I mentioned this in the Mazda thread but I'm at it again. This tome the Doctor I do the majority of my work for spun a bearing in his car. After letting me use his garage to swap the engine in my Mazda, he now has a better grasp of how much I can gd when it comes to working on cars. Funny thing is once I changed the engine in our Mazda his wife and I were chatting about if they ever needed something like that done again it is something I can do. So about a week and a half ago he texts me asking if I think I'd be able to swap the engine in his Malibu because he spun a bearing. I told him I could so he asked me to look into a engine and get him an estimate on how much I think it will cost to get everything needed for it. He had called around for an engine and the lowest he found was $2300. I found a 22k engine for just under $800 with shipping. I told him that was no big deal though because I could get the other engine out while it's replacement is on it's way here. So in total, between my time the engine and the parts needed it all added up to less than the $2300 he had been able to find for just the engine. He told me to order up the engine and start on it soon as I could.

I pulled the engine out.


Stuck it up on the stand and stripped off what I'd need.


Replacement showed up today. I started stripping off the wiring harness and other things on the engine I wouldn't need.


Hit a minor snag. Either the engine is slightly newer or it's the California version because his didn't have this.


His head.


Head on replacement engine.


His engine doesn't have the EGR valve or ports.

That's where I am at right now. Tomorrow his old engine comes off the stand and the replacement goes up. Then I will start reattaching what I can before dropping the engine in and also making 2 EGR delete plates since his engine doesn't have the EGR.

I'm hoping to have the engine bolted back into the car tomorrow and to get everything else finished up on Friday. If I'm not done by Friday evening, I'll try to get back up there on Sunday to finish so he can have his car back on Monday. Right now he's driving their Yukon but he hates driving it.

As I'm doing the engine change on his car I'm also back and forth on the lot across from his home where the foundation crew is getting the footings and foundation walls poured so I can start back filling for the slabs. His car, his house, his daughters house across the road... By "majority of my work for" I mean 90% of the jobs I do are for him or through him. And the house across the street, it's not a small one.





Had a minor issue yesterday when 1 of the forms blew out at the bottom of a 16' high wall.



I'll update with pics of the EGR delete and engine back in when I get there. I'll also pull the pan off the old engine at some point and see if I can find which bearing spun. Maybe I'll get lucky and the journal on the crank will still be in tolerance and round. If so, I might re-bearing it and? It's a 2.4 L Ecotec so I suppose at worst if I ever get a Fiero again I'll have a engine I could swap in.

[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 10-28-2015).]

It looks like you're a very busy guy. How many miles are on the Malibu?

The Malibu had 108k on it when the bearing spun. From what his wife told me it still ran so we started it to move from one garage into the other where I'm working on it at. It had a pretty loud but not super bad knock going so maybe the crank is okay but I doubt it. When I pulled the oil filter element out, it's one with the plastic cap you remove and just replace the element in, I did find babbit/copper/bronze flakes in the oil. I also found 2 approx. 1/4" plastic threaded rods about 1/2" long in the filter housing. I'm not sure where those came from but maybe they blocked the oil passage and caused a little oil starvation? That's my guess as to how it happened.

I did get the EGR port plates made today and the engine back into the car although I forgot to snap a pic of it back in. I did get pics of the EGR plates. I started with some metal stock and a honing stone. I used oil and honed a length of bar to make sure the side going against the head was nice and flat. The I spray painted over a cut off from the old gasket for bolt locations and shape. Cut Drilled the holes with a colbalt drill and cut them out with a cutting wheel. After that I ground down to the final shape and debured them. I hope they are think enough ( 5/16" thick steel ). I thought about using aluminum but figured steel would be better.

Beginning.



Test fit.



And installed before I put the engine in it's new home.



I kept the exhaust manifold off while setting the engine in the bay. It made for a lot easier insertion of the engine and isn't to hard to get to when the engine is in.

