Squeeky Belt/Car Overheating

I would try and stay away from the boneyard motors. When they sit for awhile they tend to build up moisture inside, which would normally burned off when an engine runs. I took a chance and got one for my beater GA SE. It only had 50k on it but it sat for god knows how long. It blew up 5k later. Its tempting to grab one of these motors up and put it in, but it will probably be a waste of time and money. Your best off to get a rebuilt motor or a brand new one in the crate from GM. Chances are that your motor is smoked and even if you do replace the gaskets the block and heads are probably warped so bad they will leak terribly. You wouldn't believe the damage that can be cause by overheating the engine just once.

[Sprucegagt]

Originally Posted by rockfan0005

Spruce-yeah; i don't imagine they are in good shape. Though the amount of time was so short each time. The first time it was for like 20 seconds in the red zone; the second time it was about 20 again; the third about 2-3 minutes; the fourth about 2 minutes.

One question I had was wtf didn't my stupid low coolant light go on?

The light only comes on when the reservoir is completely dry. Aluminum heads and overheating do not mix. Usually just doing it one time is enough to crack a head or blow a gasket. You kept the temperature either overheated or close to it four times. I wouldn't be surprised if they find a pair of cracked heads on your car. Sorry for the bad news.

Originally Posted by Sprucegagt

The light only comes on when the reservoir is completely dry. Aluminum heads and overheating do not mix. Usually just doing it one time is enough to crack a head or blow a gasket. You kept the temperature either overheated or close to it four times. I wouldn't be surprised if they find a pair of cracked heads on your car. Sorry for the bad news.

Ok, that being said it might be wise to just buy an entirely new motor. Does anyone know the cheapest place to find crate engines or how much they cost?

[gectek]

cheapest place to get a crate engine, like brand new or rebuilt is not going to be a good thing to look for. quality is #1, not price. i know price plays a key role but you cannot be cheap with this. if you want a used engine, look at car-part.com. also GM has the best crate engines IMO, you can get an 00-02 LA1 for 2260, and an 03 LA1 for about 2800, i dont remember if they have a core or not. also u might look around here and on 60*v6.com and gaoc.com and a few other places, they usually have something. i do have one rebuilder that i would NOT recommend and that is Recon. do not get anything from them, they are terrible. i would just look around at those places and see what you can find.

but you can always assess the damage on your engine before you go out and buy another one. have the heads checked and the block. also the valves. if the engine checks out ok, then you can maybe just shave the heads and use new valves and have the heads done and that would be a minimal investment. also if the block is ok you can find heads on those places i listed also, i just got a set of 3400 heads with about 54k on them for 150 shipped...not too bad

Originally Posted by gectek

cheapest place to get a crate engine, like brand new or rebuilt is not going to be a good thing to look for. quality is #1, not price. i know price plays a key role but you cannot be cheap with this. if you want a used engine, look at car-part.com. also GM has the best crate engines IMO, you can get an 00-02 LA1 for 2260, and an 03 LA1 for about 2800, i dont remember if they have a core or not. also u might look around here and on 60*v6.com and gaoc.com and a few other places, they usually have something. i do have one rebuilder that i would NOT recommend and that is Recon. do not get anything from them, they are terrible. i would just look around at those places and see what you can find.

but you can always assess the damage on your engine before you go out and buy another one. have the heads checked and the block. also the valves. if the engine checks out ok, then you can maybe just shave the heads and use new valves and have the heads done and that would be a minimal investment. also if the block is ok you can find heads on those places i listed also, i just got a set of 3400 heads with about 54k on them for 150 shipped...not too bad

Well couldn't I just get myself something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ENGIN...spagenameZWDVW
$1300 including shipping, and lets say what a 4 hour install? $1500 put in? That's not bad at all...I mean that way I wouldn't have problems with it in the near future 2 my resale value would go up on my car...doesn't sound like a bad option to me...if it is let me know.

Also yes, I am planning on doing those checks that you mentioned, especially because if I can just narrow down there is no head damage and it's just an intake manifold leak; then I could save myself like $900...

[gectek]

well having a new engine in your car wont raise the resale of your vehicle. but yah you can look on ebay, the only prob is, you dont know what you are buying until it gets there. obviously it would be best to run the checks i outlined on any engine you get just to make sure it is ok. and its a little more than a 4 hour job, but if you have the right tools and equipment you can get it done in about a day or 2, depending on how much time you have. also if you are looking at any mods internally for the engine, i would def do them while it is out.

Originally Posted by gectek

well having a new engine in your car wont raise the resale of your vehicle. but yah you can look on ebay, the only prob is, you dont know what you are buying until it gets there. obviously it would be best to run the checks i outlined on any engine you get just to make sure it is ok. and its a little more than a 4 hour job, but if you have the right tools and equipment you can get it done in about a day or 2, depending on how much time you have. also if you are looking at any mods internally for the engine, i would def do them while it is out.

