paid a guy to put a junkyard engine in my GP...mistake

[tquarter]

I paid this guy to put a 3.1 in my 1990 Grand Prix SE, and it came home with one dog bone, the mounting bracket removed with it,( He was trying to hide it ) Like I wouldn't see anything when I opened the hood. It also has the check engine light on, so it's hard to tell what codes it has. The engine came out of a 92 beretta, so I was wondering if anyone knew if this would cause any trouble with the sensors and the computer communicating. He said the dipstick was in the way and that is why he didn't put the other dog bone on.
A$$ H@LE could have put my dipstick in. GOD!!! He also had the car for 8 Months!! 8 MONTHS!!! The tags expired while he had it for gods sake!!!
This is just me getting it off my chest. I know I am to blame for believing this guy would have it to me by "Next weekend" His dad finally did the work on it, and told me he has had cars setting out there for 2 years or more. So I guess I should consider myself lucky. People Suck.

[Tuner-Extraordinaire]

3.1 was a mistake.

[RamairGTP2]

After a week of not having the car I would have just picked it up or let it go bye bye.

[Odi]

After a week of not having the car I would have just picked it up or let it go bye bye.

this. plus why the **** would u put a 3.1 instead of a 3.4?

[tquarter]

oh man I didn't know I could!!

[bandits grand prix]

or a 3.8

[Pure2sin]

Hopefully you didn't pay him in cash (Cancel the check or cancel the card payment). I would tell him to get it working correctly or you want you money back.

[KeithGTP03]

Him having it for 3 weeks shoulda been a red flag....let alone 8 months.

[brandonl2000]

please tell me you didn't give him the money up front which is why you let him keep it so long??
IF you did that, you should have went over there after 2 weeks or so, set it the hell off, and took x amount of collateral with you (be it a car, flat screen, whatever you can snatch off the wall) until you had your car.

if you didn't give him money up front, you did the right thing.
BUT you should have went over there, still set it off, and demanded he fix it.

and since he brought it to you after 8 months AND it was still not right...
YOU should have set it off yet again and forced him to make it right or give you proper compensation.

NEXT time, do it yourself, pay a professional, or sign a piece of paper that says "yes, i agree to fix said person's car for x amount of dollars by so and so date accurately and correctly." that way, if there's ANY confusion or wrong-doing, just slide that paper by a lawyer.

[dpzelenak]

this. plus why the **** would u put a 3.1 instead of a 3.4?

money, and theres more 3.1's out there 3.4's and on a plus side the 3.1 make a whole 5 more hp then the old 3.4

[OrangeL67]

Damn that sucks. Some people these days will do anything for a dollar. Glad you got it fixed tho

[tquarter]

yip lesson learned. The code was the EGR valve, and I cleaned it up and got it working, and cleared the code. so far no more codes. (fingers crossed.)) This engine hadn't been started in 6 years, so it's still getting the cob webs worked out. It does seem like a strong engine. I think the 92's had 20 more HP than the 90's model 3.1. Not sure on that one though. It is quite a bit peppier than the other engine. (Now that it's in closed loop) Thanks for the tips and advice guys. I love my GP and I think I have found a new home. I have had this car since 1992 and even though it needs paint, I still love it.
OH his dad said he'd paint it for me if I bought the clear and sandpaper, said it would be around 200.00$ since I was so patient. I'd love to jump on that, but then I couldn't drive it for who knows how long!! I told him thanks but no thanks, I just want my car. I gave him a 2001 KIA Rio that ran on 3 cylinders, and the synchronizers were out on 2nd and 3rd gear, for doing the engine work..... He was going to cut the roof off of it and put it on a low mileage Rio he had, that had been rolled. That's another reason I couldn't really complain. Thanks for listening to me RANT !!!

[RadnichGTP]

I do believe the 3.4 from those models had 210 or 215 hp... The TDC LQ1 was the biggest piece in the world though.. you did it right with a 3.1 but you should make him, make the situation right.

[Slick2500]

I do believe the 3.4 from those models had 210 or 215 hp... The TDC LQ1 was the biggest piece in the world though.. you did it right with a 3.1 but you should make him, make the situation right.

True that. My roommate insists that its the best engine in the world, even better than the 3800.

[RadnichGTP]

True that. My roommate insists that its the best engine in the world, even better than the 3800.

Your roommate, needs his head checked out.. lol. There was NO aftermarket for them and i had a 92 SE loaded minus leather. had the tdc in it.. 32k miles spun a rod bearing. Fahck LQ1

[tquarter]

oh man hope this is a good one. so far so good. It does seem like it's peppier than the other engine, even when it was new!!

[BlackGT97]

you guys talking about the dohc 3.4. if not, then i hear that the ohv 3.4 was the same block as the 3.1.

[RareGMFan]

money, and theres more 3.1's out there 3.4's and on a plus side the 3.1 make a whole 5 more hp then the old 3.4

you guys talking about the dohc 3.4. if not, then i hear that the ohv 3.4 was the same block as the 3.1.

I think the 92's had 20 more HP than the 90's model 3.1. Not sure on that one though.

....mmkay, it looks like we need a quick 101 on the 60° V6 motors.

3.1 (LHO) = '88 - '94; 135hp/180tq '88/'89 (only in the 124 Pontiac 6000 STEs with AWD option in '88, all 1376 STEs and a handful of late production w-bodies in '89), 140hp/185tq '90 - '94.

3100 = '94 (some late '93 models as well) - '05; 160hp/185tq through '99 (L82), 170-175hp/190-195tq '00 - '05 (LG8).

