Jay Anderson
09-09-2004, 01:42 PM
Fun car for te past 5 months that i've had it.
Story so far
Went up To Rhinebeck NY, about 2 hours away from my house. Got in the parking lot to head home and tons of white smoke out the tail pipe, coolant bubbling out of the reservoir. Head gasket. Ok not much of a problem, high mileage car figure something like this was about due. Can't spend the $1500 to fix it from a mechanic so I get it to my friends house who lives half an hour away from Rhinebeck, also a mechanic. We proceed to rip the car apart ready to do the jobs ourselves. We get the head off and I instantly something wrong. I first noticed that the head was alot newer looking then the rest of the engine. I just shrugged it off, the second clue was as we were taking the cam shaft off and the lifters, along with the timing chain. Thing has 141,000 miles on it and i'm seeing almost no indications of wear marks. Again I just didn't pay much attention to it.
Soon as we got the head off everything clicked into place, I looked at the number 1 and 4 pistons and noticed large gouges in the heads of the piston that looked remarkably like, you guessed it, valves.
Apparently before I bought the car someone had it and the timing chain broke, engine ate a valve and they put a new timing belt water pump and the works on the car. I cranked the engine over so the 2 and 3 cylinders were at TDC and started to inspect the cylinder walls, 2 major gouges in the 4th cylinder, that, upon closer inspection, were starting to make the piston head on number 4 begin to deteriorate to the point where the metal was flaking.
I'm not sure what to do now, but I did see in the paper a 1995 Grand AM with a 5 speed, needs a head gasket, has 70,000 miles on it, and is only about $300.
My question to you guys is, how hard would it to be to take the engine out of the 1995 green grand am, and hook it up to my 1992 grand am?
I figure I would put the motor back together in my car and drive it as I needed to, home work and home pretty much. I'd buy every gasket i'd need for the engine in the Green grand am and rebuild it and once it was all done i'd pull the old engine and drop the new one in.
Yes I know sounds easier then it really is but i'd really like to keep my grand am lol
Story so far
Went up To Rhinebeck NY, about 2 hours away from my house. Got in the parking lot to head home and tons of white smoke out the tail pipe, coolant bubbling out of the reservoir. Head gasket. Ok not much of a problem, high mileage car figure something like this was about due. Can't spend the $1500 to fix it from a mechanic so I get it to my friends house who lives half an hour away from Rhinebeck, also a mechanic. We proceed to rip the car apart ready to do the jobs ourselves. We get the head off and I instantly something wrong. I first noticed that the head was alot newer looking then the rest of the engine. I just shrugged it off, the second clue was as we were taking the cam shaft off and the lifters, along with the timing chain. Thing has 141,000 miles on it and i'm seeing almost no indications of wear marks. Again I just didn't pay much attention to it.
Soon as we got the head off everything clicked into place, I looked at the number 1 and 4 pistons and noticed large gouges in the heads of the piston that looked remarkably like, you guessed it, valves.
Apparently before I bought the car someone had it and the timing chain broke, engine ate a valve and they put a new timing belt water pump and the works on the car. I cranked the engine over so the 2 and 3 cylinders were at TDC and started to inspect the cylinder walls, 2 major gouges in the 4th cylinder, that, upon closer inspection, were starting to make the piston head on number 4 begin to deteriorate to the point where the metal was flaking.
I'm not sure what to do now, but I did see in the paper a 1995 Grand AM with a 5 speed, needs a head gasket, has 70,000 miles on it, and is only about $300.
My question to you guys is, how hard would it to be to take the engine out of the 1995 green grand am, and hook it up to my 1992 grand am?
I figure I would put the motor back together in my car and drive it as I needed to, home work and home pretty much. I'd buy every gasket i'd need for the engine in the Green grand am and rebuild it and once it was all done i'd pull the old engine and drop the new one in.
Yes I know sounds easier then it really is but i'd really like to keep my grand am lol