Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Ya, thats just a bit blown :rolleyes:

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

IMHO - it sounded like a main bearing knock.

We've finnaly made her choose the new engine. Still haven't gotten to it - but I do have an engine from a 96 (?) 3.1 with a rod thrown out the side of the BLOCK due to a lack of oiling. I will try to get pics of them ASAP!

Geeze - For the past few months - GM has kept our garage quite busy..:D

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

so i thought this had happened to me. I drive a 94 Buick lesabre and just recently i started loosing anti-freeze, while the little i had left was a very brown color. Upon inspection i saw both antifreeze and oil on top of the engine bock in between the rocker covers and the intake manifold. I suspected i had a bad head gasket. I took it in and all it turned out to be was the hose with a male adapter that brings coolant into the block was broken at the block(it was made of plastic). so all in all 2 hrs of labor and a 15 dollar part got me up and going again.



Matt do you know anything about transmission noise? It sounds like my auto transmission is slipping every time it goes from 3 to 4th. I am guessing that the solenoid isn't doing it's job, any insight?

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Wow, that is an absolutly disgusting image, I can't believe the woman thought it was normal! At the very least she should have noticed the change in fluid needs! The fact that the engine does that stock is more disturbing, just get a Toyota! You can cram over 30 psi of boost into the 2JZ-GTE Supra motor with little trouble, and if a stock toyota motor or brakes die, then something is seriously wrong with the owners driving. Makes me happy that my entire family (I'm not kidding) drives Japanese cars.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

well sure a supra... kinda a difference in price tho. and that was their main performance car at the time wasnt it? not exactly a venture.
and then again the amount of boost it can handle stock isnt what proves a reliable engine anyways

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

You have a point about the supra, my fault for a bad example. However, I have never heard of a really unreliable Japanese car (within reason).

I disagree, if an engine is robust enough to deal with nearly tripling the stock power without problems during normal driving, then that enginge must be very stong. Racecar engines take nutty RPMs and/or make nutty power, but if you took one, and brought it to street spec powerwise keeping the same mechanical components it'd be untochable. This is basically the same idea.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

ever hear all the problems with the mitsubishi trucks all burning down and such?


define 'normal driving'... the ford rs200 had a relatively small displacement but a massive output. except i think i heard it only got about 10 hours of "spirited" driving till well....... the engine became junk. but then again for "normal" driving im sure it woulda been fine. it handles fine, accelerates only as much as you push the throttle, and brakes well. im sure it woulda been great for emergencies.
your "racecar" engine example... explain street spec for me please. do you mean to actually make emissions?
and well those "racecar" engines are built with a very different budget.. the other "racecars" going to the local tracks (well not all but..) arent going to be like that.
and as for tripling the stock power.... well most engines cant triple it without a bit of work i would think... sticking on a blower or turbo by itself isnt going to magically triple it. well obviously you need to beefen up everything.
and i dunno if this is a good example but well compare a big block american motor. and then a civic's 2.0l . tripleing the output is gonna be a LOT harder for the big block.
oh and i have no idea if this is true but the story ive heard about why there are no skylines sold in america is because nissan didnt want to detune it that much, just to pass emissions?
and um uh,,, lost my train of thought.... um.. i hope some car people take my side and help my arguement.. i might be needing help soon! :p

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Race car engines are torn down and rebuilt or replaced between races. Due to the fact they're run so close to thier limits they take heavy wear and most, if not all, teams won't take the chance of something happening to the motor.
There are still plenty of these "fresh" motors that blow though. Just watch a few races and you'll see that not every car makes it to the end.

GM, Ford, and Chrysler made some real good motors and still are. Tripling the boost and seeing if an engine can handle it isn't a true test of robustness. Sure it may run without any problems but hows it going to be holding up after 70k miles? That motor may only last for 90k with the boost but if it was still stock it may last for 180k.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Ever hear of the Prius??? At least it was one of those times where it was good to blame to problem on programing but still.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Let us not forget the Mitsubishi engines that were used in Dodge minivans for a while. In an attempt to make a light, powerful, V6 in a small package, something had to give. The designers left out a main bearing that provided stability to the crankshaft. As the engine aged, the crank would wobble back and forth until it finally wore itself through one end of the engine. I know of several owners who lost one of those engines. One on the first leg of a three week driving vacation with the family. How do you recover from that? No car, no vacation and far from home.
Errors creep in to designs everywhere including Detroit and Japan.
Racing engines add more bearings than normal "street" vehicles and balance like crazy to minimize vibration so that RPMs can be maximized. I'll let someone who knows chime in here, but I believe a Formula 1 Ford engine tops out over 10,000 RPM without shaking itself apart, while street vehicles are designed to run at less than half that.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

dont know about ford f1s but yes i know they do go over 10,000rpms. or at least used to. i dunno about recently.
and less than half is definitly not true. my truck engine rdlines at 5000. truck engines are most of the time timed so it has more torque in the low end rather than pull high rpms. some cars go 7000,8000 on the street. a bit of modifications and higher.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

9,000 on a S2000 or RX-8. The point I was making was that, while a race engine is unreliable at it's unreal specific output, when you drop RPMs or boost off of it it becomes very reliable. Take the Cosworth XF, at 16,800 rpms and making 900 hp it was really unreliable, the XFE does 12,000 rpms and makes 750 hp. It was the same engine minus some of the more pricey and persnikety parts. The engines were unbreakable by the previous standards. Doing this down tuning was what I meant by going to street spec.

Okay I was too general about Japenese cars, but my aunt has a first gen Prius and she has no troubles. As for the trucks, I wouldn't know since I've never driven nor known anybody well that drove one. The rs200 was a while ago, look at the Evos and STi they are similar.

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The reliability clearly goes down, but that it doesn't immediately die proves that it is over built stock. Although the American cars have made reliable engines, they are also much lower tech. So, the fact that Japanese engines have more parts to fail and still work is just fine.

However haven't we strayed from the topic of this blown engine? Yes, I know I caused it, sorry. I have a question about the GM-V engine, is there a specific aspect of this engine that causes this issue?

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

you just reminded me.. all the rotary motors. not too relaiable. they are a 'high maintainance motor. espescially those turbo ones. and they are japanese. i love those FCs but as a dailydriver i would not want one... even if it was n/a i think my stock s10 motor will outlast it (in the sense of will keep running until it stops completely without any repairs)

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Yeah, rotary enginges are funny beasts. You'd think that they would be stonger and more reliable, since they have less moving parts. Apparently if they run forever if naturally aspirated, but when that turbo comes along BAM! Apex seals just die. I've always wondered why Mazda (owned by Ford now) chose to turbocharge the 13B two rotor Wankel in the RX-7 instead of using a 20B three rotor Wankel. The major issue with rotaries is their immense volume and temperature of exhaust and massive fuel consumption, but for their size and displacement it's hard to beat without exotic tech or a gas turbine.

Re: All GM-V engines look!
 

Upper and lower manifold leaks are VERY common on Gm 60 degree V6 engines 3100 and 3400 series engines. it is one of the most frequent problems i here about. (at least in n-bodys)