CK5
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The Equinox "baby black"

My father gave me my Regal when I was 16 for my birthday, he paid $300 and it didn't run, blown up 3.8 V6. We got it running together. To this day I have still never had a car payment.

Having lived in both, I often say WI and MI are very similar except for the car insurance.

I agree, MI car insurance is whacked....however the people, the land, and the weather are all very similar.

We usually got minimum liability insurance, the idea was if you messed up your own car you are on the hook to fix it yourself, no full coverage. Was very cheap, but you can't do that in MI because it's "no ones fault" so you end up paying for all the bad drivers out there.

These days we have full coverage but have a high deductible to keep cost down.
 
I'm scrapping out the old engine, just hanging onto anything that's a useful spare part. I saved one piston as a melted bearing trophy/reminder.

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Something that amazed me is that there are no cam bearings. 2 of the camshafts have scoring at the journals. Once you wear this, you just replace the whole head assembly, I guess.

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I know Audi VW do the same thing with their cams and heads. If it wears out, it's a head replacement.
 
Harley Davidson as well, since 2001 I believe.
 
The baby black has been sitting for a long time now after it died again. :frown1: Same story, ran normal through a couple of oil changes, then seized up. I'm finally into it again.

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Same story. Bearings melted out. Took a lot of extra time to pull the oil pan and rod caps before the drivetrain dropped. Otherwise, I can't turn the engine and unbolt the torque converter.

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Pressure has been low since she bought another car (we're both done with this pile). 19 years old now and has bought 2 cars with cash. Now she is sporting a snow rocket like her old man (ATS4 2.0T with new winters!). Even given the orange title, it was a heck of a deal, like 1/2 what I paid for mine. Plan is to put a running engine in, do some spit polish and sell, sell, sell.


The salvage seller has been telling me they will honor the warranty if they just have pictures of the heat tab. Finally got pictures today. You have to pull the front cat, several connectors and the starter motor to see it.

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OK, Im back in it. After denying the warranty claim last month, they came back and said a 105k mile engine is headed my way.

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Starting the separation of engine from drivetrain, then I'll pull all the FWD parts off in expectation the incoming engine will be another RWD.

Decided to eliminate whatever starter kill is hidden in this car. Crimp butt-splices in an engine harness is a crime against humanity. That's for sure a hard to diagnose no-crank condition at some point. :flipoff1:

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The rear/right bank is always dirtier. What's the science here?
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I've never seen a front diff passing through the oil pan before. It seems to be the right longblock, though, once I swap all the RWD stuff for FWD.

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This removable panel on the bottom of the oil pan must be related to casting the pan this way.

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What car has a 3.6 and a front diff in the oil pan? Colorado maybe?
 
It's a 3.0 LF1. Almost has to be an AWD Cadillac, so either CTS or SRX, as this engine is pretty much just 2010-12. Then it became the LFW, which is the same engine, but with flex fuel injectors. The Buicks, Chevys and GMC were all FWD/AWD AFAIK. It must be that the last one I got was from a RWD Caddy. Of the 3 Cadillacs we've had here, they have all had a transfer case and separate front differential, but the CTS was older, like 2009/2010, so they may have changed it.

It took a bit of pulling to get the diff free of the engine, which must be why they included it. The oil pan has a sort of chimney thing, to keep the DS half-shaft from being able to leak engine oil.
 
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Here's all the stuff I don't need. (Well, except the fire extinguisher, can't have too many of those. 20250203_163816.jpg

All the wires and hoses were cut, but it's fine because I have all of that stuff. It's weirdly optimistic to say that "other than a longblock", it's a runner.
 
The rear/right bank is always dirtier. What's the science here?
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One side gets hotter than the other... :whistle: ;) (I don't know why either, I suspect cooling or oiling). My father knows a guy that only works on those 3.6L, he's turned it into his full time job because of the timing chain issues. If he has any answers I'll let you know. He does say a lot of them are caused because of lack of maintenance. My father noticed the same thing with the one he had, one side was not as clean.

Ah that makes way sense, AWD Cadillac
My wife's '08 CTS was exactly like that, 3.6L V6 with the axle going through the oil pan for AWD.

The trailblazers were like that too but only V8 or 4.2 I6.
 
One side gets hotter than the other... :whistle: ;) (I don't know why either, I suspect cooling or oiling).
Yeah, these scenarios make more sense in a FWD application, but you would think a non-turbo RWD engine would have pretty much the same thing going on both banks. I'm not sure of the coolant path, but the water pump and return is on the front(/right) and the thermostat is on the back(/left). It could have something to do with the PCV flow.
 
There are reasons to think the last engine had issues. 20250204_201730.jpg
 
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