Bought an 88 with a "blown" motor. Test drove it and it sounded like crap but ran really good so I chanced it. Drove it 80 miles on the highway back home. Blew smoke on the hills and rattled like crazy but made it. Pulled the valve covers, and it had collapsed lifters. thought maybe id get lucky so swapped in new lifters, no that revealed even more noise underneath. But man this car runs nice! idles smooth and drives nice for a 90hp car. Sounds like a bunch of rocks in a dryer, so somethings wrong down deep in the motor, But I let my son drive it today and we both agree. It sounds like a motor that's about to blow, but it drives like a car that I wouldn't hesitate to drive to work everyday. Almost sad to be pulling the motor, to swap in the 3800sc I picked up for it. Almost. lol
Very likely the balancer unit in bottom end is dying. suppose to reduce vibration and is the oil pump w/ direct gearing to the crank shaft.
Even if block goes to scrap... other people may want TBI and other parts. TBI should work 87 to maybe 89-90 VIN R and U engines and DIS brick maybe more years to 91-92.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Like Ogre said, it's probably the engine balancer. The '88 Duke has a balancer assembly which runs off the oil pump. The balancer is notorious for breaking, and taking the oil pump with it. If you keep driving the car, the oil pump will eventually break and seize up the engine.
A common fix for the '88 Duke problem is to swap in an '87 Duke. That gets rid of the problematic balancer assembly. And the '87 Duke is basically a drop-in swap.
Oh we havent been driving it. Been sitting since I got it home. Wanted to show my son what I was talking about when I said the car felt great but sounded terrible. Now that I know about that balancer assembly it makes sense. From a quick google search looks like Ill have to pull the engine to find out.
My guess you find metal pieces in the oil. Brass/steel on oil filter too. So no real point to pull the pan. Can drop engine mount bracket and oil pan in the car but is a pain. bracket bolts hold AC compressor and alternator brackets.
engine replacement or swaps most times means dropping the cradle and everything attach to it. If all is good can do this w/o alignment but likely have to change struts etc so do that at same time then align.
I wish I could say mine was bullet proof. Around 1991 I had a piston ring land failure. Pontiac would not provide any assistance. Then 2 or 3 years later the block cracked. Not sure why. Engine was not overheated or over rev'd.
Originally posted by edfiero: I wish I could say mine was bullet proof. Around 1991 I had a piston ring land failure. Pontiac would not provide any assistance. Then 2 or 3 years later the block cracked. Not sure why. Engine was not overheated or over rev'd.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by edfiero: I wish I could say mine was bullet proof. Around 1991 I had a piston ring land failure. Pontiac would not provide any assistance. Then 2 or 3 years later the block cracked. Not sure why. Engine was not overheated or over rev'd.
84 then dealer should had replace engine under fire recall for a crack block etc. See my Cave, Do You Recall? recalls full text @ http://www.fieronews.net
I had my 88GT first then got an 88 duke auto almost 6 years later. The dukes really are nice driving cars imho, they keep up with traffic fine and when needed you can run them up to 80-90mph. You have to be more defensive and be smart on highway merging and passing but I have grown to like them. I kinda like the loud sewing machine sound at idle and the dramatic cummins-like shutdown when you turn them off.
I had my 88GT first then got an 88 duke auto almost 6 years later. The dukes really are nice driving cars imho, they keep up with traffic fine and when needed you can run them up to 80-90mph. You have to be more defensive and be smart on highway merging and passing but I have grown to like them. I kinda like the loud sewing machine sound at idle and the dramatic cummins-like shutdown when you turn them off.
If and when I decide what I'm doing, if it comes down to rebuilding the duke and putting it back with some basic power helpers.. I am going to coat the valve cover and side covers with bed liner.. I'll bet this knocks down much of the can of marbles ..
