Stupid 3400!

[SCOlds]

ARGGHHHH! I am getting to HATE my Alero! I've had it for a little over a year, and under 9k miles, had to do a radio, LIMG, two window regulators, 1 rim, etc. Now my engine has SERIOUS rod knock. WITH 84K miles on it! What a POS!


RD

[SittinOnChrome]

Im so glad I got a 2.4

[kwhauck]

must of got a Monday Friday car.......that sucks.....

[[ion] C2]

yay 3400

my mom's blew the headgasket around 85,000

[Redog]

swap time;)

[CactusWill]

Sorry to hear. Some of them are great, others not so much.

[DansGen1Alero]

I was a lucky one and my only main prob was the U&LIMG replaced twice, but mine is going strong, just started dusting the cobwebs off, lol i just need to start to remember to disconnect the battery so I stop killing them :)

[Redog]

Did the LIMG leak lead to the rod knock? Overheat issue?

the 3400 is usually good for 150K

[SCOlds]

I dont believe it did, now it has a serious loss of power and running bad. Gonna swap the motor in my spare time and sell it as fast as possible. It never overheated for me, and I caught the LIMG leak pretty early.

RD

[Nate's Alero]

you gonna get another?

[SCOlds]

I'm looking at either a Buick Regal GS or a Maxima. Both are faster, get better gas mileage, and have cheaper insurance.

RD

[CactusWill]

I'm looking at either a Buick Regal GS or a Maxima. Both are faster, get better gas mileage, and have cheaper insurance.

RD


Heres a thought, I wonder how easy or hard it is to bolt up a 3.8 to a 3.4 alero? I'd do that research, the 3.8's are solid

[Nate's Alero]

I'm looking at either a Buick Regal GS or a Maxima. Both are faster, get better gas mileage, and have cheaper insurance.

RD

man....wanna sell me it? im not likin my alero and its starting to have many problems.....what exactily is wrong? needs a new motor? or just a rebuild....im prepard

[meadus101]

Northstar V8... Go!

[Redog]

IF you're going to swap in a motor, keep it after that.

IMO, you'll spend around $2500 for a stock replacement and be done with it, or have a car payment between $300 to $500 for at least the next 3 to 5 years. Plus you got 84K outta this motor.

Just a thought

[Midgear]

what exactly do you mean it has a life of 150k.. does that mean when I hit the 150k mile point.. its going to fall out from underneath the car and im going to roll over it, spin out of control and slap a tree?

[undecided02]

unfortunately all motors have a working life, nothing lasts forever. in the case of the 3400 some just happened to be poorer than others. I got a bit of a factory freak and am lucky enough to have had no problems with it (170,000 and still strong). and to answer Midgear, no at 150k it wont blow up I promise, but it may be a good point to service and overhaul the engine.

[DansGen1Alero]

If swapping motots for another, my suggestinon would be gtp 3800, but be carefull, new tranny, ecu, and other specs would have to be upgraded/changed to achieve full potential of that engine.

if its not a daily, Id say rebuild in spare time, I have never done one but can imagine it'll be a bitch, shit changing spark plugs you gotta almost remove the engine on this bitch (not saying you cant get it done w.o)

[kwhauck]

Heres a thought, I wonder how easy or hard it is to bolt up a 3.8 to a 3.4 alero? I'd do that research, the 3.8's are solid

waste of time and money.......

[CactusWill]

waste of time and money.......


So what you're saying is, that it doesn't bolt right up then. Gotcha

[SCOlds]

Well, I work at a shop, and have connections and can get a low mileage motor with a 3yr/ 30000mile parts and labor warranty for around $1200 put in. I'm going to call and get a price on a rebuild, but I'd just as soon stick another motor in there. And it is my DD. I drive ~50 miles a day from tech school to school to work and then home.

I had been looking to sell it and get a different car, but then I decided to keep it and drive it, and BOOM!, there goes the motor.


RD

[01OldsAleroGt]

keep it and replace the motor... $1200 is a good price for that the car is still worth more than the repair...

[CactusWill]

keep it and replace the motor... $1200 is a good price for that the car is still worth more than the repair...


Yep... You can't sell it for anything if it doesn't run, and if you have to spend the money to buy a new motor then you might as well take advantage of that. If the new motor makes you uncomfortable, then sell it right before the warranty goes up.

[-Alero-]

look for used la1s there are plenty for well under 1,000$

[kwhauck]

So what you're saying is, that it doesn't bolt right up then. Gotcha


nope, it would require some fabrications and a lot of planning and tuning to get it in there and running. Plus, they really aren't that great of a motor, people think they are so great because their aftermarket support is a couple years advanced on the LA1, plus the 3800 have their own sets of problems too,

If anybody was looking to swap a motor for pure power reasons and aftermarket support , it should be the 2.2 eco.......plus is does bolt right up.......

