Blown engine

[Pete Nice]

Long story short, my engine blew today, missed work. 2005 Saturn Ion 2.

The Saturn dealer can replace it with a used engine with between 20K and 30K miles. I also need a gasket in the transmission replaced. They wanted $3000 for this. They came down to $2700. I owe $6400 on the car and the old engine had 270K miles on it. The new engine would have a 90 day warranty and I will have the car paid off in 12 months. If i turn the car in as is, the trade in will be less than $1000. I would have to pay a new car loan AND about $5k on the old one. Not really in the budget right now.

Here is how I see it. The alternator is 1 year old, the engine fan is 8 months old. The transmission is going to be completely repaired. The engine will have 20k to 30k miles on it. So basically I am putting an engine with 20 to 30k miles into a frame with 270k miles. The only expensive possible breakage is the catalytic converter ($800) and the computers (4 of them but might not be as expensive). By my estimates, this will make my car like it was at around 65k to 75k miles. I NEVER had any kind of problems with the car until is was well over 150K. I am assuming, if all goes well, this would give me at least another 18 months out of the car with no major problems AND this is the cheapest route for now, if this would have happened in 10 months, I would have told them to do whatever they want with the car, but right now, to much is still owed.

Brampton, Leneve, Joe and any other mechanics, what are your thoughts? Am I doing the right thing, or should I tough out two car loans for the next 12 months? Do you think, on average, this new engine (treated properly) will get me another two years and 75K miles?

I need help fast dudebros.

[LeNeve]

#1. Use the saturn dealer, don't shop it out to some hack shop.
#2. They will most likely destroy your catylitic converters while removing the engine. So plan on that cost.
#3. The good thing about most dealers (around here anyway), is that they are not out to fuck you over, they have enough service work to stay afloat, without having to resort to crooked methods.

Is this a salvage yard engine? What exactly happened with your engine?
90 day warranty is bullshit, NOTHING ever goes wrong in those 90 days, which is why it is 90 days.

Yes, I think if serviced regularly, you should be able to squeeze alot more miles out of the used engine.

[Pete Nice]

#1. Use the saturn dealer, don't shop it out to some hack shop.
#2. They will most likely destroy your catylitic converters while removing the engine. So plan on that cost.
#3. The good thing about most dealers (around here anyway), is that they are not out to fuck you over, they have enough service work to stay afloat, without having to resort to crooked methods.

Is this a salvage yard engine? What exactly happened with your engine?
90 day warranty is bullshit, NOTHING ever goes wrong in those 90 days, which is why it is 90 days.

Yes, I think if serviced regularly, you should be able to squeeze alot more miles out of the used engine.

I was using the Saturn dealer no matter what. I will have to tell them not to break the converter, b/c I am not paying for it. I know they won't fuck me over, I have been dealing with them for 10 years and they have always been straight with me.

It is a salvage yard engine, I have to find out why it is in the yard still. My engine locked up b/c there was no oil in it. They said my oil was burning off, but there were no signs of it and my car was not due for an oil change for another 500 miles. It might have been the cause of the coolant lights also. I had NO idea there was no oil. I always am spot on with my oil checks and there were no leaks in my garage or anything.

I think the new engine is the option we are leaning towards, I just want to get the car to run another 2 years. Another 150k miles would be sweet, and now I will take even MORE care of it. I will check the oil everytime I get fucking gas from now on.

[Brampton]

the used engine might be youre best option.

What about a factory rebuild. We call it FQR (Ford), but I'm sure Saturn has the same sort of thing.
The wrecker engines usually save you a shit load of money, but sometimes have their own little problems.

Go to the dealer for the swap, cause I've seen to many times that the independant shops will FUBAR your car, and there is no going back from that.

2700 for the job sounds reasonable, depending on the door rate of the shop

Good Luck with the fix

[NussieT]

Sorry to hear about your engine Petey. Wasn't it at the service shop before you went to Russia??

[LeNeve]

I'm at the Ford garage right now tearing my 350 down. I had to beat the oil pan back in to get the bolts out. I'm taking pictures that I will post later. This thing is fucked. BTW, retail, this motor would have cost me 10,000 to 15,000 dollars. I worked at an elite engine machine shop at the time that it was built (10 years ago). Free labor, all premium parts at cost, and it ran me 4000 grand.

It ran out of oil too. It was late I was hauling ass, an oil line broke, and I cried like a bitch while the tow truck driver took me and my car home. It had less than 5000 miles on it. There is maybe 500 dollars worth of salvagable parts now.

The good thing is that upon removing it, I found the manual trans case busted, and the rear end on the verge of exploding. Way too much power for the stock drive train.

[Pete Nice]

I am going to buy a new car. It sucks, but if that engine does not give me 2 years, it was a waste of money. It's time to cut the losses and get a new car.

[Hondo]

Meh...I gotta disagree here. There are PLENTY of good shps who will treat you right on car repairs. Ask around and see what you can find out. I've never used a dealer for anything but warranty service in more than 25 years with excellent results. At 1/3 to half the price.

As to used engines what's the big deal? If you one out of a wreck it was running at the time of the crash right? If you pull the head cover and pan off of it before you buy you can get a fair idea of how well the oil was maintained. Modern engines are tough to break. I wouldn't think twice about one out of a wreck in your situation. The idea (at least to me) is to get it fixed as cheaply as you can and then either sell it or run it until it drops again. You should be able to get it all done right outside a dealer for half of what they are asking.

Oh and never trust lights on a car. If you have an older car check the oil manually every time you get gas. It's worth the effort.

[Joe]

I wen to school for 5 years to work on cars so I have rarely ever used a shop unless it was something I couldn't do from my garage. My experience with small shops has never been good. When I had the engine pulled in my Cobra the independant shop that the warranty company picked left everything under my hood a complete mess. I've had many other problems with indedependant shops that would make me think twice about taking my car back to one. Dealers have always done what I asked and haven't ever screwed me. They just cost about $30-$40 an hour more.

If you're getting a pretty new engine and trans then any work you'll need in the near future should be fairly cheap. It sucks Cash for Clunkers ended.

[burnt_servo]

i do this all the time , on the side on weekends ....... swaping out dead engines for auto wrecker engines . it can be a very cheap way to get more life out your car .

first off i'd find a nice clean privately owned shop to do the work ......

and i stress friendly and clean . if the shop is clean , generally they take pride in the quality of their work .

given that the parts will all cost the same , a guy can save 30 - 40 % on a repair bill by avoiding the dealer . ( i've worked at a couple of dealers and at first was shocked at how they raped people )

if this was a job i'd be doing , i'd pop the oil pan off and check out the condition of the main and rod bearings ...... used parts dealers lie all the time about the condition of the parts they sell .

i'd also put in new crank seals , and if the engine uses a timing belt , i'd replace that with a new one .

i can't see why the cat would be damaged with the engine swap .... unless the mechanic is a butcher , or the car is in really sorry shape .

[negadave]

I try to do all my repairs myself too. On the few occasions i've had to bring my car to a shop i Never use the dealer. They kill you on the price.
I was gonna say definatly don't go to the dealer but then i read the mechanics advise on here. I don't think it would be that hard to swap the motor and tranny though. My buddy who's a carpenter did it on his mustang in his driveway and never had any issues.
Or you could go covino's route, get a vespa, and join vespas locos