in about mid August, my son ran his car out of oil. He had told me the light was on and I told him to add oil. Either he did not hear me or understand me or something. He was to have his car inspected on Monday. I was already at the mechanics waiting for him when I heard this awful racket. I thought initially the lifters had collapsed, but silly me I was thinking of a push rod system. His is an overhead cam system where there are no lifters.
So we made arrangements for an oil change and inspection. Well the inspection passed, but the car is leaking oil like crazy. Plus the noise is still there which means he more than likely through a rod bearing. Great. He and I had a discussion and he actually thought that the red light meant to change the oil, not that the oil was low. Oh well live and learn.
So me being who I am, I set out to get him an engine so he could use the vehicle without the noise. I looked online and found a website that will list the engines for his type of car and where it can be purchased. I called the company and prepaid to drive down to pick up the engine in about a week.
When I get there, I get this awful feeling that something is not right. The person taking the engine out is talking way too much to convince me that there is nothing wrong with the engine and only needs a few parts. I took the engine even though every alarm in my head as well as my wife is saying no.
I am on a mission to fix the engine for my son. I get it on an engine stand and immediately notice that the oil pan is damage, probably usable, but damaged. So I replace. I replace the timing belt, water pump, and the list goes on and on. I even replaced the heater core due to me doing something stupid and let me tell you that was a royal pain. It is all these little parts that add up and take time to come in, but I steadily work on it and finally everything is done. So 4 months later the engine is, everything is hooked up in and ready to be started.
I start it with a great deal of difficulty and notice that a ton of smoke is coming out the exhaust. Initially I thought it may have been gray indicating that it is too lean, but it also looks a little white. The more I look at it, the more it looks white and I am thinking that is not good. Then I start to hear some funny noises in the radiator overflow tank. I look in the overflow and see a lot of bubbles My first thought was Nooooooooooooooo, the head gasket is blown.
I turn off the car, played with a few things, then try to restart. That is a fail and now on top of that the radiator overflow is making this high pitch noise. So I take out all the spark plugs and decide to do a compression test on each cylinder. The first and last cylinder are at the minimum value and the middle two are about 45psi under the minimum. Plus you can see steam coming out of the middle two ports as the engine is being turned over for the compression test. I will do a few other things to check the rings, etc, but I am being lead to believe the head gasket is blown.
When i purchased this engine, the person told me that it was a working engine in good condition. I guess my definition and theirs for a good condition working engine are not the same. I will be calling them tomorrow to tell them what has happened and they really need to be completely honest with their customers up front. I will almost guarantee that they knew what condition this engine was in before I bought it and lied. Do I know this for 100% fact, no, but the way the guy was acting that day really leads me to believe he and the other knew.
So now, my son is still without a car and I have to remove the upper end of the engine, check it for flatness and replace all this crap. I am just praying that the head is not warped otherwise I will have to decide to either send it out for surfacing or just replace the head.
I was a bit upset, but not like I would have been in the past. I actually kept my cool, did not curse like I would have, and immediately came in to confirm my suspicions from others by researching the issue on the internet.
God is good all the time and all the time God is good. I am thankful that God has given me an engineering mind with the ability to quickly diagnose issues and just as importantly, the ability to fix those issues.
Please be in prayer for me as I have to take apart about 50% of the work that I have already done and that everything goes smoothly. I know there is a reason that my son has been without a car for so long and I am thankful that the Lord has put the obstacles in our way.
May God bless you.