[bdyman]

i agree there, my ecotec is freakin awesome, not one problem, and it fired right up after sitting for 3yrs, its built better stronger, aftermarket is huge on the ecotec, and lingenfleter made over 1,000 hp with it, impressive to say the least

[Redog]

And that 1000 hp was pretty much with a stock bottom end.

It's the way the Eco is put together. The crank is sandwiched in the block instead of using main caps like every other motor

[meadus101]

So, I have a 2.4 Will the eco bolt onto the tranny I current run?


it's automatic.

[Cliff8928]

Nope, the 2.4/Quad has a different pattern than the Ecotec.

[Midgear]

so your saying I can buy a 2.2 ecotec and whatever tranny bolts up to it and it'll bolt straight into my car?

[Cliff8928]

Well, yeah. Mechanically... If it's a manual trans you'd need the subframe too, along with all the other parts.

You need the engine wiring harness too, it comes out as one complete harness. And the PCM of course.

[Midgear]

so all in all, what would a project like this cost.. provided you had a second car to drive while the alero was down- and your own tools and cherry picker for the job-

can it all be bought from somewhere, or would it be better to just get it out of a scrapped alero?

what would be better, the automatic or manual?

do you like cheese? (might as well get em all answered at the same time..)

[-Alero-]

nope, it would require some fabrications and a lot of planning and tuning to get it in there and running. Plus, they really aren't that great of a motor, people think they are so great because their aftermarket support is a couple years advanced on the LA1, plus the 3800 have their own sets of problems too,

If anybody was looking to swap a motor for pure power reasons and aftermarket support , it should be the 2.2 eco.......plus is does bolt right up.......


i agree there, my ecotec is freakin awesome, not one problem, and it fired right up after sitting for 3yrs, its built better stronger, aftermarket is huge on the ecotec, and lingenfleter made over 1,000 hp with it, impressive to say the least

now this is odd no one is chewing your ass out for saying the ecotec is better than the 3400 like i said.......odd

[bdyman]

i dunno dude, guess when i say it it is golden, you say it i want to poop on it lol :p

[-Alero-]

:(:( :( :( :( :(

[Nate's Alero]

thats because the 2.2 has more potential....i dont know why everyone hates it...

[Redog]

now this is odd no one is chewing your ass out for saying the ecotec is better than the 3400 like i said.......odd

I never remember you saying the Eco was better, just that the 3400's suck. Actually I remember saying that the Alero came with 3 choices of pretty good motors, and you told me I was wrong

If you would have said the Eco was better, I probably would have been the first to agree with you ;)

[Redog]

thats because the 2.2 has more potential....i dont know why everyone hates it...

A lot of us older guys grew up with big block V8's and other fast cars.

A kid in my high school had a brand new Typhoon, that got stolen and he bought a Brand New TA. The kid worked for his uncle's construction company for years, $11 an hour, under the table. This was in 1992-1993 era.

The 4 bangers of our times were know to be small, underpowered, and basicly crap. I had an 87 Chevy Nova, carb'ed, 1.6 liter. Talk about slow

[Nate's Alero]

A lot of us older guys grew up with big block V8's and other fast cars.

A kid in my high school had a brand new Typhoon, that got stolen and he bought a Brand New TA. The kid worked for his uncle's construction company for years, $11 an hour, under the table. This was in 1992-1993 era.

The 4 bangers of our times were know to be small, underpowered, and basicly crap. I had an 87 Chevy Nova, carb'ed, 1.6 liter. Talk about slow

yep.....talk about like the 89' escort......1.6L 87 hp

what about the 92' metro!?!?!? that was pathetic....60Hp 1.0 engine 3 Cyl!

[CactusWill]

A kid in my high school had a brand new Typhoon, that got stolen and he bought a Brand New TA. The kid worked for his uncle's construction company for years, $11 an hour, under the table. This was in 1992-1993 era.

That was good money back in the day. I made $4 an hour on my first job in 92.

[Nate's Alero]

rofl......i was making 10.80 at my first job, its too bad that the job ended but still it was good money

[SCOlds]

Well- finally got a chance to work on it. I was able to get by with a rebuilt starter ($50), rod bearings, and an oil pump (not necessary, but I was in there, so....) Gotta finish it up tomorrow and see how she runs.

RD

[Redog]

Good luck buddy ;)

[oldskid33]

That was good money back in the day. I made $4 an hour on my first job in 92.

shit thats good money today! lol

[Steven01]

love my 2.4 i have 155,000km and still running strong just gotta do a strut mound and cv boot.

[SCOlds]

Update- shes all together and running good. I went ahead and did plugs and wires, and will be cleaning the injectors tomorrow.

RD

[kwhauck]

congrats.......

