I have the following problems with my current VQ engine, which is on a 97 auto, with 116k miles:
Upper pan Oil leak, origin of leak has not been discovered yet
Blown rear/bottom motor mounts
Oil somehow leaking into air intake system
Motor making a screaching, loud, grinding sort of noise on cold mornings for first 5-10 minutes of driving (undiagnosed condition which my mechanic will be taking a look at soon)

I Can fix the following problems, and my mechanic (Jeff at maximum tuning) gave me a reasonable price of around $550-600 for the upper pan leak and motor mounts(labor would only be charged for the upper pan), and he will look into the other problems as well and see if everything can fixed at one shot and all the problems are relevant to one another.

Now my question to you all is, if i can get a used VQ motor with about 40k miles, for $400 and jeff said he can install it for another $800, do you think its more worth it for me to do a motor swap and save myself any possible other future repairs with the better reliability of a newer engine, or just stick to fixing whats wrong at the moment and have to thoroughly fixed?

Worst comes to worst, i can plan on selling the car, but dismounting all the aftermarket parts and to revert it back to stock would cost me an arm and leg at this point and it would require me to fix the car up ANYHOW. So i would like your suggestion fellow orgers

 

**** bump ****

 

Dont sell, I think a younger low milage VQ would serve you better. I highly doubt $550-600 is enough to fix your problems, the parts are probably no too much but its the labour that will get you.

Get a youing VQ. I wonder how your getting oil in the intake, damn so you must be smoking like a **** everywhere you go.

 

Oil in the intake .....PCV maybe? How much oil?

I would consider filling the motor mounts with polyurethane or getting ES ones.

 

sounds like a stuck pcv, oil in the intake, leaking oil pan gasket....too much pressure, the pressure has to go somewhere, so it went through your gasket.
you will need to replace the gasket anyway. go with the newer vq.

 

yea get a new one it will cost you a little more but its worth it...

 

The oil leak sounds like the rear valve cover... its the mystery oil leak we have all been having.. its a good 5-6 hour job taking off that intake manifold to access it. If your engine is screeching at start up, it sounds like your belts are just loose, its not a big deal... I bet you it wont even do it when the temperature warms up. Just in motor mounts, you'd need to get new ones with a new engine anyway..., and the leak in the intake may or may not be the PCV.

Other than that you'd be stupid to just trash that engine... reason being you dont know what your going to get in a new one. You dont know when that other engines time to crap out will come. Sure you have a leak now but you can fix it... what if 10k miles down the road the new one starts to leak? The only thing you can do is do all types of preventive things on the new engine like a new water pump and gaskets, which is silly. The problems you describe are not uncommon at all. Fix them now and have peace of mind they wont come back.

 

Alright, well im just gonna show the car to jeff, and he said he's gonna give me his honest opinion on wether the engine is worth fixing or just that it would be better off for me to get a new one. Ive been dealing with him ever since he first opened, so i know him well and he's always honest with me and gets me the best prices he possibly can and i trust his work. Right now, with money being a major issue, ill prolly just opt to have the engine fixed up FULLY to run like it used to since it will turn out cheaper, rather than to replace it. thanks for the advice

 

Oh snap! A NYC MAX page?! When did this happen? Nice

 

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