Alright, so as not to pollute the "What did you do to your boat today" thread, I've decided to take after many great people on this site and start my own thread documenting my experiences.
As an introduction, I am currently an Electrical/Computer Engineering Student Born in North Carolina, now married and studying at UMKC in Missouri (yes, I miss North Carolina, no it wasn't my decision to move). I picked up working on cars after one fateful day at the mechanic where I said "enough is enough" and started binge-watching youtube. It's been a couple of years, and I'm still learning although I've picked up a few tricks here and there.
While I'd love to have infinite money and throw stacks of change at ZZP for expensive modifications, being a broke college student, I have to settle for the junkyard, craigslist, and forums for my parts.
I've become a local inhabitant of my Pick-n-pulls here in Kansas City, and currently do odd jobs and sell things on the side (when I'm not buying stuff for myself!). So, if you ever need parts, just let me know!
The beginning:
I was looking for a project car on craigslist and after passing up dozens of other cars, I came across this grand prix posted for $500. The driver's side door was smashed in, fender was dented as well, and the engine didn't run. It was a 2002 pontiac grand prix gt stock model with only 117,000 miles. One owner vehicle who had every service record and receipt (literally ever) for the car. A little old lady had bought it from the dealer right off their lot after test driving the exact same vehicle (it was the test car) for almost the msrp price! The interior was in good shape, and with the exception of a minor fender bender and the door smashed in, everything was in good shape. Although the owner didn't know it, there was no frame damage from the side impact, and was for the most part, cosmetic.
The battery was almost brand new as were the tires, and I checked all the electronics for function. The speakers all worked but were obviously shot, the radio worked but the back-light bulb was burnt out, and the abs was throwing a speed sensor code and almost every engine code in the book. Apparently the car had an oil leak (typical) and they weren't sure if it ran dry. The engine apparently died on the highway and they couldn't get it to re-start. The engine turned over by hand but was hard to turn, and it did crank, but wouldn't start. compression test showed low for four cylinders and none for 1 and 2. I knew the engine was probably toast. But I hoped for the best and ended up haggling the price down to $200!
Got it home and started tearing into the removal process. Everything went fairly smoothly and I got the engine mounted to a brand new engine stand using my brand new engine hoist!
Turned the engine over and heard....rattling....I cursed loudly, took a deep breath, and opened the pan....
The 1 and 2 connecting rods had shattered and fell through the pan gasket sending shards of metal everywhere!
I was naive and hoped that the block could be saved.... bad choice. Turned out the engine had gotten so hot, it had warped the cam and crank! I spent good money to have them checked along with the heads and block just to find out that the block and heads were cracked in several places....
Not wanting to give up, I went to the junkyard and found a 142,000 engine out of a chevy monte carlo that was wrecked with airbags deployed. I took that as a sign that the engine was good.
Turns out it was! bench compression tests came back good, but I still had qualms of putting a junkyard engine in my new car!
So I did the stupid thing and decided to rebuild it from the block up....
$1500 later and many many hours of labor and waiting for parts to come back from the machine shop, I finally got it back together. To save money, I actually pieced together my own engine kit down to every last gasket and part to save money. I had the heads cleaned, surfaced, magnafluxed, new seats cut, guides checked, valves re-ground, and cleaned again. For the block, I went with 20thou overbore and honed, checked cam and crank and polished, all bearings replaced, also cleaned and magnafluxed, oil passages cleaned, new pipe plugs and coolant plugs, every dimmension checked and rechecked, and replaced every gasket. I did all of the clearance checks, assembly, and dissassembly personally.
This is what the result was:
I spent $40 at pick-n-pull for a new door and fender (unfortunately black in color), and threw them on and tossed the engine in.
After many many days of long labor and cursing that I didn't label all of my bolts better, I finally got everything back together. At 4:00 in the morning after pulling an all-nighter, I filled her up with coolant (green not dexcrap), oil, checked and re-checked everything, primed the fuel and checked the pressure, charged the battery, primed the oil and checked pressure, and finally turned the key for the first time!
I have never been more terrified of anything else in my entire life. It roared to life, coughing and spewing! I performed the break in proceedure all while cursing and sweating. It sounded like a freaking motorcycle (I'd never rebuilt an engine so I had no idea what to expect)! It was spewing smoke and smelled of burning oil. I was certain I had rebuilt something wrong and just wasted all that money, but I kept on. After a few minutes, everything started calming down and falling into line (found out later this was the piston rings starting to seat). Finally the initial start up was over and I passed out.
Later that day, I finally woke and took her out for the first drive! I will never forget that experience. She was chugging along and still smelled like burning oil, but I had done this myself from a collection of youtube and haynes manual with no prior experience!
Got it inspected, and surprise surprise, my "outer tie rod end was loose" and would "cost around $300" to fix. So I told them to hold on for a few minutes. I took my other car, drove to the local advanced auto, picked up a tie rod for $15 (discount code of course) and drove back with some tools. Much to the shock of the manager, I proceeded to change my own outer tie rod right there in NTB's parking lot! The manager came out and stated that he would "call the cops" if I didn't stop. To his surprise, I replied "I'm already half way through, go ahead, call the cops, but I'll be out of here before they ever get here, and you'll loose a customer for life!" As expected he stomped back inside to do nothing. The whole job took less than 20 minutes, and I walked in, threw my keys to the same manager and said "you gonna fail me for anything else?" and he just stammered as every customer and employee stifled back laughs (and some just cracked up!). Needless to say, I passed, and finally got to drive my baby worry free (for now)....
Just as I'm starting to feel good about what I've done, BAM! Code P1811 and it stops shifting into 4th....
to be continued!!! (I'm tired of typing, this has all happened in the past and is dealt with finally)
Originally Posted by SgtMarshal
