This 3100 is in HORRIBLE shape. WOW!

[dbtk2]

The detail shop i work at shares a parking lot with an auto repair shop. They had a '97 Cutlass supreme in there last week that they put a new 3100 in. Well, I was kinda looking for a 3100 topend so I went to see what they were going to do with the engine and they said I could have it. He told me that they were replacing the engine because it had a rod knock. (problem #1: rod knock) He also said that they drove it into the garage before pulling the engine. So as I start tearing this engine apart I was disgusted with how filthy everything was. There was oil baked on to everything...and I mean everything. It was like hardened kind of...it felt like rubber. So anyways, I pull the heads off and notice that one of the cylinders is really clean, leading me to believe a blown headgasket, or cracked head or block. (problem #2: coolant in cylinder) So I turn the engine over a couple times and notice that only 6 of the lifters were moving. So I tear the timing cover off (since I need it for my topend swap) and go to turn the cam over by hand and it felt weird. I pull the lifters out and go to pull the cam out, and only half the cam comes out. The cam was broken in half (problem #3: cam in 2 pieces). The lifters all had horrible wear on the sides of them as well. I also was inspecting the cylinders and noticed that one of the cylinders, as well as the one that had coolant in it, was scored really bad. (problem #4: scored cylinder walls). So not feeling like tearing the engine apart anymore I decided that it definately was a bad engine and needed replacing. I'm just wondering how the engine got in so bad of shape. Obviously someone did something wrong for it to have ALL those problems.

Anyone seen anything that bad on an engine before?

Shawn

[ProjectMM]

no oil, or oil pressure and trying to run the motor! is what it sounds like or just running it till the oil turns to tar!

[Rhedalert]

Between probably never doing an oil change (friend's mother's '98 Cutlass sounded just like that with the tar inside), and a broken intake gasket causing a massive coolant leak, causes the cam to break. Was there light brown sludge everywhere?

[TheProfessor]

damn
hard to believe a 3100 that messed up

[sharkey]

ive seen stuff that messed before. this kinda stuff happens when you dont do matinance. they likely didnt change the oil, ever, didnt do tune up, beat the crap out of it, ect.

[dbtk2]

Was there light brown sludge everywhere?

Suprisingly, no. I was expecting to see a lot of it and I didn't really see any. Everything was just coated with like a rubbery oil.

damn
hard to believe a 3100 that messed up

Thats what I was saying. Its pretty bad when you can't keep a 3100 running right.

ive seen stuff that messed before. this kinda stuff happens when you dont do matinance. they likely didnt change the oil, ever, didnt do tune up, beat the crap out of it, ect.

It looks to me like they didn't change the oil or they let it run low or something, but I think they at least tried to do regular maintenance. It had pretty new platinum plugs & wires on it when they pulled it. I think it was a combination of not doing the maintenance often enough and beating the crap out of it. My Grandfather suggested maybe the engine overheated causing all the oil to bake on to things, thus warping or cracking the head, causing the coolant in the cylinders and causing the cam to break in half from not getting enough oil.

Shawn

[geoffinbc]

Nope I bet oil was changed just fine. I gurentee it was all due to an un noticed coolant leak. It happens all the time. I have seen it several times at my dads work. People with regular oil changes. But because they did it at Mr. Lube the dum ass kid in the pit never noticed the half pint of water came out before the oil. Then the goof up top says to the customer "oh yea I just topped off your radiator for you it was a little low" but the owner never stopped to think where his coolant was going. So a few months down the road the bearings are getting a little wider but before any knock is noticable the cam bearings are running in water and they get so hot they weld to a cam journal and "SNAP" cams broken and the car dies, gets towed into the shop and the engine replacement comences.

The sluge you are finding is what happens when oil meats water and heat. Kind of an ugly caked on mess that only the power of Dawn can get out... LOL :P