Hey everyone,

It's been a long time since I posted but I could really use some help. I broke something internal inside of my 3.8 engine. I have good oil pressure at start up and the vehicle moves, but I do not have very much power. I am also getting a really bad rattle from within the driver's side of the engine. Also, I am getting a lot of blue/ black smoke from the exhaust. It never smoked befor this. I am not currently driving the car for fears of completely blowing the engine. I took the Valve Cover off and checked all push rods and rockers. They are all good. I believe it is lower down. My questions are:

1) Does anybody have a clue as to what happpened?
2) Money is tight....Should I buy a conversion kit and drop a LT1 in?(used)
3) Should I buy a used 3.8 and put that in? I found one with 40k on it for $750.00.
4) Is it worth my time to tear apart the engine an fix whatever broke?.......partial rebuild

Thanks for any advise that you may have. I have replace engines in vehicles before, so I feel confident in either putting in a different 3.8, pulling this one and getting it rebuilt, or doing a LT1 conversion.

Sad Camaro Owner

 

Thanks for all the help.

 

sounds like a broker rod / piston, lower ends are hard to dignose without tearing into them. Drop teh oil pan and look up inside with a flashlight. check the bottom of the pan for metal. Blowing smoke is usually oil so it is possibly a shelled piston. The more you start it the more damage will happen. Anything can be rebuilt but you wont know the extent of the damage without tearing it down. if you broke a rod then damage should be pretty minimal. A broken piston will tear up the cylinder wall pretty bad. as well as send shrapnel into the valve train and other places. No matter what you are going to have to yank the motor. Pull the motor and get it on a stand where you can look at it before you decide what to do.

 

Thanks for the reply Ichoptop. I have already started to pull it. I will update the situation after I get it torn apart. It will prob take me a couple of weeks as I am really busy at work.

 

hard to say whats wrong brother...we cant hear the noise its making...is it harsh metalic clanking noise??? does it just sound like **** and blowing smoke? head gasket fu..ed?? sorry im not much help but i like everyone else would do alot better hearing the noise or if you could describe it a little more...but i did see a 3.8 on ebay for 500 bucks