3400 (LA1) = '96 - '05; 170-185hp/205tq depending on year/car.

3.4 DOHC (LQ1) = '91 - '97; 200hp (210hp on 5-speeds)/215tq through '95, 215hp/220tq '96/'97.

The '96 & up SPFI 3400 was virtually the same motor as the '94 & up 3100 (not to be confused with the MPFI 3.1 LHO motor), just slightly bored out (with the same stroke), and 1.76" intake valves. All 3100s also got the same 1.76" intake valves from '00 on up, so only the bore was different between them at that point, making the 5-10hp/tq difference. This is why a lot of early 3100 owners swap over to either 3400 or '00 & up 3100 top ends. It will gain you another 10 - 15hp/tq. No, it's not huge, but for what you can pick up those motors for these days...

True that. My roommate insists that its the best engine in the world, even better than the 3800.

Your roommate, needs his head checked out.. lol. There was NO aftermarket for them and i had a 92 SE loaded minus leather. had the tdc in it.. 32k miles spun a rod bearing. Fahck LQ1

It is neither the best engine in the world, nor is it "the biggest piece". Like any motor, it has its good and bad. And considering it is based on the bulletproof work horse 3.1L LHO, spinning a rod at ANY mileage on an LQ1 is not exactly common unless you do something drastic to it, e.g. starve it for oil for a period of time, so I'm not sure what the deal was with your car, but you can't use your one anecdote to judge the lot. Otherwise, Euro on here spun a bearing on his 3800 L36 at just 6x,xxx. Does that make the 3800 a direct competitor with the LQ1 as "the biggest piece"? There's plenty of people on a bunch of Gen I w-body related websites who have 150k miles and well over on their LQ1s. Gus is now just shy of 300k miles on his, and is still on the original moving parts in it. Not bad for such a piece of crap.

As to comparing them to the 3800, they both have their pros and cons. There's no question that, like most DOHC motors, the LQ1 is temperamental, and some of the repairs are a pain in the ass, but if maintained properly (e.g. don't wait for the timing belt to BREAK before replacing it, which is the most frequent cause of death for these motors), there is nothing wrong with them. And people have been using shortcuts to those "really hard" repairs for quite a few years now to DRAMATICALLY cut down on the 4-5 hour dealer procedures.

I also don't see why you'd bring aftermarket into the equation. Aftermarket has nothing to do with how good a motor is. Not everyone wants to tamper with their cars, regardless of whether they're a car fanatic, or not. But if you want to go down that road, remember, if the 3800 hadn't been available with a factory supercharger, NO ONE would give a damn about it's 200 - 210hp n/a ass today. It would be just like how most of you view the 3100 today. Just another "low tech, powerless POS American motor". But it just so happens that GM elected to go the route of forced induction to be competitive with an otherwise typical underpowered motor, and so today, we have thousands of L67 fan boys who think the 3800 is the greatest motor ever built.

While it's convenient to have "off the shelf" aftermarket performance parts easily available, it often leads to a ricer following for that car/motor, because anyone and their mother can suddenly make a "racecar". On the other hand, it takes a serious gear head with some real passion to be willing to put in the time, research and development to create something different from the cookie cutter blueprint norm. For example, n/a vs. n/a, if I had the time and place to mess with it, I'd throw a turbo at an LQ1 before a 3800 in a heartbeat, as they respond better to boost. If you look on 60degreeV6.com, you'll see that there are some people that are throwing down impressive numbers after modding EVEN ON N/A! Adding boost just makes the motor that much more lethal. There's a reason an LQ1 swap is very common in Fieros. Here are some videos/numbers to show you what I mean.


N/A
221whp/218wtq w/custom intake manifold, CAI, balanced and blueprinted engine & Spintech muffler
257whp/230wtq w/primarily head work and tune; still stock intake and cams w/o CAI.


Turbo
417whp/427wtq on 8.7 psi
From someone's sig on 60°: 325 whp 350 lb-ft (1995 Z34 - T04E "60" trim, 42.5 lb/hr injectors, AEM WBO2, FFP UD&DB, 3" exhaust)

And you get the picture. That's just a few examples I came up with really quick through a search. These motors actually had quite a bit of potential for power in them. It's a shame there wasn't more interest in them, because if a handful of people who are doing all the R&D themselves can come up with results like this, you can imagine what companies with a much bigger budget could have come up with.

Anyhow, my point is not to call one motor better than another. I'm just pointing out that there are a lot of misconceptions about the LQ1 out there, and that a little research can go a long way in clearing that up.


BTW, tquarter, where did you find the moron that installed this motor for you? I'm not positive on the dipsticks being different, but IIRC, the j-bodies didn't have those front dog bone mounts, period. Either the dipstick story is true, making him a moron for not just swapping them out, or he didn't realize there were 2 on the w-bodies till he put them on (then tried to cover it up with the pathetic dipstick excuse), making him a mor---you get the picture.

[tquarter]

Well, he worked at this transmission shop beside my house, and needed the top from my '01 Kia Rio, so he offered to do the work for the kia. I did just find out he had hernia surgery during this time, so that would account for some of the time. But not the dog bone incident. You sound VERY knowledgeable, would one dog bone mess up my car in the long run? I know I have lost some torque on takeoff, but I don't hot rod my cars anyway. Just need dependability. Thanks for the reply and information!!

[RareGMFan]

It won't mess it up as far as hurting the motor itself, but it will put added stress on the other mounts (wearing them out quicker), and as you said, you're loosing some of the torque and response.