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What to do with partially dismantled engine?

J

jasonbernard

New member
(cros-posted also on 3800pro...)

With much help from this forum, I just did an engine swap on my daughter's 98 Grand Prix GT (normally aspirated).

When I purchased the car, it came with an extra L36 with ~80k miles.

However, the reason why I didn't swap that engine in at the time was because someone removed a main bearing cap and bearing, but didn't mark it. (not me - honest!)
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So now it is an extra engine that I don't know what to do with.

Is there a way to tell how the cap was originally oriented?

Any suggestions on what to do with it? I'd hate to scrap it if it is a good engine.
 


I'm still not 100% sure, but I think if the main bearings have been even unbolted, that can be enough to twist the engine block and turn it into a "200 mile engine" without having a shop machine the entire block...

There's others with better experience, but you could be out of luck.
 
Depends on how much money you are willing to spend on it. The machine shop work would probably be in the 1-1.5K+ range to get it right just for the shortblock and even then it's no guarantee. I'd just strip the entire top end off it and scrap the lower end if it were mine. You can get a low mile motor for under the price of the machine work needed so why bother? Just my .02 though.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Sounds like the responsible thing to do is to scrap the engine.

I'm curious: is block twist something that can be measured?
If so, is there a tolerance specification for this engine?
 


LOL, not that artsy fartsy.

To the scrapyard then.

I don't want this engine to become someone else's problem.

Hopefully this will serve as a lesson to others - don't remove even one bearing cap, it may twist an engine block.
 


l67ss, sorry dude, I started to remove things from this engine, but once I saw the work involved, I backed out.

The journals all look good though.

If you are in the dfw area, and have the tools to do the job, I would be happy to let you come over and remove it.

Wife says she wants her garage back. LOL
 
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