02 SS. 2 year old tranny. 2 yr old AC. Head gaskets blown. 3500 to rebuild engine. Do I rebuild or find something else?

Have put a lot of $$ into this car since 2002. Not sure if I should stop doing it!

 

Is the motor toast?


You can blow head gaskets and not destroy the engine.


for $3500 sounds like motor has been severely damaged???


Hard to give advice with very little info but I would be shopping around as my 2004 Impala (3.4L) my guy did the head gaskets, plugs & wires and all labor and was less than $2k.


We caught it before coolant got in oil and trashed the rest of the engine.


Again depends how badly damaged the engine is.

 

Cookent is getting into engine. No smoke from pipes. Still drive it but runs hot.

QUOTE=montedd;684295]Is the motor toast?


You can blow head gaskets and not destroy the engine.


for $3500 sounds like motor has been severely damaged???

I
Hard to give advice with very little info but I would be shopping around as my 2004 Impala (3.4L) my guy did the head gaskets, plugs & wires and all labor and was less than $2k.


We caught it before coolant got in oil and trashed the rest of the engine.


Again depends how badly damaged the engine is.[/QUOTE]

 

As an option, you might be able to find a good used engine with under 100,000 miles for around $1000, plus about $1200-$1500 to install. Guess it depends on how much you love your Monte and how many miles are on the existing engine and how much it will take to make it right. If the existing engine has high miles it might make sense to rebuild if you plan to keep it around a long time, but if the rest of the car has high miles you have to consider future repair needs. Generally most cars ares close to the end of their lives around 200,000 miles unless you plan to keep repairing as necessary.

 

That's way to high of a price for an engine! These 3800'sites are a dime a dozen and can be had for $500-$800 around here. If that engine is completely destroyed I vote find a good junk yard engine and swap it in and away you go.

If all that happened was a head gasket and the coolant didn't trash the bearings in the bottom end then pull the heads and have them checked for being warped, replace the gaskets and away you go!

 

i would just replace the engine....i threw a rod through my oil pan and it cost me 2500 for a used motor with 60k and labor. if u love ya monte just replace the engine worse come to worse

 

How you considered a remanufactured engine? 3800 longblocks are generally about $2300 & come with a righteous warranty. Something to consider

 

Three things to consider...
1) you've already sunk money into big ticket repairs, you'll never get that money back, but you can get your use out of it.

2) price and availability of used motors and how tough these cars basically are is hard to match in a modern car other than dumping a lot of coin...generally ending up with someone else's problems to fix.

3) there is an old saying,"the cheapest car you can buy is the one that is already in the driveway". Frankly meaning, you know what's wrong with it already, and when you factor in all the expenses and questions associated with another car purchase, even a new car has bugs ending in it sitting up at the dealership to be fixed, is it really cheaper or better to get a new car?

My 2 cents, I hate making payments, used engines are cheap, and yours could probably be fixed anyways...if you like the car and are satisfied with the mileage/performance, then I'd just keep it... Or consider buying another car and parking this one and do a motor swap..

 

I'm looking to have it rebuilt. At least that is what I think they are going to do! I'm verifying this. I had a guy that was going to remove the engine, take it in to be rebuilt and then put it back in (along with hoses, and what-not!). Quoted me about $3500. Not sure how much is the engine rebuild and how much is the labor.

 

Best of luck to you and I hope it all works out etc. I know I would never spend that kinda money on a engine unless it was a race built, forged, ported, cammed engine. Glad to see your not sending her to the bone yard though!