engine woes

[GHOUSE78]

first off i would like to say, wow what a great site
im getting ready to buy my first GN and am still learning so much

here is where things get ugly
the GN im looking to buy is a friends, and he had put $5000 into the engine and forgot to put something all the way in when he put the motor back together (not sure what it was) it came out when he cranked it the first time, and pretty much destroyed it, but he says it only needs a cam kit, gaskets and valves.
so here is the delema, i dont know that much about engines to physically put it back to together (being i buy all the parts needed first, which i dont even have a clue how much that is), so do i just buy the parts need to put it back together and take it to a machine shop to put it back together OR just buy a new remanufactured engine from somewhere advance, autozone, or grooms and drop that in there.

Now i might end up for the time being just buying the car w/tranny but w/o motor and droping in new reman. motor and buying the orig. motor later down the road, but where do i get a descent motor for not to much $$$.
guess i should add i just bought a new home so im on a tight budget.
thanks in advace.....sorry so long
George

 

[CHARGED]

Expect to pay around 4k for a rebuilt engine and no you just can't go to autozone for a reman. GN engine
How did he pay 5k for an engine just to ruin it on the first startup

 

[325DR]

Dude you cant buy one of these motors from the parts store. Maybe you should do some research on these cars before you think about buying one...

 

[GHOUSE78]

well i called around, and u actually can get a reman. engine for a gn for about $1400 (long block) at autozone and $2350-2850 at grooms engine

he actually spent that much just in machining it and parts

 

[325DR]

Like I said, do some research before you buy this car....

 

[GHOUSE78]

ummm the research is already been done.
i knew u could buy them before i even posted
so, what research do i need to do?
granted i dont know everything about gn's and their motors in full detail, but i have a good idea

so does anyone know where i can get a quality long block for a good price?

 

[CHARGED]

Jack Merkel
Not really close to you but what you should expect price wise.

 

[GHOUSE78]

thanks for the link man
i was also looking here , i think they are pretty reasonable, if memory serves me right, level 1 is @$1800 & level 2 @$2300
of course i just found out that if i go w/o the motor he wants the trans too, so i need to find me a new rebuilt 2004r i guess

 

[BlackBandit]

GHOUSE78. I think what AintGoinSlo is trying to say is that even though stores like autoslime say that they can get a turbo motor, it's not nessecarily true. I mean, they might sell you one, but it might not, for instance, have good pistons or, more importantly, the right crank among other things. Another thing to think about is that if you buy a reman engine you are going to have to pay for the core if you don't have one to give them. I think autozone only charges a couple hundred bucks for core, but that just tells me they may not have the right parts in the motor, as parts like the crank can be very hard to find. If I was you I'd do some serious research about these cars in general. Go to a local track or a car show and talk to some people about there cars. I know that unless I'm haveing a bad day I'm always happy to tell someone about my car. Also, unless you knew the car before the engine incident, there may be other things wrong that you won't find out about until after the engine is running again. Do allot of shopping around and read up about them. Don't know if you've been there but there is a whole bunch of good info at www.gnttype.org. In fact, if you look under resources there is a buyers guide. Sorry this is so long. If anyone disagrees with me feel free to let me know. Good luck man!

 

[1QUICK85]

That is some really good advice from BlackBandit!!! I wish I would have taken a little more time on buying mine, but I am happy with my decision..........but if I had to do it all over agian.......i would find a bench seat turbo t that looks just ugly as all hell..........and then go blow my buddy's mustang out of the water seriously i love the look of the GN....and how everyone krings at the stop lights.....ask as many questions as you can man these guys that really know their poop dont mind answering them at all.........cause i bother them all the time........

Have you checked out the cars for sale on the board at all?
What does he want for it without the engine and tranny?
Nick

 

[GHOUSE78]

i have been intrested in GN since my late teens, granted im only 25 now, but i know personally 3 people that have or had GN's, all of which are mechanic's, this includes the guy that has the GN for sale now. But still am learning so much on a daily basis, mainly from these forums, i am trying to read every single one, and grasping what all is going on, almost seems it would be a lot less of a headache if GN's had a distributer, seeing alot of engine prob's cause of the that.

I did talk to him last night and he told me i could have the gn w/o engine & trans for @$2k, which depending on how easily i can find a used engine/trans may be an ok deal, but im not sure, what do yall think?
I will talk to my cousin in PA tonight and ask him to start looking up there, cause he does engine swaps for people on a daily basis, so prob can find me a deal.
Again thanks for the input guys, its much appreciated

 

[onefastjackass]

How much is the guy asking with the engine And what exactly is wrong with it????How many miles on the car??What year??What kinda condition??

Also if you do decide to buy do more research like know what rearend to look for to make sure it has the correct one.Does it have the correct tranny?Is it a real GN not a clone.

Also I have yet to see a turbo buick engine that was built correctly go for less then $3000 rebuilt.And once again the word is correctly.

I would try and buy it with the engine if it was a good deal just so I have all the parts I need to go on the other one and don't have to hunt for them. Kevin

 

[onefastjackass]

Just noticed the transmissions didn't come with it. The trans one these cars are high dollar unless you switch over to a different style with no overdrive.

Or find the correct one in a yard and the guy doesn't know what he has.

For 2K you would be better off buying one complete and spending 7k to 13k and getting a sweet one then paying 2k and having 7-13 in it anyways along with all the hassels.

 

[BlackBandit]

I agree with onefastjackass on this one. I paid $7500 for my 87. Two years later I've pretty much got the mechanical bugs worked out on it and I've now paid about $12000 for it. If I would have spent the money up front I would probably have better car. Of course, I wouldn't know as much about my car.

 

[GHOUSE78]

yeah this seems to be the great debate with me
should i dumb a butt load of money into a new engine and trans so i know i dont have any probs (which still may not be true), as opposed to finding a used engine and tranny, dropping it in and debugging it for the next 2 or 3 or 4 years
bah...waiting for a call in the next couple of days to see if my cousin finds me a engine/tranny at a reasonable price.
if he can't find me one, then im definately forgetting all about this car, and will wait another year or so to save some serious doe to throw into 1.
thanks for all the input