The Oldsmobile Connection

[wegngis]

While Googling about, I came across this website, and found my way to this forum. About 6 weeks ago now, I was driving my van about 850 miles away from home, and it just started making a ticking noise while going down the freeway. Being a good amateur mechanic, my first thought was, "Dang, that's not good!" I took it to a dealer service center, who proceeded to pull the valve covers to inspect the rockers. After spending $212 in labor, they came up with the diagnosis of, "Your engine is shot." Needless to say, it was disappointing. Here's what they found:

1. All the rocker assemblies were tight and in place
2. They drew some oil out, and found metal shavings in it
3. Seeing that my lower intake manifold gasket had been recently replaced (local mechanic) they blamed it on him doing a crappy job (oil/water mix) and quoted me $6,218 for a new engine. Given that the car value is about $4,000, I said no way.


All of this for what sounded like a valve/rocker/lifter tick. Although my engine oil never looked anything but perfect, and not really seeing any coolant/oil contamination possibility, I considered that it was possible that it did mix and trash the engine. So, armed with the fact that my hometown guy might have geeked the job (my family's used him for 25 years, so I trust him) I opted to ship the car home for $575 and let him take a look at it.

So, I get it back home, and they listen to it, and they really think that it sounds like bad lifters. He ran the car with the valve covers off, using a feeler gauge to slip between the rocker and pushrod. He explained that if there's any slop there causing the tick, like a bent rod, that should shut it up. It didn't. They tear into the motor, and nothing, I mean nothing, looks broken or excessively worn in the rocker arms, push rods, or lifters. Given that originally they thought it was the lifters, we elect to put new lifters in and cross our fingers. He puts them in, the same noise exists, maybe even worse.

For further reference, I did have an external coolant leak from the lower intake manifold. The oil was never, at any time, brown or muddy, or otherwise tainted with coolant. There was never any goofy residue inside the oil filler cap either. Now he's thinking it's cam-related.

At this point, I'm ready to drive my van off a cliff.

The inspiration for this post was the following post:
http://www.oldsconnection.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3252

[Brianritchie21787]

metal shavings in the oil? any loss of power? did you have a look inside the cylinders? does it "use" any oil between changes?

im not sure what to think, but if it runs fine i would suggest doing a used oil analysis from www.blackstone-labs.com (the kit is free, costs like $25 to send it in for analysis)

they will tell you what that metal is in your oil, if you have coolant mixing with the oil, how well your air/oil filter is holding up, how good or bad your internals are wearing, how often you should be changing oil, ect. i highly reccomend their service

[wegngis]

Thanks man. I ordered an analysis kit.

[Brianritchie21787]

Cool, i've done two already on my nissan .. wich is said to be prone to head gasket leaks. this is just to give you an idea this is what it will look like...