[spinalator]

Good work. I find it amazing how you guys can drop motors & trannies so easily. Changing plugs almost made me push the car over a cliff...

[Gr1m]

well the back plugs are bitch to get to so i can see why you wanted to throw your car off a cliff, i think i lost one of my sockets when i changed my plugs and never found it lol

[clutch1]

Haha, same here. First time I went to get to the rear of my Park Ave's engine for the plug I didn't know it was possible as it was. I had a buddy who knew the engine thought and he just climbed onto the intake plenum and 5 mins later they were out.. I was like :O
After I knew it was possible it went ok from there. It's pretty amazing how much crap you can get to on the engine just by feel and sticking your arm halfway in to get to whatever it is, haha.

[SCOlds]

OK, back to pissed off mode. It's back to knocking after 1 whole day. I'm gonna take it and trade it in as fast as I can. I'm looking to get a Wbody or Nissan Maxima.

RD

[spinalator]

Crappy. Nothing else could be causing the knocking could it? Stupid question, but have to ask. Sometimes weird detonation causes funky noise, but I assume that has been ruled out since you sound like you are pretty tech-savvy.

[SCOlds]

Well, I am a mechanic and had two other ASE certified techs to look at it to make sure. Right now you can only hear it at over 2k RPM.

RD

[Gr1m]

can i just ask why you changed plugs and wires for a knocking (ticking im assuming?) noise? what would spark have to do with that, just wondering.

[SCOlds]

Because when I had it all back together, I noticed that it had a slight miss to it, and on closer inspection the no 5 spark plug wire was shot, and was shooting off random sparks every now and then. I figured, if I gotta do wires, might as well do spark plugs while I'm in there. I also figured that I might get a little MPG back.

And it was an actual knocking. The most gutwrenching sound you can hear after spending many hours just fixing that same problem.

RD

[Blktrax]

We had a 3100 in our shop awhile back, had a cam lifter that went flat after a LIMG job, sounded very simmilar to a rod knock. But since you say it went away after changed the bearings, did you see any signs on any certian rod bearing that is a for sure; what one failed?

[SCOlds]

Yeah, the no. 3 was pretty bad. The others were roughed up a bit as well.

RD

[Nate's Alero]

dude, dont trade! try again, check it out one last time, i have the feeling its something minor

[WhiteV6]

Did you turn the crank or just replace bearings?

[99alerogirl]

dang, crazy. my 99's got 114k on it and she just experienced her first problem, which ended up being minor and a VERY cheap (free) fix. KNOCK ON WOOD.
yeah engine ratings are accurate most of the time, but my last car was a 1998 chrysler sebring lxi (the non convertible), which is rated at about 120k usually (real sucky 2.5). I got 180k out of it when I finally traded it in for my alero. granted all 6 cylinders were misfiring when I traded her in :).

sorry to hear about your problem though, that really sucks. hope you get it all worked out!

[darksobsession]

what's a monday friday car

and what/who is lingenfleter?

[01OldsAleroGt]

monday friday car is a rental car

and Lingenfleter is a tuner for corvettes

[Vinalero]

In my head, monday/friday car is an expression to say your car was build on a monday or a friday

On mondays, workers are still sleepy or tired from their week-end and not really have the will to work. On Fridays however, ppl tend to think about what they'll do in the week-end and cant wait for the day to end instead of doing their job, so they say what has been build on monday/friday has been assembled with less attention/quality.

[kbkchooch]

the 3400 is usually good for 150K

OMG! I guess I'm on borrowed time then huh?:rolleyes2: 165k on the clock, still has the original plugs, wires and trans fluid! Only thing I've ever done was a LIMG at 80k. Car still gets 26 mpg commuting back and forth, on the only thing I'm strict about are the Mobil1 oil changes.

[will176]

i'd hate to see any alero go, but a friend of mine has a 1996 nissan maxima and its sick 5 speed manual, bose audio system, its a nice car

[KenshinZero]

swap time;)

V8 lol

[clutch1]

OMG! I guess I'm on borrowed time then huh?:rolleyes2: 165k on the clock, still has the original plugs, wires and trans fluid! Only thing I've ever done was a LIMG at 80k. Car still gets 26 mpg commuting back and forth, on the only thing I'm strict about are the Mobil1 oil changes.

Not to say yours are bad, I'd probably change your plugs just incase. Thats a lot of miles, and if you're plugs are deteriorating (but still working) they can put un-necessary strain on the coil-packs, burning them out, and if you're really unlucky overheating the ICM which is right under them.
Not tryin to scare you, just might want to pop some fresh ones in next time your under the hood.

[chevymuscle218]

northstars blow head gaskets.....junk.

[Cliff8928]

northstars blow head gaskets.....junk.

Not nearly as frequent after model year 2000.

They're hardly junk. I happen to like the 469HP northstar sitting in the garage...