Yeah, busy seems to be the order lately but then it usually is each Fall. Trying to get things done before snow gets on the ground so there is work that can be done when snow is on the ground. If we can get the back fill done, slab poured and framing including roof joists up before the weather gets to bad then winter work will be prominent. Siding and roofing plywood will be harder with snow but not undoable and then once they are on, interior work becomes cold but plenty. Still we are planning a 12 day vacation in February to go back to California and visit our families so that's some time I won't have to fill with jobs during the winter.

[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 10-29-2015).]

quote Originally posted by Khw: I also found 2 approx. 1/4" plastic threaded rods about 1/2" long in the filter housing. I'm not sure where those came from...

That's weird. Get a picture of them? It would be interesting to hear from someone familiar with these engines, and what they might think the story is.

I wish I would have taken a picture of them. I looked for them but couldn't find them. I imagine I tossed them in the trash but I'll give it another look tomorrow when I'm up there again. The were literally just 2 roughly 1/2" long and 1/4" in diameter pieces of round plastic that had been flattened off on opposing side with groves on the diameter that looked like threads. They might have been off of one of those plastic push in fasteners. I cut one in half with some dikes because I wanted to be certain if they were metal or plastic. Still, I have no idea how they got in there although I suppose a "disgruntled employee" at the dealer who changed the oil on it last might have tossed them in there. /shrug, really not sure.

I got it mostly done in this pic.



I still had the accessory belt to put on and then the air cleaner housing/engine cover. Disconnected the injectors and cycled the engine for about 10 seconds to prime the oil pump. Connected up the injectors and it fired right up. Took it on a test drive and it ran great. The owner came home as I was about to leave so he jumped in and went for a drive. He had been driving his Yukon but he hates driving it and wanted his car back.

I left and about 20-30 minutes later realized I forgot to hook the windshield washer fluid nozzle on the hood of the car back up. So I texted the owner and told him I'll get it in the morning when I'm back up there.

To top it off, Friday the car their son has been driving (06 Kia Optima) apparently was making a terrible sound when they started it that Morning so she wanted me to check it before I left. UHG! Rod knock on the first cylinder... I'm going to pull the oil pan and mic the crank journal for that rod tomorrow. They weren't planning to keep that car, it was just being used by their son while he looked for something to replace the Volvo he had and sold. The Kia was their other sons car, the one who passed away from a motorcycle accident a couple months back. It is in semi rough shape so they were just going to sell it to help cover some of the cost for his funeral and such. If the journal is still round I'll re-bearing the rods. Otherwise they will probably just scrap it. It's just not worth the money to change the engine in it.

After that, they got the forms pulled so I can start putting in the french drain piping around the house along with the rain gutter pipes. After that cover them with gravel and start back filling .

Busy, busy man! Keep posting up pictures (although I don't know where you find the time to take them)?

And yesterday I get a text. The transmission won't go any higher than 2nd gear... I pulled the codes and what I found said to try a trans flush and if that doesn't work it's repair or replace time. So they had a flush done on it and it didn't change anything. So he asked if I could get a trans like I did the engine and swap it out. That brought up more difficulty than I thought.

I started looking for a trans and 08-10 models were mostly 4 spd autos but this one had a 6 spd auto. 11-12 the 4 spd was dropped and all were 6 spd. 08-12 were all the 7th gen Malibu. Problem is I can find 08-10 4 spd trans all day long OR 11-12 6 spd but I have only managed to locate one! 08-10 6 spd. The page I found the 11-12's on had a "check compatibility" thing and shows "not compatible" with the 09. But it doesn't give me the option to select a 6 spd for 09 so I assume it thinks I'm looking about a 4 spd. I do some more checking and the 6 spd was RPO code MH8 for all years 08-12 and that's what this car has. However, the 08-10 has paddle shift for "M" mode while in 11 and 12 they dropped the paddles and have a rocker in the stick for shift in "M" mode. I don't know if that makes the 2 transmissions different or not in any way and I have searched and haven't been able to find anything that gives me any kind of answer yes or no except the "check compatibility" that doesn't allow me to specify 6 spd.

UGH!!!

