A buddy of mine just got an 86 gn and it has a chip in it and methanol injection in it and he ran it out of alcohol and the motor only has compression in 3 cylinders and smokes alot. I was thinking just a head gasket but some mechanic said 3 pistons were blown. So he took it to the mechanic and he said he was pulling the whole motor out. Do you think the mechanic is screwing him and it is only a gasket? or 3 pistons are out?
Ran out of alcohol
- Thread starter gojoe
- Start date
After they get the motor out, have them remove only the heads and then instruct them to hold off and give your friend a call. Your friend can then go down to the shop and see for himself what the problem actually is. It would be impossible for someone to diagnose a problem like that over the keyboard.
BlackMetal
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2005
Yeah, just have your friend say he wants to be there to inspect the damage. There's no reason you can't come into the shop and look at it, don't let them convince you to stay at home and deal with them solely over the phone.
gojoe said:
Missing compression is due to head gasket, valve, or piston. Typically these motors blow the HG and not pistons, but depends how long he kept his foot into the gas..
There has to be a warning system in place in the vehicle for him to know that the methanol injection is low, car is knocking, etc.. so he can get out of the gas pedal. If not.. this will occur again.
As to what to fix and how to fix before pulling the heads.. that is a judgement call. I dont pull an engine to do head gaskets.. as this sometimes leads to other things.. in other words fix whats broken, and not create a mountain out of a mole hill. Cuase once the engine is out, they are going to find tons of things not rite that will push for a rebuild.
As stated above, have him inspect the damages once apart.. and THEN make the appropriate decision. If the mechanic is not Buick friendly, in other words doesnt work on Buicks.. especially these motors, may want to take extra precautions. If you can fond someone local that owns/works on thses cars.. it would be better.
Blown 3 pistons.. doubt it. If a piston needs replacement.. then cylinder walls, rings, etc need to be addressed as well.
I refered him to a great buick mechanic that knows these cars in and out but he took it to someone else and I dont know what this other guy knows about buicks. He has scanmaster to tell him if the car is knocking, but where can you get a sensor to tell you when your methanol injection is low.
Bobs rare 6
Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2004
Is this guys name Spencer? If so this guys car is coming to my shop. Coming from some other shop in Merriam KS. Later, Bob.
yea he finally got the other mechanic to stop working on the car and i think he is towing it to your house tomorrow. That guy seemed real shady. When i suggested spencer to get racing pistons in it the mechanic looked at me wierd and said just to put 3 stock ones back on. i think he was going to replace the gasket and said it was the pistons.
Bobs rare 6
Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2004
Well, good deal. Dale said the guy didnnt know much on buicks! We can pull his next to mine that has the drivers head off geting a new gasket! Later, Bob.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2001
I heard from the previous owner Jeff H. that the car was taken to Musclecar Specialties and they ( Rusty and Brian ) were going to pull the motor because of having low compression on a few cylinders.
Rusty does good work and i think they were probably going to pull the motor because of fear that some of the pistons could be cracked from running high boost and NO METHANOL!!!!!!
I would pull the pan to look further into what else could be wrong, then again its up to the current owner and Bob to see what all needs to be done.
Bob, once you get the car to your shop and have any questions about how the car is wired up, call me for the previous owners phone number..Jeff is a super nice guy...
gojoe- Sucks that your buddy just purchased the car and already broke it, hopefully it will be back on the road soon
BW
Rusty does good work and i think they were probably going to pull the motor because of fear that some of the pistons could be cracked from running high boost and NO METHANOL!!!!!!
I would pull the pan to look further into what else could be wrong, then again its up to the current owner and Bob to see what all needs to be done.
Bob, once you get the car to your shop and have any questions about how the car is wired up, call me for the previous owners phone number..Jeff is a super nice guy...
gojoe- Sucks that your buddy just purchased the car and already broke it, hopefully it will be back on the road soon
BW
yea I dont know anyone at that shop but they just seemed kinda shady to me, they wanted to pull the motor without even checking the head first which was odd to me. There is one cracked piston and a blown head gasket and i have no idea how spencer is wanting to fix it. it is all up in the air right now. The ****ty thing is that since spenc has had the car it has spent more time in the shop than it has in his garage or on the road.
Bobs rare 6
Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2004
Update; Tore both heads off today. #1 and#3 cyl. headgasket blown into lifter valley. #6 cyl. has a cracked piston!!! So it looks as if the motor will go to Yancy,s. This sucks for Spencer! Looked like car motor had been detonated bad. The piston is major cracked! Later, Bob.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2001
Bobs rare 6 said:
That sucks, guess he blew it up pretty dang good... IF it had a power plate he just might have saved that blown #6 piston huh????? I kept trying to talk Jeff into the power plate but he didnt understand.
That is a lower mileage car, i wonder if it could be honed and slap some stock pistons back into it just like Rusty and Brian said and be done with it instead of a full rebuild?
Your in good hands with Bob and he knows whats best! :biggrin:
Its sad when you hear about this sheit.... I feel sorry for the car
BW
turbov6joe
Signal 1 J-12
- Joined
- May 22, 2002
I can tell you all about breaking pistons from detonation...SUCKS! Especially when they are the rare TTA pistons...thank God a good friend had a set and sold them to me for a song.
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2001
turbov6joe said:
You up?
BW
gojoe said:
I am the one who sold the car to Spencer and referred him to Rusty and Brian after he told me what happened. I can assure you that Muscle Car Specialties is far from shady. If the car needed a piston (I guess they were right and it needs a piston) then that is what they would have done, if the car just needed gaskets then that is what they would have done. I can say this because I know them.
http://www.mofbody.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27983
Ya, they are not the Turbo Buick capital of the world but they have worked on a lot of Turbo Buicks including the car referred to in this post. I knew that they would spend the time and do whatever it took to make the car right again and wouldn’t screw Spencer around in the process. And really, the only reason why I recommended their shop is because I like Spencer, trust them and wanted him to get the car fixed right so he could enjoy it. They were never looking for the work to start with.
As far as the alky kit goes it has a SMC container, pump, line and nozzle. I was using a Hobbs switch to turn on the alcohol at 7 PSI along with a prime switch and LED in side the car. I ran strait methanol with Klotz lube. The chip is a custom Turbo Tweak alcohol chip that Eric changed for me a little bit.
Later
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