The demise of my 3.4L

[meissen]

Ok, little dramatic, but yeah my car is totally on a downward spiral. First the 02 sensors were bad and the cat was bad too, now my car is REALLY EFFED. It's burning tons of gas, so much that there's a little bit of black smoke coming out at idle. It smoothens out once you touch the throttle and bring it up to 1k, but at idle or when coming to a stop it runs REALLY rough. It also hates staying at a consistent speed. Dropped it off at Sean's tonight, guessing it's another sensor is bad. I'm trying to talk my parents into allowing me to take a loan out so I can get what I really want. I'll leave it at that, but hopefully all goes well.

[SS4Matt]

good deal you're getting it all fixed up right! sean won't do ya wrong!

[JoeliusZ28]

tree-atey-tree?

[WMCCjames]

[meissen]

tree-atey-tree?

well, nope, but if my mom just agrees to me getting a loan, it'll have around 325HP stock.

[WMCCjames]

Hey Brian....I have a friend who is selling a complete drop-out LS1/auto with 61K miles on it for $2500...runs strong, just went 13.2@107mph bone stock with headers.

[meissen]

That's about how much they're going for on ebay. Higher mileage ones (There's one on there now for 120k) are going for a little less, around 2200, but then there's shipping on top of that. I need to get my parents to agree to it first, then I need to get my grandma to cosign, and then I can get the loan and have the cash. So, I won't be able to do anything for atleast a few more months.

[WMCCjames]

That's about how much they're going for on ebay. Higher mileage ones (There's one on there now for 120k) are going for a little less, around 2200, but then there's shipping on top of that. I need to get my parents to agree to it first, then I need to get my grandma to cosign, and then I can get the loan and have the cash. So, I won't be able to do anything for atleast a few more months.

That's cool, the guy isn't ready to pull the motor yet anyways, he wants to wait until late winter early spring. It's local the west side so you wouldn't have to deal with shipping and you can deal with the guy face to face and know you aren't getting ripped off. He'll even let you come over and drive the car so you can see for yourself before he pulls it apart. $2500 is a pretty good deal for a motor that's got lots of life left.

[WMCC Gary]

That's cool, the guy isn't ready to pull the motor yet anyways, he wants to wait until late winter early spring. It's local the west side so you wouldn't have to deal with shipping and you can deal with the guy face to face and know you aren't getting ripped off. He'll even let you come over and drive the car so you can see for yourself before he pulls it apart. $2500 is a pretty good deal for a motor that's got lots of life left.

I bet I know who it is.

Brian you should jump on this it would cure you problem. LOL

[thursday12889]

yeah, with all the work you've done to your car it wouldn't be right if you sold it to get an ls1/lt1, or even better a THIRD GEN. It would be awesome if your car had a SBC or ya know...............BBC!!!! With all the work you've put into your car so far, it would be hard to imagine how clean you'd keep a v8 if you had one, or all the mods you'd do to it.

[96mikez28]

good thing it waited till now to take a shit on you!! best of luck man

[Keego Ridah]

dude that sucks! hope everything turns out alright for ya

[phoenix_rising]

I am sorry to hear about Red Alert. I backed off on that LT1. If you want it, its yours! Go for it Brian!

[meissen]

Well, I don't even know how much luck I'll have with getting a loan. My mom's a tough critic. She already gets pissed off when she thinks about how much money I've spent on my car's appearance. Plus, while Angie said she supports me in whatever decision I make, I feel bad taking out 5-6 thousand dollars MORE on a student loan to get my v8, meaning I'll be in even more debt when I get out of school. I told my parents though, 30,000 in debt compared to 36,000 in debt with a car that I'm happy with and don't have to worry about selling... seems like 36,000 is better way to go. This is the hardest point for my mom to agree to, because she doesn't want to see me in more debt when I get out of school.

Also, I told my mom there's no way I could sell my car to get a better running car with a v8. I've dumped so much money into my car, there's no way in hell it would ever be worthwhile to sell it, I'd never get any of that money back. If I sell the car, I'm throwing away tons of money. I think my mom agreed with that point.

If I do get the loan, I figure I can pick up an LS1 and automatic for around 2500-3000 and that'd leave me 2000-2500 to spend on the rear end, engine cradle, suspension upgrades... I'm hoping that's enough. On ebay the engine cradles are about 200-300, rear end is gonna be I figure about 1,000, that still leaves me about 1000 on mandatory suspension upgrades (IE: Whatever suspension upgrades I have to do to support the LS1 compared to the 3.4)

I've been doing a LOT of thinking about it and I'm just damned determined to do it. My mom said if I get the engine put in, I have to drive my car year round. I told her if that's how it's going to be, Fine I'll do it. I'd POR-15 the underbody to make sure it's rust resistant and keep my eye out for a good beater and buy it when winter comes or something.

Wish me luck guys, I'm really trying.

[JoeliusZ28]

making you drive the car if you get a v8 doesnt make much sense to me. also, you can find a rear end for a LOT cheaper than 1k if you look around. derek just picked up a rear out of an SS with ~11k miles on it for $250. as for suspension components that are necessity... pretty much just the front to support weight. there are a lot of v8 guys that switch to v6 rear springs to get better launches.