CK5
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The Equinox "baby black"
- Thread starter Blue85
- Start date
yep that looks nasty. LS swap it 
Its a real shame that for what cars cost now days they are such cheap piles of shit, that timing chain BS is completely unnecessary, just like start/stop, MDS, DOD, and all the other garbage that ruined once great engines.
Would a 3800 fit there? I know you have experience with them and while it's an older engine, it's far cheaper and more reliable.
She says it started to get loud, there was some warning about oil, it kept slowing down and then just stopped.
Unfortunately she learned the hard way to not keep going when that stuff happens. My sister did that last summer and she's an adult, ignored the low voltage warning light until on the 2nd day to work it left her stranded. This is much worse of a consequence.
Hopefully you can find a donor engine for not too much so it doesn't cost her too much of her hard earned money. All she can do is fix it and move on, which, with your help, would be cheaper than junking the whole vehicle....
Unfortunately, it's getting progressively harder to do swaps like this. I can't find any example of somebody swapping between the 2 factory offered engines in these (3.0L V6 and 2.4L I4). They use different transmissions, different engine controllers, etc. and everything has to be VIN matched with the body controller and transmission controller. I don't feel like that level of effort for a car like this - especially when I have so many other things to do. My hope is to get it running for the next couple of years and then she can sell it and do something else.
I think I am brave enough to get a RWD engine. Swap the intake manifold, oil pan, coolant inlet and some other bits and pieces over to make it a FWD.
I can't really disagree. Going from 28MPG to 30MPG saves you around $80/year on gas (@10,000 miles) but now you are in for thousands in repairs.
Meanwhile I have a 330,000-mile LS on the original timing chain.
Did you find the actual problem of what happened yet?
Northern Auto Parts in Iowa has always had good pricing on stock rebuild kits if you want to do the cost breakdown.
Depending on if you can get away with a rering and bearing kit or what all you need.
Ugly or not, broken or not, it's still a win. Had one exhaust stud spinning and couldn't really get the weld gun up there. It's all easy to fix on the bench, but impossible on the car.
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Other than 4 spun rod bearings, I don't know yet (bits of them shredded all over). Should know soon enough.
Uswd RWD engine is inbound.
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It really seems like low oil pressure, the bearing to wiped were the last to get oil, no?
Mid 80's 3800, had a pressure relief valve that would getting open with the smallest bit of debris. Maybe a similar failure
Mid 80's 3800, had a pressure relief valve that would getting open with the smallest bit of debris. Maybe a similar failure
You found a solution, nice! 
I hope your daughter realizes and appreciates your efforts.
I hope your daughter realizes and appreciates your efforts.
I tried to negotiate a lower price for commercial delivery with forklift, but they wouldn't do it. "Delivery is included to any address", so it shipped to my house. But the truck driver didn't know how to back in a long driveway and my power lines are a little too low. He asked where I wanted it. I pointed to the garage and asked "what do you have?" to which he responded "a pallet jack." So I got all the junk out of my trailer, got it out of the barn, and pulled it into the road so we could shove and lift the pallet from his liftgate. Oh well, still better than spending a whole day driving.
