#4 Cyl on my motor is nearly dead..I got 92PSI. Well enough out of spec to be causing my spark plug fouling etc. Must be a broken ring or a bad valve.
This was the cyl that filled up with Fuel and we didnt realize it while trying to crank it one day.

So I'm trying to decide...I've got a car sitting in the driveway with 245k Miles on it. Tires are good, even has cold A/C. Suspension needs an overhaul, and I cant get the car to pass emissions so I'm without any car right now. Just sharing with the wife.

So I'm trying to decide...is it worth it to put a new motor in this car. Around Atlanta I can get a motor with 110k miles for 200 dollars.

I just dont know if i am up for a motor change in this car...

Someone encourage me.

 

i know the feeling.
when i had my ve and found out that #5 had 50psi...i knew it in the beginning.
hmmm...you can get a motor for $200. if you know how to replace it yourself or have someone do it for cheap then i say go for it.

wait your in atlanta...i was there bout a month ago.
and get this i drove there twice in one week. from chicago to atl.
i might be going back next month for the heck of it.

 

$200 bucks is pocket change, my advice buy it WITH the advice of a mechanically inclined friend(making assumptions, make a .org friend if needsbe from you area) to help you pick the right engine from a bone yard. Hire on help=$100x2=200+200 in enevitable variables that will arise. net out of pocket expense=$600 max given your number of 200. I say do it, DO IT NOW.
j/k
But in al seriousness, if yoy like the car, and it's been reliable otherwise I say it's a no brainer.

 

Do IT! You can't get a reliable car for what you'll spend in fixing this one... you just can't...

 

The biggest hold I have with this is.. I bought the car a couple months back for 900 bucks. It ran fine for two days, then an injector died. Replaced it and drove it a few more days. But had intermitent misfires. So I replaced another injector. Put a new battery on her, and fresh tires. Took her to the emissions place and she failed the NOX so bad.
Misfires continue to get worse, until today when i discovered the compression test.
So all in all I have a car that I have approx 1300 into that I drove for max 5 days. So I have no idea on the reliability of the rest of the car.

Its really a toss up here for me.
I'm mechanically well enough to replace the motor myself, I'm not even worried about that. Just adding up all the other things.

Motor
Timing Belt Kit
Front Seal's
Rear Seals.
Replace Exhaust Studs

Mine as well do the clutch too...specially since the tranny is leaking like the titanic.

Its do i sell the thing for cheap and let someone else play with it and take my loss, or pony up and drop 700-1k in the thing.

Sigh.....

 

haha I wish it was pocket change. Job just cut everyone's salary's back, wifes employeer is closing and I got two little ones mouths to feed. Bah!

 

I would yanks the head on that cylinder, and if the actual cylinder is fine with no damage to the head (my bet rings or piston damage due to hydro locking), I would simply yank the sump and fit a new/2nd hand piston ................ cheapest you will be able to get away and it can be done in a few hours yourself.

 

wow $900 and y ou've only driven it for 5 days.
man.
i paid $500 for mine and put about 45 hard driven miles on her and had her for about a year.

 

u live pretty far otherwise i would love to throw my VG in ur hands for VERY low price as i dont need it and is mechanically very WELL and it goes around very well...doesn't need anything but a little body work here and there..u can see it by clicking on the link below....not the VE in my pic below..

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v

 

if he hydrolocked it, might he need a new rod as well?

and without the right tools, internal engine work is not always a good idea. I, for example, don't have the proper tools to clean up a deck if doing a head gasket.

 

Scraper .......... drill with wire-brush ..........rags ..........about 2 beers?

2nd hand piston from a discarded motor comes with conrod

 

i didn't think those would do a good enough job without nicking the surface. i used a felt diegrinder pad the one time i did replace a headgasket, but that was not my equipment.. was someone else's

 

Have 10s (100s?) of head jobs completed successfully this way .......... all that I know of still running after 20 years ...................

Way too much thinking/discussing rather than doing happening in the world imo


Oh sorry - I see you meant the beers! - guess it depends on your constitution whether you will be able to do the job properly.

 

interesting. i've used a wirewheel one time and gouged the CRAP out of what i was working on. so i never felt comfortable using them for airtightness-sensitive areas.

 

So sorry to hear the tough luck and timing.
I didnt mean any disrespect, and I understand tight finances, I just gigure it as $600 tops, is a lot cheaper than buying another car. I hope you can get it worked out some way. Given your curcumstances see if the buddies would donate their time bro-bono. Minimize the extras and get er back on the road for around half that.
Good luck and God bless!
DCZC

 

I say you buy the used motor but do the inspections or what LVR says is a good idea, but if I were going to the trouble of taking an engine out, you might as well open it up on a stand - then you can see if it actually needed to be overhauled. Who knows it may just need a hot tank cleaning. You won't know until you open it (even yours) then once you put it back in, you won't have to worry about UNEXPECTEDLY having to deal with the engine breaking down. The pain is the getting it in & out, but you already know how to deal with that so it's not a big deal. That's everything right there:

 

If, by your own admission you are capable of mechanically handling the job and time,money and sanity is of the essence, then I say leave the motor in the car, remove head and inspect damage - if both head and cylinder are fine, drop the sump and replace the piston assembly complete in-situ (ex other guy's 30 motor with eg a snapped cam-belt or broken crank - my guess lots of them here) .............. no need to remove the whole thing just to inspect.

If you can live with the mentioned leaks till finances allow then at least you can be mobile and independent/non-dependant of/on the lady

 

IMO dump the entire motor. if you can get another motor for 200 bucks why even toy w/ the current one in the car?

so you take the $200 motor...add another $200 - $300 to it and drop it back in and you should be golden. your call if you want to do the clutch but if it's ok then don't toss it now.

the time it takes for you to pull the heads to see what's wrong, might as well invest that time in a known good motor and go from there.

you can probably spend 1/2 a day on swapping part on the new motor. spend 1 day on the actual swap.

with the heads you probably will spend 1/2 a day on yanking out parts to later find out that you can't salvage the block or it's not worth it...then you're back to square one with a car that's in 100 pieces. the swap will give you the least amount of down time. something these project car guys won't understand.

 

well you have to also include the $120ish for timing belt and tensioner

 

with what has been said i would suggest a new motor.

1 its cheaper
2 its faster
3 it is friendlier to the not so everyday mechanic

FTW = new previously enjoyed motor + timing belt kit + a rear main seal and maybe a quick look see at the injector hoses and you should be good to go.

but then for the money and time in the motor you maybe better getting a beater till you can either save the max or trade it.

 

IMO if you dont honestly need the car then i would say sell it and try and off set some of your losses...If you do need the car then i would suggest getting the same motor and swapping it... that takes no more than a day to do if your mechanically inclined and you remember to re connect what you disconnected.....But if it were me i would Definitly NOT swap the motor unless it was for a VQ35 ;]...