I have heard of G6 owners retrofitting the Tap Shift with paddles. It's all done with different resistors for up or down, so I'll bet the tranny is the same. If there is any difference, I believe it is likely to be in the TCM, BCM and/or wiring.
Just an opinion. Please don't take it as the last word.

Go here and have a look. They even have a Malibu section.
http://www.g6performance.com/forum/forum.php

Here's a thread about adding paddles to a tapshift car. It appears to be all just wiring.
http://www.g6performance.co...owthread.php?t=26337

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 01-26-2016).]

Bummer about the trans. I really like that vintage of Malibu and vastly prefer it over the newer, bloated-looking ones.

Nice foundation pics. I used to test the soils at footing grade to make sure its suitable for the 3000 PSF (or whatever) required bearing so your house doesn't settle. Just looking at the photos, I can smell the green concrete and the form-release oil! Brings back memories.

Thanks Raydar! I will check those forums out and see if I find any info directly about the different year 2 speeds there. I joined a Malibu forum so I could search there but didn't find anything. I figured I'd post a thread in the tech section and see what they say. I've gotten one response that says to get one of the 11-12 transmissions because they have the upgraded wave plate in the 3-5-R clutch pack. From what he said they are the same trans as the trans doesn't care if it gets the signal from the paddle or the tap shift to change gears. Hoping he's right because if I don't find anything saying he's wrong and the seller of the trans doesn't get back to me on the compatibility question, I'll probably go ahead and order it.

css9450, I've got some more current pictures of the house I just haven't had time to take them off my phone and load them to my photobucket. We had the suspended slabs poured last week so now we are working on the walls for the upper garage and the rest of the second floor living area.

It's been a year but... He had me pull the engine and trans out. I've never tore down an automatic transmission and told him I wasn't confident enough that I could do it with someone else's money at risk. His brother in-law has done that kind of thing so they sent the trans home with him to crack open the case and repair it. A year later he tells them that cost and time to repair it they might as well get a "new" one from GM for the 2 grand price tag. They went ahead and sprung for the GM trans. A week ago he dropped it off up at their house and I've been going up when I can to get it back in the car. I mean, the engine was on my stand and all so...

I got it all back in and buttoned up today but I have a bit of a hang-up. Car starts and runs great again however it keeps throwing codes and the trans isn't responding like it's supposed to. The codes boil down as best I can tell to the TCM not communicating with the ECM and vice versa. I do some checking around and run across a couple of sources saying that the TCM in the new trans needs to be programmed with a GM Tech 2 scan tool for the VIN of the car it's in otherwise the ECM and TCM won't connect with each other. Has anyone ran into this kind of thing before? It's a Ecotec 2.4lL with 6 spd automatic trans. I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to have it towed to a shop that can do that for them.

For fun, since I haven't posted any in awhile, here's a few pic's of some of the landscaping I did over the summer around the house up there. I've been working on that while they had a few crews come through and get it to drywall.








And a view from the back yard.

[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 12-31-2016).]

Are you expecting mortar fire? Heh heh... looks good.

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Are you expecting mortar fire? Heh heh... looks good.

Thank you Patrick .

Well, a bit over a week of calling the Chevy dealer where the transmission was purchased and the service center hadn't returned any of my calls. I guess if you put the trans in yourself the service center doesn't want anything to do with it? Ridiculous really to sell a trans that requires programming to the vehicles vin and not tell the customer it will need to be done. But then to top that and not be bothered to return calls to get it done? I guess it's a "Here is you $2000.00 paper weight" thing. Luckily the Richard, the guy who sold the part was able to confirm the need to program the trans to the vehicles vin. He also owns his own tech 2 scanner and is coming to the owners home tomorrow to program it. I liked our 02 Bonneville a lot but after this, I don't know if I would ever want to buy another GM vehicle. It's not bad enough that the trans doesn't have a dip stick so you can't check the fluid level but then to require programming just to get different parts to talk to each other? I see on this car the progression towards making it more and more difficult/expensive for owners to do their own maintenance and repairs. /sigh