Need help with 92 century

[Guest]

This really sucks, not more than a month after i get my car it quits

Granted it was in our family for ten years and i did know the bearings and/or crankshaft was warped. It has 205,000 kms on it and needs either a bottom end rebuild, a new/used engine, or a complete rebuild. By the way, the car is a 92 century.

I am a high school student by the way, located in western Canada

I was wondering if any member here has had to rebuild there engine or has any experiance with "bottom end rebuilds", any information would be useful.

[NTX5467]

The "cleanest" option would be to swap engines or long blocks, but that can open a whole nuther can or worms depending on the quality of the rebuild. Other option would be to remove your engine, remove the oil pan and inspect the main and rod bearings. If there's significant wear (plastigage them and don't really worry about the gooves in them, unless you see a change in surface color--meaning the first main wear layer of the bearing has been worn away), then you can get a "crank kit" and install it, reassemble, and reinstall the engine.

A "crank kit" is a refinished crankshaft to a slightly smaller journal size that has appropriately smaller bearings to match it. In any event, always plastigage the installed bearings/journals to make sure the oil clearances are correct before you put things back together!

Or you could take the whole thing to a competent machine shop and let them do everything that needs to be done. The most time-consuming and expensive route, probably.

Also plan on replacing the engine and transaxle mounts as they will probably have deteriorated to the extent they can come apart when you remove them. Time, age, torque cycles, etc. will cause normal age deterioration of them.

FYI, the only crankshafts I have known to "warp" were the TufTrided cranks used in some heavy duty truck applications. This is a special surface treatment that is usually only a few thousanths of an inch deep, but aids in durability by making the surface harder than it normally would be. One time several years ago, we tried to get a GM replacement crank for a Chevy 427 truck motor that was not warped from the treatment. All of them would have had to be turned down enough to take all of the treatment off, so no need to pay for an expensive crank that you had to turn and end up with a regular crank in the process. Somehow, GM got them to work on the engine production line, but the replacement items would not.

A crankshaft journal and its matching bearing can wear enough to cause a knock, but it's not from warpage of any kind, but from normal flex due to harmonics in the engine as it runs.

Hope this helps,

NTX5467

[Bill Stoneberg]

205,000 KM (127,000 miles) is really not a lot for that engine. I know some that have gone twice that far and are still running.

You say the engine quit, did it just stop running ? If so, that doesn't sound like a bottom end problem. Does it smoke like you signature seems to indicate ?

How do you know that the engine need bearings and / or rebuild ? Did a mechanic tell you this ? Is he trying to just get your money ? Have you gotten another opinion ?

Make sure that this is what it really needs and your mechnic is not trying to empty your wallet. Try to find another mechanic that your friends or friends parents trust and use.