GM 2.4 has my vote.....

[brelandt]

as the engine with the WORST water pump remove and replace ever!
Customers car. Pontiac Grand Am. List of what we had to remove to get it out is way too long to list but if you ever have the dis-pleasure of working on one of these engines you know what I mean!

 

[Milkman]

Bad day at Work ??

 

[DoubleWasp]

Try a turbocharged FWD Ecotec, and then get back to me.

 

[AVB]

Was it a Quad 4 with the pump in the back of the timing cover? We had one of those about a month ago.

 

[Lead Shoes]

Lol the twin cam in those 3400lb curb weight cars was a dumb idea...

The 2.4 twin cam in the 5th gen grand am and the 2.3/2.2 Quad 4 HO/LO in the 3rd/4th gen grand am are totally different beasts

 

[NHGUY]

If they were all as easy as the 2.2 Chrysler or big block B/RBs.....

 

[Hokiefyd]

On the flip side, the EASIEST water pump I've ever changed is on a Cadillac Northstar. Those engines have a reputation for being hard to work on, but the converse is mostly true. It takes about 30 minutes to change a Northstar water pump. You do need one special tool, but on the flip side, there's really little bending over, crawling around, etc. You don't even need to remove the serpentine drive belt.

 

[caravanmike]

at least they identified the problem and made the ecotec easier with opposite side timing cover access and a special tool.
all the quad motors i have had in the family have never needed a water pump, thank god!

 

[threeputtpar]

I had that engine in my 96 Sunfire, and did the waterpump myself when it started to leak. Remove the timing chain and everything in front of it just to get the waterpump changed. The thermostat wasn't any picnic to change either. Ended up having to do it a second time because we were one tooth off on the cam sprockt and it would barely run. Somehow lucked out the the pistons didn't hit the valves.

Now, the 2.7t in my Audi makes the GM 2.4 look like a walk in the park. The Audi is the same - remove the entire timing belt system to get to the waterpump and thermo, but only after you remove the front bumper and radiator core support to even make enough room to see the front of the engine.

 

[brelandt]

A co-worker once thought he had a bad head gasket on a 2.4, turns out the seal on the W/P failed and dumped coolant into the timing chain section which is lubed by the engine oil.
Just a dumb engine......

 

[artificialist]

I had to do this job once. I am so glad that the Quad4 is almost extinct. An annoying water pump, an easily stretched timing chain a weak head gasket, badly made distributorless ignition, and the cars they were in weren't great either.

 

[AVB]

A twin cam quad 4 was the first car engine I ever rebuilt, back when I was in tech school. The bad part was someone started a head job on it the quarter before I was assigned to rebuild it, so I had to start with a half disassembled engine and no service manual.

 

[Virtuoso]

Originally Posted By: Brenden
The 2.4 twin cam in the 5th gen grand am and the 2.3/2.2 Quad 4 HO/LO in the 3rd/4th gen grand am are totally different beasts


Not entirely. The 2.4L Twin Cam is a direct descendant of the Quad 4; smoothed over as much as possible, but not as peaky.

I have to do a timing chain on our '99 Malibu with the 2.4L. Wish me luck. Trash the engine all you want, it's been good to us.