I finally found a motor for my GT. It's from a '95 Deville, 78,000 miles, 160 psi compression on all eight cylinders (according to the yard where I bought it), no harness, ecm, starter, or alternator. I paid $500 and it comes with a 12 month/12,000 mile warranty. During a careful visual inspection of it in my garage, I found the suspected leak on cylinder #3 after I removed the exhaust manifolds (which came off REAL easy and had no gaskets under them). Is this a concern? Should I return it or ask for a reduced price since I might have to have the heads rebuilt?

Here's what the engine looked like as I bought it.

I would make them aware of the problem from now just in case also get the warranty in writing and $500 is a little too much for all those things that is missing,tell them you are going to return the engine because you found another engine with everything for $400 they will either give you a discount or the parts.

Check to see that the valve guide rubber seal is seated in the machined spot where its supposed to sit. I had the same thing with my engine and it only had 64k miles. I rebuilt the heads cause i was courious about the condition of the cylinders and pull em to see, so while i had em off i redid them. But the seal had popped off the guide and was just floating around on the valve stem. You could prolly push it back on with a flat screw driver if your careful.

Ohh yeah, no mine didnt have exhaust manifold gaskets either.

(edited cause i left out something heh)

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'85 SE v6 auto (daily driver)

'85 GT auto (second owner, low miles)

'88 Red SE (4.9 PFI, 4T60E 4speed O/D trans, Custom cradle) Engine installed! Fastback conversion begins.....the fun just keeps multiplying! (As the bank account shrinks) And no its not a carb under the air cleaner!!!

[This message has been edited by LoKey88 (edited 11-23-2002).]

My 4.9 didn't have manifold gaskets either,
and this engine had never been touched.
I put gaskets on because i felt it would be
the best, i don't know if they are supposed to come with gaskets or not, but Autozone sells them.
Ed

PS. Very nice/clean engine you got

Thanks for the quick responses, I'm definitely going to stop by the yard on Monday and probably take a better picture to give them as well. Since I still have to swap the valve covers around (that's what you do right?) I will see about reseating the valve guide seal.

Bear with me though as I have too many questions about this project. Fortunately most of the info is within this site and I've been a searching like there's no tomorrow.

Well I called the yard and also emailed the picture of the leak. They said get a quote on the repair and if it's going to cost too much they want the motor back and will return my money (they don't have another one). So I called THE cylinder head repair shop in town and they said "between $150 to $300, or bring in the heads and we'll give you a better estimate." Damn, what to do?

Most head shop will chargeon an average $75 per head but on the 4x series motor they will go 200,000 easily if properly maintained so with your low milage if you are going to change the valve covers around just go ahead and change the valve stem seal on all the valves and that should take care of every thing also put new gaskets on.You don't have to have a shop to do this just insert a air fitting into the spark plug holes and pressurize the cylinder so the valve won't fall in release the retainers and spring and slide the seals off.Then get a bill and give the junkyard and at least get $150- $200 to put in your pocket....good luck.

Called the yard again and they said "Make the call, I'll give you $200 off to make up for the repair or give us back the motor. But if you pull the heads to send them to the shop you've violated the warranty and the motor is yours." Sure wish I had one of those fiber-optic borescopes to look into the spark plug holes so I could do a more thorough inspection.

Dude, take the $200 and run. Run fast.

quote Originally posted by rockcrawl: Dude, take the $200 and run. Run fast.

Yes, take the $$$

Archie

Keep in mind, youll need about $100 in gaskets if you pull the heads. Head gaskets are about $50, intake kit, and valve covers gaskets. ect. Also you gotta be careful pullin the heads not to disturb the floating cylinders or youll have bigger headachs down the road. Cleaning the head gasket surfaces is a pain, its not like a cast iron block. Plus the cost of the heads to be redone if you do that. I would give em the engine back and keep looking.

But pull the valve cover and see that the guide seal just hasnt popped off, would be a free fix if it just came loose.

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'85 SE v6 auto (daily driver)

'85 GT auto (second owner, low miles)

'88 Red SE (4.9 PFI, 4T60E 4speed O/D trans, Custom cradle) Engine installed! Fastback conversion begins.....the fun just keeps multiplying! (As the bank account shrinks) And no its not a carb under the air cleaner!!!

Thanks all for your info and advice, both here and privately. I decided to keep the motor and I did get the $200 back plus tax, which will go nicely towards a Red Oktober flywheel.