I'm going to try and have someone give me a ride tonight and do the tests. The engine drop is probably something more then I want to endure, I was talking about 4 hours for a shop to do it....internal mods of the engine is definately where I was going to stop at; but if I have it rebuilt, then I may as well have a new MMS cam/ with new MMS heads; I have a lot of thinking to do about this.

[digitalballz]

What kind of garage cant tell if its a head gasket or LIM?? But after overheating 4 times I wouldnt do just the LIM either. $1600 doesnt seem too far out of line for a head job.

[gectek]

Originally Posted by digitalballz

What kind of garage cant tell if its a head gasket or LIM?? But after overheating 4 times I wouldnt do just the LIM either. $1600 doesnt seem too far out of line for a head job.

really i dont pay more than $20, but thats another story, well 1600 is alot for a complete head overhaul IMO, shops around here dont charge that much, you can almost buy new heads for that price or a least some very good ported ones from the 60* store

Alright guys, so I took it for a second opinion; this place told me it was the LIM but with an engine with this many miles on it they didn't want to open up the engine because they thought there could quite possibly be more damage. My #1 option at this point I think would be to buy a new engine. Ok, please tell me your opinion on this but this sounds like a good deal to me.

nordstromsautoinc on ebay has a feedback rating of 99.8% Positive out of 6495...that being said this company is selling many engines (a few with less then 10 miles on them). I don't believe that the ones with less then 10 miles on them would be a gamble would they? I mean 10 miles...and the feedback speaks for itself. The only thing is I called a shop and asked how much it would be for them to drop the new engine in and they quoted me $1200 just for the labor...I'm going to keep calling places but does that sound like a normal price?

Here's the specific one I'm looking at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ENGIN...mZ230101303630

If I'm missing something please let me know.

[gectek]

well no that is not normal...but anyway the book time for complete engine replacement is 9.3 hours, so X $60 an hour(im being conservative) then that is $558, so i dont know where they are getting $1200 from. even at $80 an hour, its only $744.

if you want an engine thats ok, i think i have heard good rumors from them. but if you can do the swap yourself you will save alot of money and learn some also. all u need is to rent a large enough space to work on the car in if you dont have a garage, and just get a cheap engine lift from harbor freight, they are everywhere, or off ebay, then pull it yourself. the entire removal is really straight forward once u learn to remove the hood first. thats just my opinion though. that way you can know the quality of the install and if anything goes wrong you might have an idea what that is.

[digitalballz]

IMO its not worth doing an engine for a local garage if your not going to make at least a grand in profit. Nothing ever goes smoothly with motor swaps. Dealerships around here get almost a grand to do an LIM gasket. we charge 750 and no one can touch us in the area.

Yeah, I called around and the cheapest place I could find would do it for $950 + cost of the fluids= $1050...so not too bad; I'm ordering the engine within the next few hours and should have it installed within the next week. Just wanted to give you guys an update.

[Ceejj]

quick question for everyone.

At about what temperatures do your grand am gt's 3004 V6 run? Mine used to run a little under 200(190ish). Now it moves up to 200, is this an early sign of overheating, or is 200 normal?

[gectek]

200 is normal if you put a reg t stat back in. if you bled the syst right then you should have no worries about it, but i would also check the t stat housing and make sure there isnt an air bubble in it. but again 200 is normal if you have the stock t stat

[Ceejj]

how do i check for an air bubble?

[gectek]

umm well i would say to take the t stat housing off and then put it back on, that usually releases and trapped air, and then fill back from the fill tank with the brass bleeder screw on top of the water pump open. then when coolant flushes out of there, then you should be ok. then start the car and let it run til op temps are reached. then let the car cool a little and uncap the screw again to see if coolant is still coming out, if so then seat the screw and top off the fill tank and you should be ok

Alright guys one more question for you...with only the minor differences between the 1999-2002 and the 2003-2005 engines besides the alternator bracket needed to be changed...will the PCM need to be reprogrammed? Or will the 2001 work with the 2004 engine? Are there any more things I'm overlooking...the shop should be dropping the new engine as we speak; I just want to make sure it works when it's all finished.

Originally Posted by TDRDevelopment

I would try and stay away from the boneyard motors. When they sit for awhile they tend to build up moisture inside, which would normally burned off when an engine runs. I took a chance and got one for my beater GA SE. It only had 50k on it but it sat for god knows how long. It blew up 5k later. Its tempting to grab one of these motors up and put it in, but it will probably be a waste of time and money. Your best off to get a rebuilt motor or a brand new one in the crate from GM. Chances are that your motor is smoked and even if you do replace the gaskets the block and heads are probably warped so bad they will leak terribly. You wouldn't believe the damage that can be cause by overheating the engine just once.

My 3100 was from a junkyard, and 100,000kms later, she's still running. Best $800 I've ever spent (including install)

[gectek]

well u will nee do to a case learn anyway because you are using a new engine, so it will require you to get service programming IIRC...the programming only cost me like $35...not too bad