Lost an engine, rebuild, replace, scrap?

[slo town]

Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3

I can't help but think RUN. Better yet, drive, to the nearest Car Max for a buyout offer, or to a car lot to trade it in while it still runs and has some value.
.


And pass on a high probability engine failure to someone else and let Car Max take the heat. Nice.


Carmax ain't going to retail that thing. They'll offer him maybe $1,500 and flip it at the auction for $2,800.

How does that make it right?

Scott

 

[eljefino]

Buy one of these from up north that's rusted out and won't pass inspection, then you have the motor and a whole basket of spare parts. Naturally, loctite the bad screws. You should be able to figure out how they get these together at the factory (engine, trans, subframe, struts, rack, exhaust) and drop the whole shebang and move it over.

Seems like you know these cars more than most and have 80% bullet-proofed the one you've got. I think if you'll wait and keep your head low to the ground, you'll find another one you like, or more options than you've currently considered.

 

[atikovi]

Didn't say it makes it right, just saying how it would go down.

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3

I can't help but think RUN. Better yet, drive, to the nearest Car Max for a buyout offer, or to a car lot to trade it in while it still runs and has some value.
.


And pass on a high probability engine failure to someone else and let Car Max take the heat. Nice.


So people should only sell or trade in perfectly functional vehicles with no issues? Really?

 

[Linctex]

Originally Posted by javacontour
Drive it the way it is.

As long as it passes emissions and isn't guzzling oil, drive it until it doesn't drive.


^^ THIS ^^ 100%

It will be fine, the screw is down in the catalytic converter now.

If it runs good, just keep going.

 

[csandste]

Originally Posted by rooflessVW
New screws with loctite (high temp) and drive on.

Deal with a dead engine when you have a dead engine. Yours just got a little hungry, and seems satisfied for now.


This-- worth a tube of Locktite it it's easy to apply-- drive it til it drops.

 

[bullwinkle]

This might be a long shot, but was this model available in Japan? Any chance of a (to us) low mileage used engine from Japan from an Infiniti or Nissan that had to be retired early?

 

[atikovi]

Originally Posted by CBR.worm
Get a Junkyard motor - these seem to be around $2-$2.5K for 100K engines. In general, these engines have a history of throwing rods if they are not maintained perfectly. I would figure another $1,500 for refresh parts and install help.


Or get a running salvage car from Copart for less than that.

 

[slo town]

Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3

I can't help but think RUN. Better yet, drive, to the nearest Car Max for a buyout offer, or to a car lot to trade it in while it still runs and has some value.
.


And pass on a high probability engine failure to someone else and let Car Max take the heat. Nice.


So people should only sell or trade in perfectly functional vehicles with no issues? Really?

Not at all, but so long as you disclose the fact that the motor swallowed some small metal screws, it's all good. Karma can be hard on a person.

If it were my vehicle I'd drive it until it quit. Given the high mileage it's near end of life anyway. When it stops running donate the carcass to charity.

Scott

 

[CT8]

$23,000.00 for ten years ? $2,300 per year. Go from there . Only you can decide what you want to do. you certainly have covered all the basses. If it runs good. Run it until it dies, what is the blue book value now?

 

[Cujet]

Just an FYI, modest damage to the piston crown surface and cylinder head surface will not affect the engine one bit.

The problem comes in when piston damage is severe enough to crack or distort the piston then stick a ring or cause aluminum chunks to break off.

We've had high HP race engines ingest all sorts of track debris and cause all manner of surface distortions, without any affect on HP or reliability. Entire seasons were raced with some pretty rough looking components.

HOWEVER the screw, if steel, is probably stuck on the catalytic converter and there may be some possibility of it finding it's way back into the engine.

 

[DuckRyder]

I'd put it back together with lock tite on all the screws and drive it as long as it has decent compression on that cylinder.

Typically the ends of such screws are swaged so that they are captive... ?

Past that, it is a personal decision but I'd always prefer my used car (the devil you know) vs someone elses.

 

[mattd]

Compression test and leakdown test (leakdown if necessary) the affected cylinder(s) and if they are spec run it IMO

 

[The Critic]

You took good care of that car. Sorry to see this happen.

Ironically, I experienced a similar predicament on my car at the exact same mileage - 185K. I would proceed with a compression test and a leakdown test as MattD recommends. If needed, I would overhaul the existing engine and keep driving the car.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I would use engine replacement as a last resort. My experience with a couple cars I've had engines replaced is that future reliability suffers greatly. Exhaust leaks, coolant leaks, oil leaks, random issues that may or may not be replaced to engine replacement; heck it could have just been bad luck in my case.

Just know that replacing an engine is a major job and there are LOTS of opportunities for screw-ups such as: forgetting a bolt, not tightening a hose clamp enough or too much, under/over-torquing bolts, gasket issues, the list goes on and on.

If there's anyway you can continue to use the car and get every ounce of life you can out of the engine, I would do just that. If the engine is truly trashed, my vote would be trade-in, especially if you can pass the trade-in appraisal without any red flags/evidence of trashed engine. Sure, not the most ethical thing to do, but I don't mind screwing a dealership over (I have family in the car business and am uniquely familiar with just what lengths they go to screw customers over). I wouldn't hide things in a private sale.

 

[AZjeff]

Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by FlyNavyP3

I can't help but think RUN. Better yet, drive, to the nearest Car Max for a buyout offer, or to a car lot to trade it in while it still runs and has some value.
.


And pass on a high probability engine failure to someone else and let Car Max take the heat. Nice.


So people should only sell or trade in perfectly functional vehicles with no issues? Really?


People sell or trade vehicles with issues every day. Honest people disclose them not pass them on.

And I'd loctite all the screws and drive it locally monitoring engine health until confident either there is definitely a problem or there isn't. So you either drive on pre FOD event or do whatever plan B you've picked.

 

[CBR.worm]

I plan to do a compression test tomorrow. It occurred to me that the screws may be sitting on, and possibly chewing into, the cats that are ~6 inches from the head. It had not occurred to me that they may come back in for another go round - maybe this is the second trip already. I noticed some divots and dings that didn't look fresh. Maybe I should pull the manifold off and see if the screw is still there if it has burrowed into the material - possibly causing the material to go into the chambers as well.

Anywhere I would take it, be it a scrap yard or craigslist, I would disclose that it had eaten two steel screws and that IMO the engine needs to be repaired.

I will say that I am disappointed that something so small is an issue. I can't really complain after all the miles, but it would have been much more interesting to actually wear something out instead of rogue screws.

 

[Dinoburner]

From the pics it appears that the butterfly valve rests below the shaft if so retrieve it and replace with new screws with locktite. If the engine idles smoothly and has normal power then run it until something else fails. Look at it this way, it is an awesome beater.

 

[CBR.worm]

Originally Posted by bullwinkle
This might be a long shot, but was this model available in Japan? Any chance of a (to us) low mileage used engine from Japan from an Infiniti or Nissan that had to be retired early?


So, this is something I looked into. There are similar engines (with transmissions too) available from Japan, but they are not similar enough - same model number but different configuration. Their starter is where my front driveshaft is. There are other differences, but that is the one that is hard to overcome without changing the car to rear wheel drive only.

 

[CBR.worm]

Originally Posted by CT8
$23,000.00 for ten years ? $2,300 per year. Go from there . Only you can decide what you want to do. you certainly have covered all the basses. If it runs good. Run it until it dies, what is the blue book value now?



KBB private party value right now is $5-$8K, assuming it was running. I don't think many people are interested in buying a low volume production car with nearly 200K miles on it. Trade in value is $2,500 - $4,500 - so about $600 if I took it to a dealer.