96 Corsica 3.1, probable ring failure

[keantoken]

Hi everyone. I'm not a racing enthusiast but I do need to fix my car, so I would really appreciate help on this. It seems it's got an oddball engine and I'm having trouble figuring out which parts I need. It has 200k or so miles on it.

It is spewing burned oil in puffs and loses power. It was working fine for a while but over the course of a year or so it had a smoking problem that kept getting worse. Finally it sat around a year or so. I had to replace the fuel pump. Then I was able to replace the coolant temp sensor (likely cause of overheating).

It could be the thermostat is weak since it takes about 15 minutes to warm up.

I took out the spark plugs and a few of them were badly crusted and soaked with oil. I cleaned them up and put them back in. I tried various things to free up stuck rings, remove carbon, and so on, and even replaced some valve seals but it still burns oil.

When I take the oil cap off white smoke rises out of it, but there is no air being forced out. Just worn piston rings, not broken?

The coolant is fine, if old, and the oil is old and smells a bit like gas, but fluids don't seem to be mixing so the head gasket is probably okay.

I noticed the top sides of the rods are pitted a bit like they had rusted, but I didn't see this anywhere else under the valve cover.

Maybe you guys can tell me what to try next before I rip the whole thing apart to get to the piston rings. It will be my first time getting that deep into a car.

[keantoken]

I did a compression test on the cylinders. If I replace the piston rings I'll have to replace the head gasket anyways.

Coil Dry Wet
2 90 90
4 100 110
6 120 145
1 135 180
3 150 240
5 140 150

[cutlass supreme FE3]

looks like you need to replace the rings and bearings while you are at it.

[keantoken]

Rod bearings? I also noticed that the dust cover plate over the starter gear is missing, if you get under the car you can look into the cavity and see the gear, which is pretty rusty. Is it possible I might need to replace some things in there? It seems a previous owner had to replace the starter and left it out. I wasn't able to find a place to buy a new plate but maybe I don't know what it's called.

This engine doesn't use hydraulic lifters does it?

All the gasket sets say it's a 189CID engine but this engine is 191CID, plus there's two possible intake gaskets and I have to figure out which one I need, and on top of that I want to avoid the gaskets that corrode away and mix oil into the coolant. It seems sort of impossible to find gaskets that I know are for this engine.

Can someone point to a known good gasket or rebuilding set that they know fits on this car?

[Guest]

189 and 191 all depends on which way the engineer decided to round that day.

You have a small port 3100, I don't recall the RPO code off hand, but any small port 3100 from '95 to '99 will be the same for the most part. Yes it has hydraulic lifters.

If I were in your shoes I'd fins a complete engine from a wreckers that tests their engines and just swap it. It will cost less than rebuilding your current engine.

[keantoken]

The only reason I figured this was possible was because I could do it without taking the engine out. I don't have a crane or a garage, so the car will sit in the elements until I get everything back in. I am open to an engine swap if there is a way to do it like this.

[cutlass supreme FE3]

The only reason I figured this was possible was because I could do it without taking the engine out. I don't have a crane or a garage, so the car will sit in the elements until I get everything back in. I am open to an engine swap if there is a way to do it like this.

changing rings without replacing crankshaft and rod bearings is setting yourself for future problems.
if you don't want to spend alot of money, well you could just replace the rings while the motor is inside the engine bay.
get metal LIM gaskets which I got when I did my LIM as well.
good luck

[keantoken]

If I do get a used engine, I worry about it having the old corroding gaskets in it. Then I'd be ripping into it anyways to replace those.

[keantoken]

I got the upper intake thing off, but on this specific car there is en engine mount right next to the serpentine belt that is blocking access to most of the pulleys. There is no room to get to almost any of the bolts on that side of the engine, which I figure must be intentional. I'm getting close to plan B, which is to throw the car off a cliff.

[keantoken]

I took out the water pump to get to the mount. I had to buy a new socket just for the engine mounts, but the nut just rounded over. Looks like I'll be cutting them off and buying new nuts. There's no obvious way to get to them with the cutter though.

[keantoken]

Oooooops. Almost chiseled off a stud. The nut was welded to the engine mount. A practice which I have decided I dislike from this day forward. Yes, you may laugh.

But luckily, it looks like everything will be smooth as youtube from here on. As night falls here everything is covered in condensation, so I sprayed the engine with WD40 to hopefully protect it and my tools will rest by the heater to dry off.

Things are coming apart okay, but I do dread reassembling everything, especially figuring out where the wires go.

[cutlass supreme FE3]

Your determination and will to do the repairs yourself will pay off. Alot of people are turned off from rusted, seized, rounded fasteners. The more you do the more difficult the future tasks you will be able to perform. If you are going to do the bottom end take some pictures so we can see exactly how you are doing

[keantoken]

I'll take some pictures if I don't forget. For all I know it may not be possible to replace the bearings through the oilpan. But if so it'll suck to have oil dribbling on my face while I do that. Progress so far.

You can see this is one of the engines with roller rockers. There is oil and dirt deposits in the lower intake ports. You can see the area next to the pulleys after I took the motor mount out. It was held on by two bolts behind the wheel going in horizontally.

[Guest]

Wait... you're planning to slide the pistons out the bottom? yeah that won't work, for various reasons, but the block just won't allow it, on at least a few cylinders.

Do you self a favour and buy or borrow an engine crane and engine stand, you'll save yourself a LOT of time and effort just pulling the engine out, and that way you can refresh it properly.

[cutlass supreme FE3]

I think he plans to remove the cylinder heads off, then push out the pistons and rods from the bottom of the oil pan. He can replace the connecting rod bearing but not the crankshaft bearings.
He wanted to keep the motor inside the engine bay while replacing the rings. Remember to change all them seals including the dizzy one which is exposed with everything removed.