go.
So ive been faced with a couple of choices. I could put an engine in the car, my cousin will put it in with a complete tune up for 600 dollars, and sell the car. I do love my car, but I can only spend so much on it before it becomes too much. I wanted some opinions on what you guys think I could do. I don't waqnt to hear about any v6-v8 swaps, because that would be rediculously expensive, with money i dont have. if a new engine goes in there, its gonna be a 2.8. What would all of you do?

 

try getting a good used 2.8 and installing it yourself.

 

Here is what you CAN do.....pull the engine(you can leave it in the car,pulling it will make it easier to work on).Remove the oil pan,find which bearing has spun.Remove the rod bearings and pull the crank.Have the crank checked and have it turned or buy a new one if need be.Buy a set of oversized bearings and put it all back together.Or buy a junkyard engine and take your chances
Having a crank turned will cost about $80 to $100.The bearings won't cost you an arm and a leg either.If you do the work yourself it shouldn't cost more then $175.
------------------

http://www.camaroforum.com/
http://v6fbody.com/
http://nethirdgen.org/
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/tristatecamaro



[This message has been edited by Kevin S (edited December 05, 2000).]

 

If you are going to rebuild the engine, you might want to look at starting off with some upgrades like a better cam etc from a place like www.spoperformance.com. If the engine's apart you might as well beef it up a bit. I didn't bother with this stuff when my engine was rebuilt, and I'm kicking myself now.

 

TA Creations sells complete 3.4's you can drop in, they are used, but still run...

 

I'm the wrong guy to ask an opinion of, I always say "fix it & keep it"!

I like Kevin S's idea; just fix the bearing if you're short on cash. Altho if you dont have the resources to pull/drop the motor from the car, you'll be paying your cousin $600 anyway.

The best bet of course is to rebuild your motor, and maybe install a junkyard one for the time being... will your cousin charge you twice? I've been quoted between $100 and $400 for a complete junkyard 2.8 MPFI motor. You could put the junkyard one in for now (do some shopping! Feel free to "lie" to other junkyards- "What? $300? So & So Wrecking told me $250!"), rebuild your other one in your spare time, then do another swap.

That's what I plan to do, except I'll be rebuilding a junkyard one- that way I can drive around while I'm working.


------------------
-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited December 06, 2000).]

 

Hehe...lying is what got me my lighted rear-view mirror for 5 bucks All other places wanted 30 bucks for one!!

 

yeah, i'd say to go the Junk yard, bring a battery and a set of wires, find an engine that still looks pretty good from the top up, and see if it'll fire up, "you might have to hot wire it if you don't have keys to the car." If it works, and doesn't sound EXTREMELY BAD, then have it pulled, take it home and drop it in. That'll be a direct drop, no changing nothing, while your old engine is out, sit it up on blocks, and build it up, get a new cam, new crank, new bearings, new rollor rockers, etc. Build it up strong, and when the times right, pull the junk yard motor and drop your other one back in.