Take a look under the lifter retainer and take a good look at the cam and check for wear.

 

Annnddd.... this thread is toast.

Kind of had a feeling this engine was too good to be true. Pulled the heads off and my god there is about half a pound of rusted sludge. On cylinder 1 and 3 it looks like someone keyed the inside walls.

Found another engine at a scrapper for 850 with 80,000 miles. This one comes with a 6 month warranty. Gonna consider getting this but if not I'll be cutting my losses and selling the Dak.

Will keep ya posted.

 

Sorry, man. Been there, done that.

I wouldn't do the $850 engine tho. For about $500 more, you can get a remanufactured longblock (yes there's shipping and probably import duties, but I can't address that part) from Rock Auto. Look it up, it's $1288 plus refundable core charge and shipping. And you will have a clean, basically new engine. Is 80,000 fewer miles on the engine worth the extra $$--it would be for me.

Or have your core engine with the rusty cylinders bored and new rings. If the crank is okay, and the rods are okay, you'd probably be in for hot tanking it and having new cam bearings installed. Do a quick valve job, too.

Again, sorry for your misfortune, this has happened to me more than once. Nice to learn from mistakes, but sometime I forget what I've learned.

 

Just checked what freight would cost for me in AZ around $150 remember you need to send your engine to them also.

So ad about $300 to that


I say go local if you can usually cheaper just be sure you get a good warrantee with it.

I forget why cant you have your engine rebuilt?

Can you use the free block and get it over bored and new pistons?

 

Return freight on the core is included.

 

To buy a long block, I'm looking at $2600 to my door with QUESTIONABLE return freight on the core. I called RockAuto and the woman on the other end said she wasn't sure if the return core shipping would be provided since I'm a Canadian... I'm expecting a call back soon.

Dakaz,

A rebuild was a possibility but I'm looking at $500 for a master rebuild kit, plus $500 to have the block machined and a whole lot of time trying to rebuild it.

I got the price down to $700 for the used engine... tested for 25 mins & comes with 6 month warranty.

I was looking to get 2 more years out of this truck before I purchased a newer one - I think I can get 2 years out of this used one, what do you guys think?

 

First of all, I'm not trying to tell you what to do. Just provide some input into alternatives.

How close to the US do you live? First alternative--a US longblock, would probably require 2 trips to a shipping/receiving point in the US. One to pick up the longblock, one to return the core. Someplace with a forklift for loading your engine into a pickup. You can get my drift. I used to ship Fiero parts to Ontario customers--to a Buffalo area address. Would save brokerage fees, you could pay the duty at the border.

Second alternative. Spend the grand, build the engine. This is the alternative I like the best, but I like to rebuild engines--always interesting, and you can control the outcome. You already have a rebuild-able core (the one with the corroded cylinders)that didn't cost you anything to acquire, and you can do it at your own pace (and maybe with input from your neighbor.) If the inside of the engine is relatively clean otherwise, just get an over-bore and install oversized pistons & rings. The $500 labor charge seems a little high to me, but it's been a while and I may be out of touch with machine shop prices. I'd want a valve job, tho.

Third alternative--get a used, unknown factor engine. How many miles? How much preventive maintenance? If it dies before the 6 months are up, you still have to pull it back out and take it back--and the yard probably will try to weasel out by saying you killed it. One of the things I've learned (having twice bought bad engines) is I wanna hear it run--I don't want a video of it running, I want to see it start and run, and if possible see it's oil pressure. And then I still want to pull the covers off and eyeball the valve train and the crank and bottoms of the cylinders.

Fourth alternative, give up and junk the truck.

 

I agree with Brian. Bite the bullet, and get the block at least honed. You may not need to have it bored, if a simple hone can clean the walls up enough. We have a hone that chucks into the electric drill, works wonders.

Also, I have a feeling that Wes Garrett and I might call divs on whatever you have left over :P He can cross the border then ship stuff to me xD

 

Well I couldn't pass up that engine I found with 80k miles and a 6 month warranty. Went to pick it up and it looks like a great engine, they stored it with every hole plugged and even comes with a distributor, waterpump, wires, alternator and cap and rotor... can't go wrong for $650 there.

I plan on having the old engine out this weekend... I've already removed the air box, fan shroud, front crossmember, front bumper, drained the coolant, all I have left is to remove the radiator and AC condenser and I have a clear path to drop in the used one... but I'm stumped on where to put the AC condenser.

I would really like to leave the whole AC system in tact but there is extremely little play between the condenser and compressor, and also the AC canister and compressor... atleast on the 3.9...

Any solution to this or will I have to discharge the system?

Cheers

 

Yeah, don't take the condenser out. You can pull the engine out above the condenser with plenty of clearance. Wire the compressor up and out of the way. Same with the power steering pump.

On the Gen 1's like mine, the top radiator support is not removeable--when we remove the engine, we have to make sure the oil pan clears that.