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motherf-in junk!

79rustyk10

79rustyk10

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OK, this morning Im cruising down the road in my 99 Grand Am, I pull off the highway and coast up to the light. at this time all is great, got the windows down, some good tunes on... then out of nowhere the car just ****in dies. right in one of the busiest intersections in Coon Rapids Mn. (hwy 10 and Hanson Blvd). wont restart, very hard to turn over, I push it over to the shoulder and wait for a friend to come flat tow me home, I live a mile away.

Once home, we jump it and it starts, but now is knocking like crazy, and the oil light is on. The oil light was not on while i was driving it last. what blows my mind is that there is oil in the thing. It was NOT over heated ever since Ive owned it.

I dont know what to do. I found an engine for $500, but I dont want to put more money into this car ( I know other stuff will come up during the swap), it still would need tires, a wheel bearing and a brake job before winter. The thing has 160K on it, I cant afford a car payment at the moment and I NEED something to get to work and school again next week.

Should I

A. replace the engine and take a chance with what I have
B. buy another car just like it from my sister with almost 200K on it
C. find an 80's c10 for the time being then throw it away and replace it when that takes a ****.

like one of these
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/dak/cto/1887752392.html

or http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/cto/1906081108.html

I even have a pre emissions Q jet and plenty of sbc parts laying around still.
 
well thats hard to say, would it be better to have a car as a daily driver that would be reliable or a 500 dollar truck that will nickle and dime you unless your lucky haha. if it was me i would replace the motor in the car. if you choose to buy the truck get the first one with the camper on it, looks in better shape
 
Boy, I don't see any great choices there. Before you go too far, tell us more about the engine.

Any idea what has happened? A heavy knock may be a spun bearing.
Loud tapping may be lifters because of no oil pressure.
Or it could have jumped time.

You know and I know that the engine is toast, but IT might not know that........

If, say the oil pump seized and wrung off the shaft, and the lifters all collapsed due to no oil, then its possible that you could drop the pan, replace the pump, and get many more miles out of the engine.

If even the oil pump seized, wrung off the shaft, and caused the worn timing chain to jump a tooth,
It probably would still be OK to put in a new pump and a timing chain and gears.

But, that is about as far as would be practical.

Bottom line, make sure of what decisions you actually have to make.
Check the engine out a little more.
Unless there is a piston rod sticking out through the block you forgot to mention.....:doah:
 
no block ventilation yet... gonna pull valve covers tomorrow and do some research on the 3400 a little more online yet tonight... I wonder how the oil pump is driven? maybe its something stupid like fords that like to twist off.

its weird, Ive had SBC's that knock bad on startup for years before finally dying, a tired 79 350 shortblock finally said its time at 6000 RPM at 130+ mph. at least the thing still got me home.

I thought about it being a timing issue but it started once I got it home, didnt want to stay running though.

there is also a hint of metal shavings in the oil that I forgot to mention earlier
 
guys on the grand am forums seem to be a bunch of d-bags... go figure. cant find anything other than cams can break and cause similar issues.
 
What engine is it? I had a 2000 with the 3.4 V6. What a pile of sh!t that car was. Engine locked up at 37,000 miles. Pistons wadded up in the cylinders. Mr. Goodwrench tried to claim the oil wasn't being changed until I looked at the bearings with him and all were good. Come to find out that was about the time GM started slapping engines together and getting the piston slap. It got a new engine eventually. Or so I thought, they dropped in a re maned Chinese built engine. Along with all the other problems it had I just got rid of it.
 
this is the 3.4L. its been OK for me so far all things considered. has 160K on it, was smashed at one time, fixed poorly, then bought cheaply by me. put about 3 parts store window regulators and 5 parts store PS pumps in. the current one sounds like a supercharger but Im sick of trying to warranty the ****ers.

Pretty much the biggest issues Ive had are parts store POS parts replacing the factory stuff.
 
x2 i have only personly seen one oil pump fail on something newer than 1995 and it was a truck someone beat the crap out of
 
38377k5 said:
IMO and IME, bad oil pumps and skipped timing are nowhere near as common as people think.
Click to expand...

:sign21:Okay I realize I am not the end all be all of mechanics but I have never seen a timing chain skip a single tooth.

Sorry commence with other useful info now
 
Put some oil in it and see if it runs. If it pulls it's own I call it good. Those cars are junk from new, I would never recommend anyone buy one.

Check it out some more and get more information before deciding what you want/need to do. You may put an engine in that car even used, and then have trans. problems. It never seems to end with some cars.
 
blazinzuk said:
:sign21:Okay I realize I am not the end all be all of mechanics but I have never seen a timing chain skip a single tooth.

Sorry commence with other useful info now
Click to expand...

I've seen it happen a couple times with the mid 80s 3.8L FWD V6 cars that had the nylon teeth (supposedly because it was quieter), and after about 100K they would skip a tooth, and if it was before 87 they would also bend pushrods and/or valves.

I have no idea about the 3.4L engines.
 
Didn't the 3.4 have a balance shaft??...if so,they have been known to fail..

Out of your three options,I'd go for the 80's GM pickup ,no contest..at least when that craps out you can FIX it!..a Grand Am sucks to work on,if you bouight your sisters to use for parts or to fix using yours for parts,it'll be twice as hard to fix and cost double what the truck would..and it wont carry anything!..
 
Cornfield creations said:
Put some oil in it and see if it runs. If it pulls it's own I call it good. Those cars are junk from new, I would never recommend anyone buy one.

Check it out some more and get more information before deciding what you want/need to do. You may put an engine in that car even used, and then have trans. problems. It never seems to end with some cars.
Click to expand...

there was and is oil in it, I just pulled a valvecover and there is noticable metal shavings in the low spots in the cylinder head.

Im not going to waste time pulling anything more apart, its toast. will not stay running on its own and the oil light is still on. I dont get how in the course of 5 seconds it can do this. if it was something that started a while back I would have noticed but whatever, its done now.
 
I hate the 3400. The timing belt always makes a tapping noise and they always shake at idle. They do pull smooth through high rpms and get good gas mileage, but when they tend to eat intake gaskets and head gaskets, who cares? I put a head in the wife's van and used all the fancy gaskets and stuff on the intake. But I swore that if it gave me more trouble it would be replaced with a 3800.

So if you want to keep the car, put a 3.8 in it. If you want to sell the car, get a running junkyard 3.4 and throw it in. You will come out money ahead instead of selling a broken car.
 
Try to find a beater short box c10 , then you will have parts for your other project. Get rid of the car.
 
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