Alright well my engine is all jacked up, making some bad knocking noise. My buddies say it's a "main bearing" and I could use a "valve job"... whatever the hell that is, either way, for me that means I need a lot of money....

I have about $1500 in a savings account, but I still owe $4000 on my car, and since my divorce 2 years ago this has become my only driver. What should I do? Keep saving and pay it off and try to get another ride, do an engine swap, or just rebuild the engine???? I can probably save up enough to pay the car off in another 3 or so months if needbe...

I guess I would like to swap something else in there if I can find a good deal on an engine, and a shop that can do it for a reasonable price... Hell I don't know...

 

I would say rebuild it. 350's are so common i bet some mechanics could do it in their sleep.

If you're looking for more power, have them bore/stroke it to a 383

 

Really, it depends on alot of factors. First and foremost, are you a do it yourselfer, or paying someone to do it. If you do it, you might make it in your budge. However, if paying, $1500 is about halfway there.

The swap is quicker perhaps, if again you do it yourself and find a motor in your budget that isn't about to spin a bearing or throw a rod. Then your back to step one w/ no money.

The other factor is damage. How bad is the damage to the crank, the block, etc.? The crank could be ground and oversized bearings put in. I believe the options are .01 and .02. If beyond the .02 mark you'll need a new crank. I had one put in from CRI (Crankshaft Rebuilders Inc.) My brother did it so I got the family discount. So far so good. He did get a really good set of Clevite bearings from one of the guys at the shop. Labor was 16 hrs. Normal customer this job would have been about $500 parts and $2000 labor, give or take.

But if you can do this yourself your on the road for under a grand. Perhaps with that you could pick up a good steel crank.

The other option, which I briefly considered was just buying a beater and waiting till I had the money to build a stroker. My cars an only driver too and I owe alot more than $4K. But the quote my brother gave me worked out better in my case, as the car was already on the lift in his stall.

 

First off what year? and what is the mileage? Are you able to start the car now? Did you try to find where the noise was located at top, bottom, front or rear of motor, I had a precat come loose in the exhaust once and it can sound like the bottom end is bad. Get your self a long wooden dowel and listen for where the sound is coming you will hear it if you listen in different spots if the car will start. Do a compression test also do a cylinder leak down test.

 

If it is a main I'd have it looked at. I had a '74 GMC that spun a front main at 40K miles. I put an oversize bearing in it an put 150K on that motor. It just depends. How does your buddy know it needs a valve job? Might just need seals if it is smoking at start up. That can be fixed easily. Have someone you can trust take a look at it. Might get you buy for a while until you can get something done on a more permanent basis. Good luck!

 

I spun a rod bearing this spring on my LT4. I was lucky and it didn't cause any other damage to the engine. I got a couple of quotes in the $3-4000 range, and a dealership said it would be $5500 minimum. I pulled the engine myself and took it to a shop to be repaired. They completely disassembled, inspected and cleaned the engine, ground the crank, installed all new bearings, a new rod, oil pump and timing chain, decked the heads, installed new valve seals and reassembled the engine for about $1600, which while not cheap, I felt was reasonable (I don't have any mechanic relatives - LOL!) - you might be able to do better. If you need machine work and a rotating assembly, the price goes up of course. Member LBYRNES recently rebuilt his LT1 with little prior experience - you may want to talk to him.

A new short block might be a good alternative - I've seen stock LT1 short blocks as low as $1200 on ebay.

 

Yes, I am very grateful for my brother. I told him if he ever needed anything I would drop whatever I was doing to help. Paint his house, unclog a toilet, whatever. If it were not for him I would have had to go the "beater" route and the Vette would still be parked.

Pianoguy's solution is the best if you can get the engine pulled and transported to a shop. Parts on the L98 shouldn't be hard to come by and should be relatively inexpensive. One thought would be to do the part shopping yourself in terms of crank, rods, oil pump. You might find a better deal and be able to upgrade for the same money?.

 

Do yourself a favor and have some one look at it and then you can plan accordinly, don't go chasing all wild leads that you hear, it'll drve you crazy.
good luck

 

This is my advice. Buy something simple and reliable for about $1000 cash -- maybe a 94 Taurus -- get liability insurance, drop your comprehensive coverage on the Vette, and take your time deciding what you would like to do.

In all likelihood, you are more likely to find a solution that you like over the next 2 or 3 months than making a decision this week. When your car is running again, you can resell the cheap car and very likely lose nothing. I believe that you would need approval to drop comprehensive, so make certain that you can. Personally, I would go the cheap car route regardless.

 

The situation sounds like trouble if it is a high mileage car...if you have bearing/crank damage the fix will be more to get through it then what you currently have in your account....plus you be out of a ride during the repair/rebuild time. Figure out what is wrong exactly before you jump in.

 

If you are using this car as a daily driver and only have 1500.00 to fall back on, you could be in for a lot of mental pain. These cars are fun to drive and fun to work on, but they are old and anything can happen at any time. Case in point - yesterday I travelled to my job in northern Alberta in my 92. It had never given me any trouble for the last year. 300 miles from home, I blew a head gasket. 1000.00 for a tow home, 350.00 for a taxi for the rest of the trip, and 400.00 for a flight home at the end of my turnaround. Not fun.

 

After all that has been said and suggested, you must realize that none of us have seen or heard the engine. So we are simply going of the "suggestion" that a spun bearing is the problem. Of course loud knocking from the bottom end is seldom anything else. But the only real way to know is to see. The solution could be as simple as a bearing replacement or as involved as a complete rebuild. That's a pretty big spectrum.

Someone suggested dropping your full coverage. I am pretty sure that the bank will more than frown upon this. I wouldn't do it anyway. There are alot of things that could happen even just sitting in the drive. Or if you have it sitting in shop at some point. Who knows, but I just think that is an awful big risk for very little reward.

But, buying a driver. Then gradually accumulating the parts you really want to build the Vette you really want isn't a bad plan at this point. Really, if you had planned on any performance mods this is a great opportunity. If it's all coming apart anyway, that is time and/or money already spent. It's just a matter of quality and performance of the stuff going back in.

 

Have a Reputable repair shop properly diagnose your engine and then go from there. Guessing won't help anything.