I sold my car to a frined and now this is the issue. I want to be able to give him good advice and I think the guys at the Chevy dealer he brought it to are screwing him. The car was running bad so he took it to Chevy. They said that the bolts that hold on the cam and timing chain broke off and blew the engine. The car has 98k on it. Does this sound possible. He has had the car for about a year now and loves it just as much as I still do. Chevy wants to put in a Re-man motor and charge him close to 8k for parts and labor. Is he getting hosed? Thanks

 

For that price he he could rebuild his engine at a speed shop somewhere, and have a nice port job, a little more $$$ and he could have a cammed forged 383.

Tell him to either take it somewhere else for another opinion, or maybe you two can do a compression test.

Actually , a leak down test would be better but, anything is better than forking money over to a dealer right away. That price is absurd. If I was him, and didnt want to have an engine built, I'd be looking for a used LT1 from somewhere. Im sure you could pick up a long block somewhere for 1500$ and find a shop that would install for another 1500 to 1800$ ... Less then half the dealers price.

 

Ok thanks.

 

I replaced my blown engine with a new 4-bolt main. Used the heads, etc. off my old engine, threw in some new lifters, etc. THe short block ran around 1650 (cheap) and also hard to find new 4-bolt. The switching out of the old engine, putting stuff on the new block from old block. Whole thing cost around 4700.00.

So in a nut shell, yes I believe he is getting screwed.

Dealers are notorious for screwing you with both labor and parts. JMHO

 

If the 3 bolts 'broke off the cam' it wouldn't run 'bad' it wouldn't run at ALL...