Discussion: Main Bearings or New Engine? *DELETED*

[Quincy Cummings]

Post deleted by Quincy Cummings

[farnelle]

You probably have four options. One, you could have the main bearings replaced, but once you open up the motor, you may find other problems, so you may not be able to get a firm cost quotation. Remember the difference between an estimate and a quote.

Two, you could replace the engine with a 3800 from a salvage yard. Those engines are plentiful and should run you about $300 to $600 plus labor to install. The problem is knowing what you are buying, many salvage yards no longer will gaurentee the milage is correct and you could be buying another problem. Even if the salvage yard will give you a limited warranty, it would not do the person who buys you car any good and it would always be additional labor to reinstall another engine.

Three, you could go with a new crate engine from GM with a full factory warranty. You can get an idea on price by getting a quote from GMpartsdirect.com or other reliable source.

Four, you could sell the car as is and let someone else deal with the problem the way they best see fit. You would have to discount the car for the approximate cost of repairs, but you would be rid of the problem and would not be throwing good money after bad.

Sadly, unless you have a very low mileage, immaculate Reatta, or possibly a really nice convertible, you will probably not realize much from your efforts to have it repaired. Right now it seems to be a buyers' market for most any automobile, even new ones. I guess there may be a 5th option if you have the space to store your car. That would be to park the car until you can afford to fix it. When you are ready, fix it and enjoy it. If your car is pretty nice, you certainly could not replace it for the cost of the repairs.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Ed

[Guest Orono]

A salvage yard engine may be a good option. Because the 3800 engines are so reliable, they are plentiful and cheap. Check with the larger yards since they may offer installation as well. If there is a problem with the engine, the warranty will cover installation too.

Good Luck!

[Guest imported_Flash]

Quincy,

Just some thoughts...although I'm sure you have already considered these.

How long have you had the car and how much did you pay for it?

What is the mileage?

How many owners?

If you are going to sell it anyway, are the cost of repair recoverable?

If not, then just discount it at time of sale.

These are some of the factors that I would be considering if it were me. Two completely different scenarios if the car had 140K, your the 6th owner, and you paid 1500 dollars for it. Sell it. OR the car has 43,000 miles, your the 1st or second owner and you have all documentation. Fix it.

Just depends. The hard ones are if you are the 3rd or 4th owner, paid 6000-8500 dollars for it, and it has 90,000 miles. In this case, I would sell it, discounted heavily and take the loss. But that is just me.

[Richard S]

The one option not mentioned was to make the car a project. For whatever reason, Reattas don't hold their value well and are not selling at prices that reflect their rarity. Modifications are not going to impact resale very much. This means that unless you have a very low mileage near concours example, you are limited only by your imagination and finances. Since the Reatta remains a very attractive GT, but lacks the handling and performance of many newer Japanese 2-seaters, if you have an otherwise decent car, you have a free platform for something more exciting. Others have dropped in the Caddy 4.5 TPI V8, which, while not a rocket, is a major improvement over our 3800. It is apparently a bolt-in except for inteface problems. Others have looked at the supercharged 3800 and northstars, both of which apparently present major computer challenges.

[Don B.]

I got lucky and found a whole drive train before it was

pulled from a Reatta. So the modular engine/trans assembly

was swapped out. You just have to lift the body pretty high

to slide the old engine/trans out.

It is true 3800's are easy to find

a yard by me will charge $300 and give a month warranty.

[2seater]

How was the bad bearing diagnosed? Was the pan pulled and were the bearing caps removed? The engine is pretty robust, but not invulnerable. If they looked at the crank, what sort of shape is it in? I guess I would concur with most other thoughts in what you really want to do with it. Good used engines are plentiful and cheap but unless you can do the swap yourself, the labor will probably exceed the price of the engine. If you can do it yourself, it's only a weekend project to change it, and that's working alone. If you really intend to sell it anyway, my .02 says to discount the price and get rid of it. Personally, my first impulse would be to fix it, even if it cost a bit of money, since even on the high end, the cost to fix or replace the engine would only be equivalent to a few car payments.

[padgett]

Just one other thought. The bottom end of the 3800 is very reliable if proper car is taken. If not, there could be anything waiting to happen.

When our Bonneville dropped its center cam bearings, I bought another engine from a yard with 36k. Odds are that a low milage Park Avenue or Olds 98 or Bonneville (all of which had the "C" 3800 as stock) would not be likely to have been run into the ground and a quick look inside would verify.

My amin reason was that once the cam bearings spun, I did not know of any way to reliably replace them so I just bought an engine and now have spare heads, manifolds, and a few sensors/etc. that the yard did not mangle.

If you have a bearing problem, then you know that the engine has been overheated, over-revved, or has an oiling system related issue and bearings may not be all of the problem.

I have no issue with a yard engine if the car it comes from was clean (and hopefully rearended). As mentioned, there are a lot of 3800s around and not terribly desirable (except for Fieros 8*) so are inexpensive.

BTW the Bonne got the replacement "long block" in 1999, 5 years and 35,000 miles ago.