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jeff5may · 02-26-17, 01:27 PM

You should know the deal with these cars: they were made for the "economy" market segment. The motor is not a bad design, but less than awesome components were used. The smoke problem came from the " low friction" rings used plus the no oil holes drilled in the pistons. Changing the design to stronger rings with drilled pistons will hurt fuel economy. The choice here is what to pay for: oil or gasoline.

I would just pull the head off and take a look inside. Ash and carbon deposits are easy to remove. If nothing is warped, cracked, scratched, scored, etc. inside the engine and piston tops look OK, you can change head gasket and reassemble the thing. I did that with a mid 90's sl2 and got another 80k miles out of it before it was sold. MMO and seafoam treatments do a lot of good for these cars.

My '02 sc2 just bit the dust last fall with the bad head gasket symptoms. I quickly tore off the head to take a look. Guess what? Previous owner tried to overhaul the bottom end somehow and nicked a piston putting it back together. A crack grew from the nick, or was started while driving the piston and rings back in. Now the piston land is cracked above the top ring and it (probably) warped the head, (definitely) scored the cylinder, and who knows what else. Just a little of each, which could be repaired during an overhaul.

These cars have very close tolerance engine specs. You cannot just run a cylinder hone through them, change rings, and put stuff back together. Much machine shop work has to be done when moving parts are changed. Not fun or cheap like a Nova.

Nope, not going to do that much work to the big piece of Tupperware. It has been sitting around waiting for a used motor (or entire car) to swap into it. Like you stated, the price of a well built motor exceeds the value of the entire vehicle. Plus, swapping the engine on these cars is not super easy. You have to do a c section on the car to change motors or transmissions.

02-26-17, 01:27 PM	#12
jeff5may Supreme EcoRenovator Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: elizabethtown, ky, USA Posts: 2,428 Thanks: 431 Thanked 619 Times in 517 Posts	You should know the deal with these cars: they were made for the "economy" market segment. The motor is not a bad design, but less than awesome components were used. The smoke problem came from the " low friction" rings used plus the no oil holes drilled in the pistons. Changing the design to stronger rings with drilled pistons will hurt fuel economy. The choice here is what to pay for: oil or gasoline. I would just pull the head off and take a look inside. Ash and carbon deposits are easy to remove. If nothing is warped, cracked, scratched, scored, etc. inside the engine and piston tops look OK, you can change head gasket and reassemble the thing. I did that with a mid 90's sl2 and got another 80k miles out of it before it was sold. MMO and seafoam treatments do a lot of good for these cars. My '02 sc2 just bit the dust last fall with the bad head gasket symptoms. I quickly tore off the head to take a look. Guess what? Previous owner tried to overhaul the bottom end somehow and nicked a piston putting it back together. A crack grew from the nick, or was started while driving the piston and rings back in. Now the piston land is cracked above the top ring and it (probably) warped the head, (definitely) scored the cylinder, and who knows what else. Just a little of each, which could be repaired during an overhaul. These cars have very close tolerance engine specs. You cannot just run a cylinder hone through them, change rings, and put stuff back together. Much machine shop work has to be done when moving parts are changed. Not fun or cheap like a Nova. Nope, not going to do that much work to the big piece of Tupperware. It has been sitting around waiting for a used motor (or entire car) to swap into it. Like you stated, the price of a well built motor exceeds the value of the entire vehicle. Plus, swapping the engine on these cars is not super easy. You have to do a c section on the car to change motors or transmissions.