Motor Rebuild

Well, kind of pissed off and got screwed over today on the Riv I have been putting alot of work into.

Had a guy come test drive it that was interested in the car and he tested to hard and now the car has metal shavings in the oil and a rod knock. There are also what appear to be little metal particales in the oil.

I added a vid as well. Not the best but if you listen carefully at the end you can hear a knock.

So here are the questions

#1. Is it worth rebuilding a motor in a 95 Riv? or better to just cut your losses and sell?

#2. If so whats the best way to go with the rebuild. Are their kits for these motors?

#3. Can I pull the motor without pulling the transmission?



Thanks!

If the car is physically in nice condition, everything works, etc, I'd think finding a running Series 1 to swap would be cheaper/better option than rebuilding. Some guys have swapped to a Series II instead, since it has more parts/performance potential, and can be tuned with a DHP or HP Tuners.

Instead of a rebuild, you could just find a used motor and drop it in there. I know the rods are a different part number but I think an N/A motor would bolt up just fine. Just change the LIM and bolt on your SC. With a stock motor the rods would likely be strong enough, certainly long enough to sell.

Just throwing it out there as an idea.

I've never tried it but there looks to be enough room in there to just pull the engine out the top and leave the trans behind.

That would probably be the cheapest, easiest and quickest route to just find another running motor but it would need to be low milage. I don't see a point in swaping in another 100k motor that could put me in the same spot.

Also there are not many of these buicks around where I live so not sure if I will even be able to find one without shipping it in. I plan to check with Morad on ebay to see what motors he has as well but worse case I would have to do a rebuild.

I added a vid as well. Not the best but if you listen carefully at the end you can hear a knock.

Bushytea wrote:

#3. Can I pull the motor without pulling the transmission?
Thanks!

Yes.

Bushytea: the 3800 motor was used in a LOT of buicks 1994-present - even Regals; also in Pontiacs: Bonnevilles, Grand Prix. That's why people mentioned motor swap. THey are not that hard to find.

Albertj

Yeah, it would probably be easier just have to be careful not to get a weak motor.
There is a 1996 Riv in town but after doing some searching it seems that is more of a pain to swap in than it can be worth.

I suspect what you're looking for is a salvage yard not a used car. Also suspect that once you look at salvage yards you will find many good 3800s for not much $$.

Albertj

Ryan from Ohio just put a 2005 Impala engine with 41k in a 95.

Your best bet is to locate a used medium mile S1 and just swap engines. Not worth a full rebuild.