// EDIT

So it's time for my 'vette to get a new engine. The estimate for a replacement GM Crate LT1 with 3 year/ 100,000 mile warranty is $8,000ish.. probably closer to $7,800 including labor and all random parts and what not.....

That seems like a fine plan. Have any of you had experience with remanufactured performance engines and the tuning and what not? Seems like all that goes into a high performance engine would increase that to double or tripple the price because of tuning the computer and replacing all of the sensors, etc...

Curious for opinions.

// ORIGINAL
Hey guys!!! been a while since I've been around. Been super-busy working and going to GMU for an IT security degree.

The point is... MY VETTE ASPLODE!

I was driving home from work (5 mile drive) at 10:30 PM tonight and when I got close to my house the car was about heated up, 183 degrees for the oil, didn't see coolant at the time. The sound had changed while I was listening to music. Somewhere along the way, the exhaust got grittier and sounded strange. The motor was a bit sluggish, but the sluggishness went away after a few seconds.

I got a craving for a bit of food after being home for a while so at around 11:30, I got in the 'vette, turned the key... nothing. I checked the battery, 12.2... fine... I hit the key again and held it for a second, the car popped to life coughing out a horrible cloud of smoke. Smelled sweet... like coolant.

I turned it off, looked under the car and saw a growing puddle of (edit)GREEN**(/edit) fluid... YAY!

Now I'm pissed and when the car is cold tomorrow, I'm going to look over all the cold fluid levels and see what the hell happened to it.

Any advice or help would be fantastic.

** low light, i initially thought it was red but it was definitely green.

 

Do you use DexCool coolant? If so, that would explain the red fluid and the smoke/sweet smell...

 

I haven't been able to get up under my 'vette yet, and from the looks of things, most of the puddles from the coolant have evaporated...

Here are a couple of pictures.


Oil level is way above where it's supposed to be... still smelled like oil.


Coolant a bit low...

 

Judging from the pics the OP just posted, the coolant looks green (???) hmmm...

 

Ouch.. NOt good... I thought your dad sold the car.

 

time for a compression check, sounds like it might have popped a head gasket.

sorry to hear that, hope it's nothing serious, coolant looks ok and oil doesn't appear milky, but it's higher than it should be.

I'd drain the oil and have a look.

 

Well if you have a puddle growing under the car, find out what the heck it is.

If your car is an automatic, ATF is generally reddish also. Does the fluid feel like an oil? Or watery? From where on the car is the puddle forming? Near the front? Back towards the middle? Way back? If it evaporated, it probably wasn't an oil, though it could get soaked into concrete I suppose.

Your oil looks way too high to me, but it's your car, you'd know better than me on reading it. Maybe it didn't come that high on the backside. But in the picture, it's well above the hashmarks for acceptable range, I'd guess .5-1 quart overfilled, though it doesn't necessarily fill linearly once it's overfull, it may take several quarts to move it up that much, or hardly any.

Anyway, your description of events doesn't sound very promising, but who knows, maybe it'll end up being some little thing that is easily fixed.

 

Never was my dad's car. He likes Dodge Neons...

I was thinking about selling it a while back, but I just love driving it too much.

The coolant has always been green. I'm 90% sure that the leaking fluid was coolant... The puddles were forming near the front, but dripping back down the exhaust pipes. The engine felt weird too. I'm debating about limping the car over to Curry's or having it towed.

If the car is just low on coolant, it can survive the short drive in the cold weather... if the oil isn't lubricating the engine anymore for some reason, I don't really want to try it.


I almost forgot to mention that the car was leaking after it was running but the leaking stopped within a minute or so of turning the car off.

 

Sounds like a hose to me....

Whats ASPLODE?

 

Eating too much Mexican food will usually lead to an Asplosion.

MD

 

same thing, leaking fluid and making gas... people do it after mexican food...

I had it towed to Curry's so i'll let everyone know how it goes.

 

I modified the point of the thread rather than starting a new one...

 

Spending $8,000 and ending up with a stock 300hp motor seems not so great to me... For collectibility if the LT1 ever takes off, it still won't be the original motor. So why not either spend less and have yours fixed, or spend less/the same/slightly more and get a lot more power.

If the day ever comes that '95 vettes are commanding premo dollars, you could still always toss in a stock LT1, but at least you'd have had more power/fun in the meantime.

Anyway, just my opinion. It's your car, so it's your opinion that counts.

 

I personally agree with Aurora. Take the motor to someone to have it rebuilt. For $8K, you could probably have it rebuilt with better heads, throw a good cam in there, maybe have it bored +.030. That would give you a good set-up for a lot of other mods. Just be sure to shop around on prices before you do anything, though. I went to a guy that lives down the street from me and he owns his own shop *cough* Absolute Auto Care *cough* and I thought that because I knew him he would give me a good/reasonable price. I was way wrong. I found out afterwards that he (not being a specialist) charged me about $2000 more than a lot of other places that deal mainly with Corvettes would have charged me. Just my $0.02

I hope that helps and best of luck to you!

Matt